Cajun country cuisine, camping, tours and fun

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We had a great time in Lafayette, Louisiana. We camped at the Acadian Village Campground. It was nicely located close to attractions, yet we were more in the country. It was $18 per night with water and electric. On Saturday the Acadian Village had their annual Rice and Gravy Festival. That day we paid the $6 admission fee to tour the Acadian Village and participate in the festival. The village is designed to recreate a typical 1800’s Cajun village. There are 23 buildings, of which 8 are authentic homes from the 19th century. There is a waterway running through the village with multiple bridges. The homes had front porches where a lot of activity occurred. The front porch was basically considered another room in this hot climate. We took advantage of one of the front porches later that evening. There was a band playing and it seemed a little too loud when we were close. We retreated across the waterway and sat on a bench on the front porch of The Thibodeaux House. From there the music was enjoyable, we could see the couples dancing, the bench was dry and we were protected from the rain that was still dripping from the trees. It was cozy sitting on that front porch in the evening’s darkness.

Before arriving in Louisiana I only had a very vague idea what Cajun meant and who are the Acadians. Their history goes back to 1604 when they established a permanent colony in what would later become Nova Scotia. They were from various areas of France and would remain in Canada until they were forced by the British to abandon their new homeland 150 years later. The conditions of their forced deportation resulted in families being separated and deaths. Eventually they settled in Southern Louisiana in various areas. They lived in relative isolation from the Anglos and maintained their culture, customs and language. “The 700,000 Acadians who live in South Louisiana make up the largest French-speaking minority in the United States.” The strict definition of Cajun limits it to those who are descendents of the Acadians exiled from Nova Scotia in 1755. But there are other arguments that it is the culture, not the genealogy that defines today’s Cajun.

It seems all of our blogs mention food, so I thought I’d just put it all together in one section. We ate wonderful food here. Some was made by the hosts of our camping rally and some was when we ate out. We had homemade Beignets, Gumbo, Jambalaya, biscuits and gravy. When we ate out we enjoyed local favorites and it was all wonderful! One night we ate at Randols which had great food, fun Cajun music and a dance floor. We even ventured out onto the floor and pretended that we knew what we were doing, and had a good time doing it. We had joked about what it took to become honorary Cajuns. I do believe some dancing earned points towards that classification and some subtracted points. We probably ended up with a negative number, but had a lot of laughs doing it.

We visited various places and enjoyed all of them. At the Jean Lafitte National Park & Preserve Prairie Acadian Cultural Center we toured the museum and then watched movies about the history of the Acadians. Another day we toured The Tabasco Factory, The Jefferson House, and the Konriko Rice Factory. Several things that surprised me on these tours. It takes 3 years of fermentation to produce Tabasco sauce. The man who had the Jefferson House built was an actor in the mid 1800’s and was famous for his role as Rip Van Winkle. He only stayed in the house Dec., Jan. and Feb. and stayed at other of his houses during different times in the year. Rice is a big crop in Louisiana and crawfish can be raised in the rice fields when rice isn‘t growing. There’s lots more I could mention, but these came to mind first.

There are lots of casinos in Louisiana. More little ones than big ones. So yes we did go to a casino while we were here. We went to lunch at a casino and had a great buffet. Then some of us stayed and made a “donation” to the casino. We learned we shouldn’t gamble in Lose-iana.

The weather here has been hot and humid. We’ve enjoyed our time here and bought T-shirts that say “Laissez le bon temps rouler“ (Let the good times roll). George tried to learn to pronounce it correctly from the saleswoman. She suggested that he needed to relax when he said it. He replied that he’s a northerner and can’t relax that much! We’re ready to head onto our next destination, but needed to spend one more night in the Lafayette area to have some work done on our rear axle. Monday our RV spent the day having work done on it and we passed the time driving around looking for things to see with our 2 dogs. The most unusual thing we did was to drive across a pontoon bridge. It was a bit anti-climatic, but still something I don’t ever remember doing before. Our day ended happily with all the repairs being completed, and that meant we wouldn’t have to camp at the repair shop. We headed up the highway and no longer did I hear a nasty metal sound coming from the rear axle! So……..“Laissez le bon temps rouler“ (Let the good times roll)!

Mon. Mar. 26th: Brushy Creek Recreation Area on Lake O’ the Pines.

Tues. Mar. 27th: Drove into Jefferson

Wed. Mar. 28th: Moved to Acadian Campground at Acadian Village in Lafayette, Louisiana. Welcomed with a dinner of Gumbo.

