Arnaudville is a small community in St. Landry and St. Martin parishes on historic Bayou Teche and some pretty cool things are happening there.
A favorite stop of ours when traveling through the southern part of our state is Bayou Teche Brewing on La. Hwy 31. Besides the fabulous beer and tasty wood-fired pizza, you meet the most interesting and friendly people there. On our most recent trip we met a guy from Florida who was in town working for developer Tony Adrian at Les Deux Mondes guest houses.
It was an odd coincidence because we had spotted the colorful cottages a few days before and been curious about them, and now, here was this fellow ready to tell us all about them. A couple of days later we had the chance to meet Tony and tour three of the cottages and now we can't wait to return and stay for a few days. In fact, I'm rather obsessed with the idea.
Tony Adrian is an energetic and enterprising craftsman; a former nurse, he now is co-owner and developer in the renovation of seven formerly dilapidated homes on Front Street in Arnaudville. The houses all date prior to 1920s and he was eager to show them to us.
The pastel cottages actually face Bayou Teche and while all of them are not complete yet, the three we saw were ready for occupancy while another is the current residence for the ULL student who does the landscaping and gardening.
Just a few years ago the property was a trash dump and eyesore and neighbors were a little nervous when Tony started moving in more dilapidated houses, but after he removed several dump trucks full of trash, fixed up the houses, and planted some flowers, tensions eased.
The cottages we walked through had gorgeous cypress tables and red oak counter tops, fully updated kitchens and bathrooms, stunning pine plank flooring, and simple, tasteful decor.
The walls feature original art from Nunu Art Collective in Arnaudville. Tony pointed out that he used milk paint made on site on the walls, "no latex paint," he said, shaking his head.
He has built spacious porches facing the bayou for each one.
"Houses used to front the bayou," he explained. "The street side was the back door, so that's what we did."
You can walk across the street to Russell's and pick up your groceries or a plate lunch; you can spend the afternoon in a hammock just watching the bayou, or you can go down to the brewery for pizza and conversation. You can even put a kayak in the bayou and explore the historic Bayou Teche.
"Have you ever had loquat?" Tony asked me as we walked around to the street side of the houses; he pointed to a tree filled with pale orange fruit. He plucked one from the tree, bent forward, and bit in, juice dripping everywhere. "You might need a bath when you get through!" he laughed. The gardens along the cottages are filled with lovingly tended blooming plants, natural grasses, fruit trees, and vegetable plants. Amber was setting out tomato plants when we were there.
Tony is all about conservation and preservation so he uses natural and local materials when he can; the rooms are all inviting and filled with natural light. He has updated all of the plumbing and electricity.
Some of the cottages are single occupancy while others are duplexes with a shared porch.
The cottages are listed on Air BnB, if you're interested in a stay. I plan to try them all! In fact, I'm hoping maybe I can talk Tony into selling me one someday, but I doubt he'd be game for that. I get the impression this is a project of love for him.
New Iberia oaks featured during the Live Oak Walk.
In my series on the Books Along the Teche Literary Festival, I would be remiss if I didn't cover the best part of this festival. Yes, the events are great, but what makes this festival so cool is the people you meet in New Iberia.
This festival draws people from all over the world, and that is not an exaggeration! James Lee Burke has quite a fan base, it seems.
Steve and I have made really good friends at this festival and have met people we stay in touch with. Last year we met Wendy and Mike who simply insisted that we could not sit out the Cajun dancing, would not take no for an answer, and before you know it, had us up dancing with the locals. We stayed in touch and even made another trip to New Iberia over the summer to meet them for dinner and dancing. You won't meet better people anywhere.
This year we made new friends once again.
The first night, the Opening Reception event was moved from The Shadows to the Sliman Theater on Main Street due to rainy weather. We sat at long tables in the center of the room with the two buffet lines against the walls, and the Bunk Johnson Brazz Band played on stage. We were joined at our table by Mary Ubinas who, with her husband David Dahlquist, is active in conservation and preservation of Bayou Teche through the Teche Project.
Mary is the lady who last year stood outside of The Shadows with us and told us that they could have retired anywhere in the world they wanted to and they wanted to come to New Iberia. They were from Iowa, where Steve is from, and we really enjoyed meeting them, so I was glad to see Mary again this year. She was accompanied by her friend Marsha, also from Iowa.
