In Cajun Country

Admiring boiled crawfish

BREAUX BRIDGE, LOUISIANA – It would have been so easy to zip out of New Orleans on I-10 straight to our next stop, Breaux Bridge in the heart of Cajun country. But, no, we had to drive along the Mississippi up toward Baton Rouge, and soon we found ourselves not along a lovely riverside but in a nightmare scene in the Geismar area, the center of Louisiana’s petro-chemical industry. Louisiana is home to the largest concentration of refineries and petro-chemical facilities in the Western Hemisphere. “All the devils are here,” as the Bard wrote in The Tempest: Shell, BASF, Occidental, DuPont, Williams Olefins (where the huge explosion was two years ago), and many more stretching into the horizon for as far as the eye could see. If you have seen the New Jersey refineries from the highway, you have some idea of the scene, but we were seeing something much bigger. And every plant had giant pipes looping over the highway and the levee down to the river.

A bit of petro-chemical world.

Eventually, we were out of that scene and on the banks of the river boarding a small ferry to cross to Plaquemine. Once there, we happened upon a charity auction in the park and joined them, eating jambalaya with the locals. It was a relief to be back to human scale and human warmth.

We crossed the endless, awesome Atchafalaya basin on I-10 and were soon in cute little Breaux Bridge, officially the Crawfish Capital of the World. That evening we had a really good gumbo and two standard dishes in these parts—Crawfish Half and Half, fried and         étouffée, and pecan-encrusted catfish.

The Bridge itself!

On Sunday morning we took a swamp tour in the biologically rich Lake Martin area and saw a lot thanks to an excellent guide, including a nesting pair of red-shouldered hawks, yellow-crowned night heron and the tiny prothonotary warbler who had crossed the entire Gulf to chirp at us. Afterwards, we bought some boudin and dirty rice and had a picnic with the dogs.

Lake Martin

That afternoon we thought it was time to enjoy some Cajun music and so went to the locally famous La Poussiere Music Hall for the traditional Sunday afternoon music and dancing. There were about 100 people there, all local folks as best we could tell, most dancing on an ample dance floor to the music of the Cajun Cousins. Most couples were about our age, and they seemed to know each other. Some conversed in Cajun French, and the vocals were in the local French too. Cajun music is very rhythmic and soulful, and cheers went up after some pieces, for what exactly we haven’t a clue. We found something truly authentic there, something not found elsewhere, though many in Strafford who dance regularly can imagine the scene. Lots of folks were sipping beers and tapping along with the music. It was a glorious way to spend Sunday afternoon, and heartwarming to us, so we joined in the dancing. Cece wants to take dancing lessons down here to work on our two-step.

The Cajun Cousins

La Poussiere dancers

At 6 p.m. it was time to head to a well-known Cajun restaurant, Pont Breaux’s, where a younger group was playing and dancing. The annual crawfish festival happens here right after we head down to New Iberia and Avery Island, so it seemed appropriate to have another local specialty, boiled fresh crawfish. They’re boiled in a spicy brine, a bit like peeler shrimp steamed in Old Bay seasoning. These tiny lobster-like crustacean are tasty, but it is harder to extract the edible parts than either lobster or shrimp. We also had a dish called Swamp Trash, a yummy combination of sautéed shrimp, alligator, and crab with homegrown Louisiana rice.

We are eating our way through the Cajun region of Louisiana.

After dinner, we returned to our B&B on Bayou Teche, a very long bayou well known to readers of James Lee Burke novels. 

B&B on Bayou Teche