Thurs. Mar. 29th: Tabasco Factory Tour
Lunch at Landry’s Restaurant
Jefferson Island House
Konriko Rice factory tour
Jambalaya for dinner in the game room.

Fri. Mar. 30th: Cajun Film at Historical Center
Lunch at Casino
Dinner and dancing at Randol’s

Sat. Mar. 31st: Rice and Gravy Festival at Acadian Village

Sun. Apr. 1st: Church service in the morning.
Lot’s left early for the long drive home.
Moved to Bayou Wilderness RV Resort

This was a rally that was a great surprise. The first surprise was the number of people that attended. There were 25 coaches from the National RV Great Lakers and 8 from Diamonds in the Rough. Another surprise was that it wasn’t just snowbirds on their way home, but some couples drove down from the north for this rally.

The rally was at the Acadian Village Campground at Lafayette, Louisiana. We were greeted with an invitation to a Gumbo dinner in the activities building. It was fun to catch up with folks and what everyone did over the winter.

Thursday morning we started the day with Beignets made by Ann Guillot. It was a great way to start the day before heading out on our fun filled scheduled. We then headed to Avery Island to the Tabasco factory. I never realized so many things about the making of Tabasco. We all received 3 little bottles of different types of sauce.

After lunch we went to the Jefferson House. We saw a brief film and then toured the house. I was surprised to learn that the man who had the house built was a famous actor in the 1800’s. He made his money from his career in acting and this was his winter home. It was beautiful and the grounds were gorgeous. There were peacocks gracing the paths and lawn, showing off their plumage.

Next we went to the Konriko Rice Factory. We saw a movie, had some samples and toured the factory. It’s on the grounds of America’s oldest rice mill.

Our first day is still not over! We had another dinner prepared by our hosts. This time it was Jambalaya and our after dinner entertainment was jokes told by Ridley and others.

Friday started with biscuits and gravy. We then headed to the Jean Lafitte National Park & Preserve Prairie Acadian Cultural Center. We toured the museum and then watched movies about the history of the Acadians. Next we went to lunch at a casino and some of us stayed and made a donation to the casino. The evening was spent at Randol’s restaurant eating Cajun food, listening to Cajun music and some of us even ventured out onto the dance floor.

Saturday we again had breakfast in the activities room. We had a meeting outside by the coaches after breakfast and were able to finish most of the meeting before it began to rain. We all thanked the Guillots and the other families that were such gracious hosts. A poem was written by Dennis Behnken and read by Betty Behnken and titled “The Life of Ridley Guillot.”

During the day we were able to wander in and out of the grounds of the Acadian Village. We toured the different homes and buildings, sampled the contestant’s rice and gravy and listened to music. The afternoon produced some heavier rains, but the evening was drier. We walked over to the village in the evening and sat on a porch of one of the village houses and enjoyed the music from a distance.

Sunday the church service was held in the Acadian Village New Hope Chapel (La Chapel DeNouvel Espoir) which is a replica of an 1850 chapel. We even heard organ music as we walked by and had to peer in as I didn’t recall an organ. It was actually an electronic keyboard and I assume belonged to one of our Snowbirds.

Laissez le bon temps rouler. Let the good times roll.

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Photos

Acadian Village 2
This is the house where we sat one night with our dogs and listened to the music.

Randol's
Where we ate great Cajun food, listened and danced to music.

Jefferson House detail
The air could circulate through all floors.It was located in the reception hall.

Jefferson House peacock
It's the season of love among the peacocks!

Comments

[George]

Looking for a Family Reunion Location
My family and I lived in N.O. until 1977 when I graduated HS joined the Army, My brothers joined the Navy a year later, Sisters married and moved to Kentucky. Dad died and Mom moved to Ohio. After 30 years in the Army and only returning to LA once or twice; we all find the urge to do or next reunion in Cajun country. Needless to say we just don’t have the contacts or family in the area anymore to organize this so it falls upon me way out in Colorado. Of the six kids we all are married and have families and some even had grandkids. Four boys all had military careers and the two girls married and moved away. We will travel in from Arizona, Colorado, North Carolina, Connecticut, Mississippi and Kentucky – six kids all living in different states. In 2008 we went to the TN Smokey Mountains and it was great. I would like to plan in the summer of 2011 for us all to come together again in your area if you have any suggestions. I would like to rent space for six families (maybe six bed and breakfast or six cabins, or house boats, or something with a certain level of our space. I will need some swamp tour options, prefer to do it when a festival is taking place (still love the food). I am in the planning stage so any ideas, links or suggestions would be a great resource. Thanks George Stapleton Sergeant Major U.S. Army (Retired)