In the "It's a Small World" category, we found out that Marsha and Steve have one of those six-degrees-of-separation connections and we all hit it off immediately.
Marsha and Steve.
The Opening Reception could not have been more fun or spontaneous. Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser was in attendance and declared his love for New Iberia in his comments to the crowd. He said that he has the best job in the world and I tend to believe him. Who wouldn't love being able to attend all of Louisiana's great festivals and mingle with such wonderful people?
The organizers of the festival are talented, adaptable people who were totally unflappable about the location move for the event and when it came time to do the Second Line with the band, normally done through the gardens of The Shadows, Vicky Branton just led us all right out the front doors of the Sliman, down Main Street, stopped traffic, crossed over, and came back again! It was delightful!
Cathy Indest and the Second Line (Photo used with permission from Lee Ball Photography)
I think the band was as surprised as anyone that we went outside.
The Bunk Johnson Brazz Band Second Line down Main St. (Photo used by permission from Lee Ball)
This was about the time I discovered my camera battery was dead and I had failed to bring my backup, so I ran alongside with my cell phone recording the Second Line. Cars were honking and people rolled down their windows and waved and cheered.
We kept on going until we returned to the Sliman.
Second Line down Main. (Photo used with permission from Lee Ball photography)
The evening concluded with a lively auction of a beautiful painting by Jerome Weber whose work was used as the image on the festival t-shirt and poster this year.
As we were leaving, Steve and I lingered, visiting, hating for the evening to end. That's when we met Stefan Kropelin who came to the festival from Cologne, Germany.
Anyone who knows my husband knows he loves the time he served in Germany while in the Air Force and so he was delighted to meet Stefan. They hit it off right away as they compared blood sugar readings, meters, and insulin pens, and then Stefan told us all about how he discovered Burke's books and how much he enjoyed them.
Steve and Stefan Kropelin.
He's read them in both German and English and when he learned about this festival he just had to come.
Stefan even rented Clete Purcell's room Number 4 at the Teche Motel!
Stefan in Room No. 4, Teche Motel. (Photo used with permission from Lee Ball)
Now that's a fan!
I just fell in love with Stefan; he was having a wonderful time. He took millions of photos, he gathered email addresses, and he talked to every single person there. Such a wonderful, joyful person!
The last night we all went to the Boogie On Down event at the Steamboat Warehouse Pavilion where we ate, danced with Rebecca Wells! (squeeeee!), and made more friendships.
Marsha, Wendy, Me, Steve. (Photo by Stefan Kropelin).
At the end of the night I think Stefan was as sad for it to all end as anyone; we were the last ones to leave long after the band had already packed up.
Stefan catching one more photo of the band.
I don't think there is enough space to capture all the great friendships I've made through this festival. Fran Thibodeaux from the Iberia Parish Convention and Visitors Bureau has my heart - she has made it possible for us to attend this festival and could not have been more generous and kind to Steve and me.
What I've found in New Iberia, and I've made at least half a dozen visits in the past twelve months, is a community of warm, welcoming people who are genuinely glad that you are there and happy to greet you and talk to you. They're proud of their community and happy to share it with you. I completely understand when Mary Ubinas says there is no place they would rather live.
There is so much happening at this festival, I still could not do it all this year, and I still have a list of posts to share with you about other events!
Honestly, in a state with over 400 festivals per year, the Books Along the Teche Festival is one not to be missed. It highlights all that is beautiful and special about Louisiana, about Iberia Parish, and about the people that comprise both. James Lee Burke sites and scenery is just a bonus!
Chefs Bonnie Breaux and Ryan Trahan (used with permission from Lee Ball)
In Louisiana, good food is serious business. We prize our oyster beds, our redfish, catfish, and crawfish. We can batter and fry almost anything and when we aren't doing that we are making a roux and creating a delicious etouffee or gumbo. From Natchitoches meat pies to crabmeat pizzas in Arnaudville, from crawfish in Breaux Bridge to oysters in New Orleans, we love good food.
This year the cooking demo featured 2017 Louisiana Seafood Queen Bonnie Breaux of Cafe Sydnie Mae in Breaux Bridge and chef Ryan Trahan of Blue Dog Cafe in Lafayette. Ryan is the 2018 King of American Seafood.
The event filled up quickly Friday morning at the Steamboat Warehouse Pavilion on Bayou Teche in New Iberia. I skipped breakfast that morning because I knew we would soon be sampling delicious bowls of crawfish etouffee and Louisiana shrimp and grits.
