Palmetto Island State Park, Abbeville, LA
Our first stop of the day was Natchitoches (pronounced Nack-a-tish) the original French Coloniy in Louisiana. It was established in 1714 and is the heart of the Creole Cane River Country.
We walked around the charming town, did a little window shopping and stopped for a coffee. (Real coffee not the instant we make for breakfast every morning). The boys also tried a meat pie. It was more like an empanada with a pastry exterior.
So what defines being a Creole? Depends on who you ask. It's a mixture of French, Spanish, Native American, African-American, and English/American settlers' culture. One of our guides said it in a way that cracked me up. "It's a culture where you speak French, cook Spanish and are Catholic."
This area has several plantations scattered through out. We opted for the oldest intact plantation that was owned by only one family since 1821 and given to the National Park service in the 1990's.
We arrived in time to take a 12:30 tour of the slave cabins. Our guide was really personable. He knew a lot about the history of the area, this family and the life of a slave on this particular farm.
We enjoyed that tour so much we decided to take another tour of the main residence. Because it was in the same family since 1821, seeing the original artifacts and how the house evolved over almost 200 years was fascinating! There were pieces of furniture dating back to the original owners, and a 1953 kitchen and bath. One of my favorite things was a gentlemen's outfit coordinator circa 1920's. The picture is the middle one on the left. You dial in what color tie you are wearing and it matches up your shirt and suit. I like to think of this as the original app.
Our guide for this tour was even more remarkable. He knew so much detail about the Creole culture, the history of this particular family and did research about some of the slaves on the farm. He wrote a book called "A Blacksmith's Son goes to War: The Story of William Smith." Lucky me, I received a free autographed copy from him!
It was such a gorgeous day, warm but not too hot with a nice breeze. Perfect for a mid-afternoon picnic lunch!
We were so fascinated by this plantation we decided on a quick stop to view the brick slave quarters of the Magnolia Plantation, which was close by.
Again, so fascinating, but to be honest it's a bit emotional to walk the grounds.
I picked up lots of reading material and am looking forward to diving in and learning more about the Creole familes and culture of the Cane River area.
What's a road trip without stopping by a farm stand? This one specialized in pecans. Who knew there were so many varieties? And yes, we tasted them all including all kinds of amazing things that you can do with a pecan...coat it in chocolate, cane sugar, cinnamon, etc. Delish!
Late in the afternoon, early evening we drove thru Cajun country stopping at St. Martinsville to see the monument to Longfellow's Evangeline. Such a beautiful setting.
And then finally off to more Cajun food and dancing! This place was great. A dance hall with live Zydeco music. Linda was in heaven. So cute to see Gary and Linda take a few rounds on the floor. Linda would have stayed til they shut the place down, but I knew we had another hour to go before reaching our campsite for the night. So, at 9:30 we headed to Palmetto Island State Park.
For those inquiring minds dinner was: fried alligator, seafood gumbo, corn and seafood bisque, crawfish etouffee and fried crawfish...shared by all. It was superb.
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