Author: Craig D. Guillot

September 2001 (2 of 2)- New Orleans, Louisiana






Castle Cabin

A Cajun man’s castle is his plank-style cabin.

Cajun Country


In this update:


The Places

The Music

– Cajun Bands

– Zydeco Bands

The Food

Other Resources



The Places


Cajun country stretches far and wide in the southern part of Louisiana, but the highest concentration of Cajun culture and its people lie around the city of Lafayette (130 miles from New Orleans), making it a great base as many of the smaller towns lack accommodation. Although there are many organized tours offering transportation between Lafayette and some of the towns, it is highly recommended to rent a car so you can get off the beaten path and do some of your own exploring in the Cajun country. All of the following towns of interest are within a 50-mile radius of Lafayette:


Lafayette (Lafayette Official Tourism Site) has useful links, information, and a long list of just about everything you could do in Cajun country under “suggested itineraries”. Home of the University of Louisiana’s 20,000 “Ragin Cajuns”, Lafayette has much of a college town atmosphere. Yet it bustles with weekly Cajun festivals such as the seasonal Downtown Alive! as well as Festival International, and Festival Acadiens (coming Sept. 16-17) dancehalls are always packed with local two-steppers. Randol’s, 2320 Kaliste Saloom Road, serves up spicy seafood and offers live Cajun music with dancing while the main thoroughfare, Johston Street, is jam-packed with great small restaurants. Vermillionville, 1600 Surrey St. (near the airport), is a 23-acre park with a living Cajun village, music, food and culture. Well worth a visit, it’s sort of a “Cajun Disneyland” except without all the rides. There are a variety of hotels in every price range serving the area, from Motel 6 to the Hilton, making Lafayette the preferred location for resting your head at night.


Little old Abbeville (aka “Some place on the bayou”) is a good place to do things like go to the “omelet” and Sammy Kershaw festivals, as well as down raw oysters at Acadiana famous Blacks Restaurant on the bayou. Check out The Meridional to see what the Cajuns have been up to in this neck of the woods.






Boiled Mudbugs

Tuck into some serious mudbug action at Breaux Bridge’s annual Crawfish Festival.

Breaux Bridge (aka “Crawfish Capital of the World”) is most famous for their hot, spicy, down and dirty Crawfish Festival, held every year usually in late May. World-famous Mulates Restaurant (also in New Orleans) serves up authentic Cajun food while old men with accordions and guitars tear up the stage for some Cajun two-stepping.


Henderson is a small settlement off of Interstate 10 that’s jammed up against the Atchafalya Basin. It is a main departing point for local swamp tours and a great place to fill your belly. Pat’s Fisherman’s Wharf, 1008 Henderson Levee Road, is a good little swampfront eatery with more than 70 items on the menu, including blackened redfish and stuffed red snapper. There are a variety of tour companies on the levee road, such as Angelle’s or McGee’s Landing and Houseboat Adventures, which rent houseboats and aluminum skiffs at a reasonable price. Across I-10 on the north side is Crawfish Town USA (exit 115), where every Tuesday is “Mardi Gras” and features wait staff in masks and costume. And yes, the food is damn good also!


St. Martinville has a nice little historic district of 6 square blocks where the “Mother Church of the Acadians” was established in 1765. There are a few neat houses of Martinique architecture, an Acadian memorial with more than 13,000 names, and a “Teddy Bear” exhibit (haven’t been to that one yet!) There are a couple of nice bed and breakfasts such as Bienvenue House and Old Castillo making it a nice little town to spend a quite night or two. Caution: Watch your speed limit. The police drag in extra money for the city by issuing tickets left and right.






Tabasco

Barrels of McIllheny Tabasco goodness.

New Iberia is sort of a Cajun “yahoo land”. They get so wild for their annual “Sugar Cane Festival” that you would think you were in New Orleans. Thousands flock in for a long weekend of beer drinking, boat riding, and two-stepping. Although much smaller than Lafayette, New Iberia does have a reasonable selection of hotels and restaurants in every price range, making it a good base for excursions to surrounding areas and attractions. For example Avery Island, owned and run by the famous McIllheny family (they make Tabasco) is a great little excursion where you can tour the pepper sauce factory, jungle gardens, and a bird city. In the summertime, the wildlife viewing is great, with countless deer, alligators, and birds everywhere you look.


