Louisiana Part Deux: Lafayette and Cajun Country

BowlingWidow and I said adieux to Baton Rouge and headed west in our rental car to Lafayette, a city of around 120,000 or so an hour-and-a-half away.  Most of the trip seemed to be spent on an elevated freeway, hovering above a rather large swamp.  When locals tell me that Louisiana’s coast line is disappearing I tend to believe them.

You just don't see street names like this in Seattle...

After checking in at our hotel, we gave ourselves a driving tour of the town to get more familiar with the layout.  We got hungry, so found a restaurant that served alligator (very good!) and crawfish etouffee (even better!).  I’ll go into the culinary aspects of Louisiana later, as it’s solidly deserving of its own separate blog post.

Grits:  It's what's for breakfast in Lafayette, Louisiana

Wherever we travel we try to make a point of embedding ourselves in the community and doing things locals would do at least a couple of times at each place we visit.  When it comes to music venues and Cajun music there is no better place in Lafayette than The Blue Moon Saloon and Guesthouse.  It’s a very nondescript, quite large house in a neighborhood near downtown.  The bar only seats a handful of people, with room around the perimeter of the stage and dance floor for the audience to congregate.

We hung around the Blue Moon for a couple of hours.  It was Cajun jam night so locals were dropping in with their instruments to hang out and play some traditional tunes.  The problem for us is that things don’t really get going until around 9:30pm, and not being night owls we only listened to the music for around 45 well-spent minutes.

The Blue Moon Saloon and Guest House:  A Must Visit in Lafayette

Our second and final full day in the area was somewhat of a pilgrimage for me.  Muslims go to Mecca.  Christians will flock to Jerusalem.  Me?  As a spicy food aficionado, I made sure we scheduled a trip to Avery Island:  the birthplace of Tabasco Sauce.  Avery Island is actually a misnomer - it isn't an island at all.

Avery Island Tabasco production isn’t what it once was (Tabasco plants are grown all over the world these days) but the packaging facility is going full steam five days a week.  The tour itself is really simple; we watched a film on Tabasco history followed by a quick glimpse of the factory behind glass.  Then we wrapped things up at the Tabasco Country Store where you can buy your choice of hundreds of Tabasco products.  We just kept it simple and got a couple of shirts and some BBQ sauce.

BowlingJoe used to only dream of giant Tabasco Sauce bottles.

Finally, we wanted to get out into the country a bit and visited a small town northwest of Lafayette called Eunice.  Eunice is one of the hot spots for traditional music according to all of the guidebooks but because it was the middle of the week, we just didn’t see it.  I’d guess that the result would be much different on a Saturday night but when we were there nuthin’ was happenin’ in Eunice.

Next:  New Orleans – The Garden District and French Quarter