Bon Temps in Louisiana!

One of our strategies on this adventure is to use the internet to find possible destinations to figure out where we should visit, and things to do and/or eat. Thanks to Google, we discovered the small town of Natchitoches near the center of Louisiana. Contrary to our guess, the town is pronounced "nack-a-tish", although we occasionally heard it pronounced "nack-a-tosh". Anyway, the moment we drove into it's historic downtown, we both said, "Wow!" It was nothing less than charming and beautiful.

Natchitoches is touted as the oldest city in Louisiana, part of a French colony founded in 1714. We also learned the town was the setting for the movie "Steel Magnolias". It is situated along the banks of the Cane River and Lake. When the city was founded, it was on the banks of the Red River, however, in the 1830's, there was a massive log jam which made the river un-navigable. A flood occurred during this time and caused the Red River to change its course, leaving a 36 mile-long oxbow lake now called the Cane River. This isolation from the newly navigable Red River apparently helped to preserve the charm and diverse culture of the old city of Natchitoches.

We enjoyed exploring the historic downtown and tried out the meat pies for which Nachitoches is famous and other Southern food (crawfish etouffe, red beans & rice). We even shopped a tiny bit during a major storm that presented thunder, lightening and heavy rain that lasted about an hour. (nothing like ducking into a shop during the rain and feeling obligated to buy something!) My favorite shop was the Kaffie-Frederick store, a hardware or general store that is also touted as the oldest in Louisiana. Hardware and grocery stores are always our favorite places to shop!

We meandered around the town, seeing some of the lovely old homes - including a couple used in the movie. Many of the larger historic homes are operating as B&B's. We also made a quick stop at the American Cemetery, which is - you guessed it - the oldest in Louisiana. We spent another day driving down the Cane River road to see several old plantations, although only three were open to the public. The Oakland and Magnolia Plantations are actually part of the Creole National Historical Park and the Melrose Plantation is privately operated by the local historical society. We also stopped at the St. Augustine Catholic Church. The Melrose Plantation and St. Augustine's were both founded by 'persons of color', i.e. the children of slave Marie Therese Coincoin. Ms. Coincoin had 14 children, 10 of whom were African-French blood. She and several of her children were later sold to Thomas Pierre Metoyer who later freed her and her children. She and her sons later received several land grants and one of her sons built the Melrose plantation and St. Augustine's church, which was the first Catholic church in the USA built by and for 'people of color'.

We had mixed feelings about touring the plantations - the history of slavery in our country is so horrible and shameful, but it is our history. We sometimes felt the ghosts of the past as we walked around these properties, especially when Jim reminded me that Cliven Bundy was noted to have suggested that African-Americans were "..better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things.." a frightening suggestion for most of us.

We have been struck by the open and welcome friendliness of virtually everyone we've met since our arrival in Louisiana. They're curious, friendly and quite chatty! In less than 5 minutes after arriving at our Natchitoches RV park, we knew our immediate neighbor, John, his occupation and where he worked and who our other neighbors were, who the RV park owner was and then gave us several recommendations on where to eat!

Next off to Breaux Bridge, in the heart of Cajun country.

The Rocque House - on the banks of the Cane River