Plantations around New Orleans

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Hi, All --

My first couple of days in Louisiana were spent driving around the outskirts of New Orleans with Sandy (Sandy driving), visiting a couple of plantations and enjoying the countryside. The first plantation stopped at, Houmas Plantation, has an outstanding garden and that's where we spent our time as the plantation house didn't look that interesting. The second -- Laura: A Creole Plantation -- is well visited as you can see from the sign. On a good day, hundreds and hundreds of tourists pour through the house and grounds. The poor tour guides were bumping into one another on the day we were there. Fortunately, our tour guide was excellent, quite a good story teller. And there's a lot of story to tell here. By the way, this is where Br'er Rabbit originated.

According to Lonely Planet Travel, the “Best History Tour in the United States” is right here in New Orleans Plantation Country. So, what makes a visit to Laura: A Creole Plantation so special? Here, guests are treated to more than a house and antiques tour. Here – like nowhere else in the South – visitors become totally immersed in Louisiana’s rich, Creole culture.
Laura: A Creole Plantation offers a 70-minute tour that is based on 5,000 pages of documents from the French National Archives related to the free and enslaved families who lived here. Professional guides will share the compelling, real-life accounts of 7 generations of Laura Plantation’s Creole inhabitants. Discover what life was like for the plantation owners, women, slaves and children who once called this centuries-old, sugar cane farm their home.

The above is from -- http://neworleansplantationcountry.com/plantations/laura-plantation

Here's Wikipedia's blog -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Plantation

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This was my first time to mess around with High Dynamic Range (HDR), the effects of which you can see in some of the edited photos. I've tried not to get too carried away and end up with a bunch of weird photos . . . although it's tempting.

There are also a couple of photos from the industrial side of the area that caught our eye.

This is my last blog of New Orleans. What a great trip!

Paula

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Photos

under Laura's house
The Mississippi River was right near by.

company kitchen
This has been tweaked a bit using HDR software even though I only had one photo.

company kitchen #2
A completely untouched photo.

slave cabin
The plantation had 69 slave cabins at one time. After emancipation, most of the freed people, now plantation workers, remained until 1977. Fats Domino's family lived here at one time.

interior of slave cabin
More fun with High Dynamic Range (HDR). The walls actually were pink and blue.

cost of slaves at sale
Double click on this as it's interesting how much the slaves cost in today's dollars. For instance, Smathe was worth $10,000 even though "She is a lunatic."

fountain at Houmas Plantation
We just wandered the gardens as the house didn't seem that interesting.

Japanese garden
at the Houmas gardens

Rain CII -- see below
Rain CII is engaged in the businesses of production and sale of calcined petroleum coke (CPC) and the co-generation of energy (steam and electricity) through heat recovery. Who knew?

gold dome
Part of Rain CII operation. I wonder what happens under all that gold.

Comments

[Joan Burpee]

Thanks
Thanks Paula- So Interesting. Joan

[Noel]

Company Kitchen #2
#1 looked more like a photo of a painting rather than a real life structure. This one is fuller.