Born in the Bayou

After leaving New Orleans, we make our way to the sleepy small town of Thibodaux. The country side is beautiful and we see lots of birds everywhere.

 Bayou Teche Wildlife National Refuge

We go and visit the Bayou Teche Wildlife National Refuge. Within 5 minutes of walking in the forest there, we see a very large snake just in front of us. And a little later, a huge alligator sleeping in the sun (he was a little too far so I couldn’t take a picture, but we saw another one later). This is definitely the South!

Lake Fausse Pointe State Park

Continuing our way West, we take all sorts of back roads, some even just dirt roads next to levees. We stumble upon a State Park called Lake Fausse Pointe which is a little paradise in the middle of the Bayous. With about 1 hour and half before sunset, we decide to rent a canoe. It is an awesome experience, seeing all the reds, oranges, yellows in the trees and floating on the lake. Unforgettable!

Another alligator! This one looks like he is youngster.

Whiskey River Landing

After the lake, we continue our way after the Levee and we end up at Whiskey River Landing, a bar/concert venue in the middle of the country side. The party is in full swing and one of the big stars of Zydeco music is playing. Zydeco is Cajun music and it is a lot of fun. The place is packed with locals, all wearing cowboy hats, boots and their best clothes for a bit of Sunday night fun! The band is Geno Delafose and the French Rockin Boogie and I am including a youtube clip (which I did not film) to give you an idea of what it was like.

 

 

After a very fun time at the concert, we are hungry. They cook typical Cajun food with some creativity. We decide to try the gumbo, crawfish and one local specialty: cheese, spinach and more cheese in a skillet. Yum!

Lake Fausse Pointe

Next day, we decide to spend the full day on a canoe on the Lake Fausse Pointe. The weather is perfect! We have a great time exploring all the canals and even stumble upon a huge alligator!

An alligator, lurking in the shore. Actually I think he was quite annoyed by our presence and disappeared under water as we got too close.

Vermilionville, Lafayette

The next day, we go and visit a live museum in Lafayette called Vermilionville. It’s a little village that showcases the Cajun culture and traditions with artisans showing how life was during the 19th century and early 20th. Very interesting stuff.

Lake Martin

After Lafayette, we head towards Lake Martin to do a little swamp tour. Even on an overcast day, the colors are beautiful and it gives a very impressive look to the lake. We see a lot of birds, even an owl and baby alligators.

The owl! We heard it is very rare to see one.

St. Martinville

Near Lake Martin, there is the very small town of St Martinville where you can see a very famous Oak Tree called the Evangeline Oak. This tree and area is particurlarly important to Cajun culture as it was immortalized by an epic poem written by Longfellow that talked about the tragedy of the Acadians who were displaced from Nova Scotia in Canada, and after years of suffering, migrated to Louisiana to find a new home. Two of the characters in the poem met here.

Fontainebleau State Park

On our last day, we drove back towards New Orleans and explored a park on the North Shore of the Lake Pontchartrain called Fontainebleau State Park.

 Bayou Sauvage

After Fontainebleau Park, we switch places and go visit the Bayou Sauvage which is technically in the City of New Orleans.

This is the end of our trip. We are sad that we have to leave Louisiana but looking forward to the next time we are able to visit. We had a great time and hopefully we will able to visit more of the South!