Lafayette is a big city of 125,000 not sure where everyone was though…downtown where we were staying it was certainly a sleepy hollow over the weekend.
It is a very spread out town, long before you reach the downtown CBD, strip malls, industry, car yards and fast food joints line the roadside, giant car parks outside them with only a few cars parked, the three lane highway itself was relatively empty.
Giant church complexes line the roadsides too, they all have the biggest neon signs advertising their 4 service times on Sundays and bible study classes in between…religion is big business in this neck of the woods.
There are a couple of multi story buildings in the CBD and it is a pleasant leafy place, the French/Cajun heritage is evident in this area as all the streets are named in French,
On the outskirts of town is the Arcadian Pioneer Village, a homage to the French people who settled this swampy area. These are original houses from just after the Civil War that have been moved to this site and a community has been set up to show us their way of life.
The history of these French speaking peoples starts over 400 years ago when communities left France and settled in Nova Scotia Canada, these people traded and lived harmoniously with the local Indians and devised a way to drain the swamps and marshlands making prosperous trading and farming communities. They spoke a regional French dialect amongst themselves which evolved to a more distinct dialect known as Arcadian. The French and the British Crown were not bothered with these communities and the Arcadians promised to remain neutral in times of war and lived in peace for about 150 years.
A British major turned up one day in 1754 and demanded the Arcadians sign an oath of loyalty to the British king and renounce their Catholicism. They told the major to bugger off and the next day their crops were burned, villages destroyed and the men imprisoned. Many packed up and fled back to France where they lived as outcasts, many bordered boats and arrived on the Eastern shore of the American colonies.
3000 Arcadian refugees arrived in Louisiana in 1764. The land at the time was ruled by Spain and the Spanish didn’t mind, they weren’t British which was a good thing. Over the next 20 years they settled the swamps and bayous, land that no one wanted to live on. They did the back breaking work that no one else wanted to do, and, with their strange sounding dialect were shunned by the other French communities. They were poor and illiterate people with a language and culture that set them apart, they lived pretty much independently from the rest of the colony.
After the Civil War which devastated the economy and social structure of the South, what did it matter if they were poor peoples, everyone else was poor now too and these folk had already proven they could survive on next to nothing and they gradually started to intermarry and be accepted into the population. Known as Cajuns today, their history is a proud one, rich in culture and a unique way of life.
The village was shady and quiet, plenty of room to wander around and take photos in. The grounds have just finished a clean up as this area was flooded in August, no major damage, only to a toilet block which is still being refurbished.
The houses have a couple of rooms inside, the master bedroom is in the living/dining area, you pass by the master bed to get to the girls bedroom (pic above right).
The kitchen is out the back on the porch and there are stairs on all the front porches that lead to the attic, this was the boys sleeping areas (pic left).
Turtles were lying on logs in the sun and a network of paths and bridges linked the village houses in the swampy areas where they originally lived. Rosie and The Operator have passed areas that look like people are still living like this today.
In the town today is a festival celebrating the Cajun Sausage called Boudin (pronounced boodah) they have about 10 boudin stores doing a cook off for the regional trophy.
You sample the sausage, and then vote who’s you like the best. The Boudin is an acquired taste….it is only made from pork and shaped like a big curvy sausage and encased in a skin. The texture is more akin to a white/back pudding, there is alot of mealy stuffing combined with the pork, so when you bite into it it is soft.
The heat was fierce in the park today everyone was fighting for abit of shade under the trees, a zydeco band was playing some lively grooving sounds, the band had an accordion, guitar and a guy with a metal washboard strapped to his chest that he was banging and scraping. Good sounds.
Rosie thinks the kids had the best idea and were playing in the water fountains on the edge of the park to keep cool. Even this festival wasn’t really super busy for the size of the city….Rosie and The Operator wandered home through town taking in the leafy surrounds, it was still curiously quiet and what they call Downtown Lafayette is very small, just a couple of streets with law offices, cafes, bars and heaps of art galleries.
The next morning we are off to Breaux Bridge, a small town 10 mins up the road on the edge of the St Martin Lake and swamp, we were off to catch a tour of the swamp and see us some Louisiana wildlife.
Rosie and the Operator were standing on the bridge looking up river, the steam was coming off the Bayou at this early hour of the morning, it looked so ghostly, and was so quiet.
First we stopped for breakfast at a wee cafe and Rosie thought she would try a local breakfast option on the menu…couche couche – the description was warmed ground cornmeal served with milk and maple syrup. Rosie asked the waitress if it was like porridge…the waitress actually shrugged her shoulders….OK, I will give it a go anyway.
Disaster, it was (one of) the worse things I have ever eaten…Rosie even thinks grits are nicer…well, here in the south they do cheese grits, which makes them more palatable. The couche couche was a totally dry bowl of ground cornmeal…it was warm and came with a large jug of milk and maple syrup. Rosie mixed up half the bowl and man did it absorb liquid…it was like glue and needed so much syrup to make it edible.
The texture was slightly gritty and if you didnt eat it quick enough it turned to concrete in your bowl. Talk about stick to your ribs. The Operator was kind enough to share his lovely cooked eggs with boudin on soft southern biscuits. Biscuits are like light airy scones, they are savoury and you normally eat them with either light or dark gravy….they are delicious. Avoid the couche couche at all costs.
Sorry Peeps, its getting late and Rosie needs to hit the hay, have a big day planned tomorrow…will post our Tour Le Swamp tomorrow…till then, night night.