Crowley (aka “The Little Town that was Wanted”, “Tree City, USA”, “Rice Capital of the World”) has a neat little downtown district with more than 200 buildings in the National Register of Historic Places. There are a few attractions such as the “Rice Museum“, the “Blue Rose Museum“, and swamp tours of the Plaquemine bayou where you can also learn how crawfish are harvested and prepared. Its also home to the International Rice Festival in June as well as “Super Boot Scottin’ Frontier Days” the first weekend of May each year. Local organization Crowley Cares maintains an informative web site.


Rayne (aka “The Frog Capital of the World”, “The Louisiana City of Murals”) is famous for its annual Frog Festival, often held in August or September as a big Cajun gathering to race, sell, celebrate, and (of course!) eat frogs.


Mamou (aka “The Cajun Music Capital of the World”) calls itself “the second largest town in Vermilion Parish”, although it’s little more than a speck on the map. But that doesn’t make it unimportant. Its “Le Courir de Mardi Gras a Cheval” (Cajun Mardi Gras) is just about the craziest thing you’ll ever see, as local men get stinking drunk to ride horseback through the town, chasing chickens and collecting vegetables for a giant gumbo.


Opelousas (aka “Zydeco Capital of the World”) has its share of historic buildings in a nice little downtown area plus Le Vieux Village, a small historic town. The Farmer’s Market makes a great people watching spot on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays from 7 am to noon, when locals come out to sell their produce and whatever else they might have. There is also a Cafe Du Monde in the building and a Jim Bowie Display. Also home to the Zydeco Music Festival.


Eunice (aka “Prarie Cajun Capital of Louisiana”) is most famous for the Cajun TV and radio show Rendez-Vous Des Cajuns, at the Liberty Theatre on Saturday nights. The town is also home to the Prairie Acadian Cultural Center, the Prairie Cajun Folk Festival, and the “World Championship Etoufee Cookoff“. The informative web site contains tons of useful information and city statistics such as “50 miles of sewer pipe“.


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Rosie Ledet

Rosie Ledet


The Music


Cajun music is so distinct and unique that it usually only takes one note for someone to recognize it. Laced with heavy accordions, Cajun-French vocals, and a variety of other instruments (such as a man scraping a scrub board with a spoon), Cajun music is full of culture, history, and spice. While bands and songs can vary, the two main formats remain the “two-step” (fast beat) and the “waltz” (slow beat). While “Cajun” and “Zydeco” are technically considered separate styles, they are for the most part similar, with Zydeco often being faster and more upbeat, and with more blues and rock influences. Cajun sweetheart Rosie Ledet and high roller Beau Jacque(famous for the “Cornbread” Cajun anthem) are two examples of great Zydeco musicians, while Wayne Toups often seems to be the leader of the pack for Cajun music.


The Music Machine, “straight out of Eunice”, is your number one source for Cajun, Zydeco, and swamp pop. You can learn more about Cajun dancing and maybe even find a teacher in your state at cajunzydeco.net.


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Cajun Bands


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Zydeco Bands


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Mural

This mural in Delcambre depicts the town’s famous Shrimp Festival. Eating spicy seafood and dancing are often top priorities for Cajuns.


The Food


When the Cajuns arrived from Nova Scotia, they were already at home in the world of survival and were pleased to move themselves into the dreaded and dangerous swamps of Louisiana. Armed with large black, iron pots, they utilized whatever was available in the area, living off the land with fish, wild game, and shellfish. When times got hard, they scavenged the swamps for little creatures which were at the time considered the equivalent of eating rats; crawfish are now a delicacy. The “one-pot meal” (one of the trademarks of Cajun cooking) such as jambalya, grillade, stews, and gumbos was developed to easily feed large groups of people.


Until 1980, there really wasn’t such a thing as “Cajun food”. There were foods that Cajuns ate and places where they eat, but there really wasn’t a name for it. But when Chef Paul Proudhomme burned his redfish one evening, a wave of Cajun food mania started to sweep the nation.


For more information on Cajun food and cooking, check out the March update for the New Orleans Guide, as well as this guide’s Food section.


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Other Resources


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