Lafayette and then New Orleans

 

We are finishing up our stay in New Orleans and will begin heading up to Nashville.  Let me get you caught up on our activities.

We last were in Duson, LA which is just outside Lafayette. We did not do much sightseeing except to stop at the Acadian Cultural Center.  Acadians traveled from France and settled in eastern Canada but then were forced out back in the 1800’s with many of them ending up in Louisiana and are called Cajuns.  The Lafayette area is where many of the exiled Acadians ended up. My family background, both mother and father, is French-Canadian with my parents being the first generation to be born in the US.  What I learned at this Cultural Center is that my mother’s side, LeBlanc, is a registered Acadian surname, so I learned something.  I am most likely part Acadian.

Following our stop at the Cultural Center we went looking for a lunch spot and found Prejean’s.  We had a great lunch.  If you are ever in the area check them out, you will not be disappointed.  I had the catfish grand chenier.  Here is their description: Southern catfish rolled around Prejean’s seafood stuffing, fried golden brown & smothered with crawfish étouffée.  Served with rice dressing and corn macque choux.  One of the best meals I have had.  Fran had their gumbo with a side salad.

From Duson we moved on down I-10 to New Orleans.  I found us a very nice park just a few miles outside the French Quarter that honored our Passport America discount so the space was only $39 per night as opposed to $80.  Most of the RV parks in this area go for $100+ per night.  The nice thing is the park has a shuttle to the French Quarter for only $6 so we did not have to worry about driving the big truck and trying to find parking.

Wednesday was our French Quarter day as the weather was beautiful.  After getting off the shuttle our first stop was to get a beignet and coffee at Café du Monde.  We were amazed at the long lines and found out the reason is that it is spring break for schools in Louisiana so many families were out in the area.  It took about 30 minutes but we got our fried dough and powdered sugar fix.  They are messy! 

For the rest of the day we walked around the French Quarter as we both were here just before hurricane Katrina and did a lot of sightseeing then.  This time we did go inside the St. Louis Cathedral, which is just beautiful.

St. Louis Cathedral

Interior of Cathedral

We did make a stop to have a hurricane drink.  Wow, that ended up being pretty powerful with the 151 rum.  Thank goodness we did not have to drive back to the park.

For lunch we stopped at Mother’s restaurant.  It has been a local favorite since the 1930’s.  I had the Crawfish Etouffee with turnip greens, yum.  Fran had red beans and rice with a salad. 

Today, Thursday, we headed out to check out the Garden District.  This is where many of the historic mansions are and where some famous people live.  We found a walking tour online so we followed it.  It took us past the houses of former NFL quarterback Archie Manning’s house, actor John Goodman’s house and actress Sandra Bullock;s house.

This is the front of John Goodman’s house.  I guess those are his dogs.  The photo was too cute to pass up.

Many of the homes are huge and have been nicely restored and are well maintained.  Very nice area to walk or drive around. 

We headed to the City Park as Fran wanted to check out the sculpture garden next to the Museum of Art.  Here are a couple of pictures from the garden.

For lunch we found a local hangout nearby called Liuzza’s by the Track.  Their signature dish is BBQ shrimp Po-boy. Oh boy was it good.  The place is a neighborhood and seats about 30 people.  Great service and great food.

Following lunch we took a drive around the lower ninth ward area to see the effects of Hurricane Katrina.  It is sad to see so many vacant lots after all these years. 

Sightseeing was over as the rain moved in, so I thought it was a good time to update the blog.  As I mentioned the next few days we are enroute to Nashville where we will park the trailer and then fly out to visit our daughter and son-in law in Portland.  When we return we will then head to Knoxville for a month.  As a result my blog posts will be a little less frequent over the next couple of months.

Route:  From Duson, LA we headed east on Interstate 10 right into New Orleans.