Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Well hallo der, I'm glad for yoo to see me, I garr-on-tee! In oder words, warm greetings from Arcadiana; Cajun Country. Led's see now, down hee-ya yoo got dem crawfish, dem oysters, dem boudin and andouille, dem shrimps, dat gumbo, and dat jambalaya for starts. Den yoo gots dem fiddles music, yoo add some accordion to dat and yoo got dem Zydeco musics, an bode are good fo dancin'.

We're in Abbeville, Louisiana, in the heart of Arcadiana; down on the Bayou. We gonna eat our fill of the afore mentioned local delicacies while we listen to the local music.

We found a gem of a campground,  Abbeville RV Park. Small, uncrowded, friendly and so quiet it seems like it's out in the middle of nowhere, yet it's close to some well known Cajun eateries, including the place that first served boiled crawfish. 

Abbeville itself has a historical district that we visited on a Sunday afternoon. Since this is part of the nation that our enlightened president likes to look down on because it's all people with "their Bibles and guns", everything was closed, so we had the whole place all but to ourselves. Here's a walkthrough of our expedition: 

Cajuns, for the most, part are Catholic and so this Catholic church and cemetery have a prominent place in the Historic District. While the church itself is a more modern iteration of the one that was originally on this spot, the cemetery is the original.  

The plaque gives the history of the cemetery, and the picture below is the grave of Eufemie Broussard, as noted on the sign. Many of the graves are unmarked, but give the appearance of great age.

Parish Rectory

Folks who aren't native to this part of the country are fascinated by the above-ground graves here. With the water table so close to the surface, and the flooding that occurs frequently, any caskets placed in the ground tend to float to the surface. 

That's if you could dig a grave without it filling with water in the first place.

This is a well known seafood patio, (Cajun for casual joint to eat seafood at,) that's been around since 1869. They sell a LOT of oysters at this place. So many in fact that they fill the potholes in the parking lot with oyster shells instead of gravel. How's that for recycling?

This is the land of of sugar farming. Sugar is grown everywhere where rice isn't planted. Back when plantations ruled the southern agricultural economy, harvesting and processing the sugar cane was extremely labor intensive, and the work was done by slaves.

When the industrial revolution hit the industry, presses like this were used to crush the sugar cane. The cane went in the press via the two rectangular openings on this side,

And the unrefined syrup came out on this side. I couldn't tell from looking at the press, what actually drove the mechanism. 

This was an interesting building. I was initially drawn to it by the erie green glow I spied coming from the inside. Then I saw the plaque. I'll let that speak for itself.

There was an alley between the theater and the building next store, so I thought that if I went down it I might find the source of that green glow.

What I found was the skeletal remains of the theater. The sloped floor and the beams that supported the structure were still there but that was it. Still it was enough to let my imagination travel back to the glory days of the old place...

Then my phone rang. I had butt-dialed 911 and they were calling me back to see if there was an emergency.

Oops...

We walked back towards the town square, past all the recently restored buildings with their ornate architectural details and garish colors that were so popular in the Victorian period.

In the center of the square, there was a walled courtyard with some benches, a fountain and some gigantic Live Oak trees. Live Oaks are members of the same family as the traditional Oaks we all know. In fact they're kind of the Strange Uncle of the family. The acorns are elongated, and when they fall off the tree, the nut falls first and then only later does the cap fall. They grow weird too. New growth sprouts from anywhere on the tree and grows rapidly. This leads to some really long and heavy limbs that eventually droop until they reach the ground. Once this happens, the limb sprouts roots where it touches the ground, and  the limb begins to grow upward towards the light. This weirdness can produce an entire "grove" (for lack of a better term,) of Live Oaks all connected at the main trunk. Where people don't want this kind of invasive growth, they hold the limbs up and off the ground with jacks, as you can see in the picture, or concrete posts, blocks, grave stones or whatever else is handy.

As I mentioned earlier, the Exalted One  in The White House, don't much cotton to those Bible believin' folk down hee-yar, but it's OK, they don't much cotton to him either. There ain't none of that freedom from religion in these parts.

Here's what's right out in plain view by the town square.

We walked around some more and found the old Rexall Drug store. 

Looks like prior to Rexall, it was the Godard Drug Co.

Check out this old safe!

Now THIS place was interesting. I don't know if it's historic, or if it's even old, but it was intriguing.

I could see that behind the iron fence, was some kind of courtyard, or patio...

What I found was a real whimsical world within.

By now we were pretty hungry, but again, nothing's open on Sunday, so we hunted around and found a well known seafood patio, a favorite of locals, waaaaay off the beaten path. Before we were done, we had devoured SIX POUNDS of boiled crawfish.

You know what else is near Abbeville? New Iberia. You know what's in New Iberia? Avery Island. Know what's on Avery Island? The Tabasco Plant. That's right, the place where they make that yummiest of all seasonings, Tabasco Sauce.

We HAD to go and visit. What a cool place.

As they say here in Luziannne, "Laissez les bons temps rouler!" Let the good times roll!