Day 4 - Natchez, mile 364

---

Geo: 31.5607, -91.4113

A cold, blustery day with a cold snap forecast for the next several days. A hop-on, hop-off bus tour day, including a visit to a celebrity chef's house.

---

Photos

AQ in Natchez
Note the hydraulics at the base of the stacks. When the steam boaters and the railwaymen were "negotiating" over bridges in the mid 1800s, they agreed that the smoke stacks had to be able to be lowered so that the bridges didn't need to be too high.

Regina Charboneau
Regina is a US celebrity chef who has settled back in her home town of Natchez in a large, heritage-listed home. She hosted 30 or so of us on a paid excursion into her home. She fed us alcoholic drinks and canapés and demonstrated how to make "biscuits". Four cups of flour and a pound of butter and margarine (1:3 ratio) were the main ingredients, and the secret seemed to be in the mixing and rolling. It was fun and interesting and her food was absolutely delicious. She did say that the Heart Foundation awarded her recipes a skull and cross bones, instead of a healthy heart logo.

Regina
Robyn regaled her with the story of our 1980s weekend at chef Julia Child's coastal home north of San Francisco. Regina knew Julia and her house and we had a good talk.

Stanton Hall
A grand 1850s showcase home that has been under the care of a local heritage society since 1938. Impressive, but nothing like the Gilded Age Mansions in Newport, Rhode Island 50 years later.

Rum distillery
Regina's husband and son started this boutique Charboneau distillery in 2013. They have only made a dozen barrels of rum but have been awarded gold medals on the two varieties produced so far.

Comments

[Morag]

Chuckle - to skull and crossbones