A seasoned journalist, Ken Wells sleuths out the answers. His obsession goes back to his childhood in the Cajun bastion of Bayou Black, where his French-speaking mother’s gumbo often began with a chicken chased down in the yard. Back then, gumbo was a humble soup little known beyond the boundaries of Louisiana. So when a homesick young Ken, at college in Missouri, realized there wasn’t a restaurant that could satisfy his gumbo cravings, he called his momma for the recipe. That phone-taught gumbo was a disaster. The second, cooked at his mother’s side, fueled a lifelong quest to explore gumbo’s roots and mysteries.
In Gumbo Life: Tales from the Roux Bayou, Wells does just that. He spends time with octogenarian chefs who turn the lowly coot into gourmet gumbo; joins a team at a highly competitive gumbo contest; visits a factory that churns out gumbo by the ton; observes the gumbo-making rituals of an iconic New Orleans restaurant where high-end Creole cooking and Cajun cuisine first merged.
Mr. Wells's talk was peppered with funny stories and one point that interested me was his research into the earliest gumbos and his discovery that more than likely bear grease was used as the oil for the roux.
Author Ken Wells (photo used with permission from Lee Ball)
"New Orleans was awash in bear grease!" he told us.
This made perfect sense to me. Elizabeth Shown Mills talks about this in her book The Forgotten People: Cane River's Creoles of Color. By 1792, Marie Therese Coincoin, a former slave given her freedom by Pierre Thomas Claude Metoyer, was successfully farming tobacco on land given to her by Metoyer. She shipped this tobacco on barges to New Orleans. She also "trapped wild bears in the Natchitoches wilderness and sent bear grease to market..." (Mills 39). Mills reports that Coincoin sent, in one particular shipment, three hundred hides and two barrels of bear grease. This was a fairly common practice at that time and so Ken Wells comments resonated with me.
During the course of his research, Mr. Wells even obtained a small container of bear grease from a supplier and tested the bear-grease-roux.
His book is a fascinating study in the history of our most beloved dish and after his talk, Mr. Wells signed copies of his book.
The first cooking demo of the morning was chef Bonnie Breaux. An animated, enthusiastic chef, Miss Breaux says she is self-taught and learned to cook at her mother's side and later out of necessity to feed her family. Most recently Breaux had been the chef at St. John restaurant in St. Martinville (one of our favorites!) and Cafe Sydnie Mae is a sort of sister restaurant in Breaux Bridge.
Breaux shared her crawfish etouffee secrets with the crowd at the Steamboat Warehouse Pavilion and stressed the importance of using the crawfish fat in the etouffee. "That's where all your flavor is," she said. When asked what kind of rice she uses, Breaux said she just uses regular medium or long grain rice in her etouffee. There's a time and place for jasmine rice and the other gourmet grains, but not in a Louisiana etouffee. She also shared that she never tastes her food while she's cooking it.
Chef Ryan Trahan followed and his dish was shrimp and grits. Trahan grew up in a restaurant family
Trahan's Shrimp and Grits (photo used with permission from Lee Ball)
and is from Crowley, Louisiana. His rule in the kitchen: "Everyone stirs the grits," he said. "If you walk by, you stir the grits. If I walk by, I stir the grits. Everyone stirs the grits." The rule must work pretty well because his shrimp and grits were to die for; the grits were creamy and the dish was seasoned with Trahan's own Worcestershire sauce.
Breaux and Trahan were available and visible throughout the day, talking to festival participants and sharing cooking stories. They were both at the evening event at the Sliman theater as well.
There is no shortage of fabulous chefs in Louisiana but festival organizers were on top of the game when they scored these two "royal" chefs for the demo this year!
Coming next in my Festival recap: Taking the Second Line through Historic Main Street Thank you to photographer Lee Ball for allowing me to use his photos!
Somehow in my past I had neglected reading The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. I remember when the book came out and I remember everyone reading it and talking about it. My daughter even read it (I think) because I had it on my shelf here for years; I never picked it up.
When I found out that author Rebecca Wells will be the featured author at the Books Along the Teche Literary Festival this year, I decided it was time to read the book. My librarian friend and fellow book-nerd insisted that I also read Little Altars Everywhere, which I did. Then I read Ya-Ya's in Bloom. I now know the Ya-Ya's like my own family.
Now that I've read these, I'm excited to see Rebecca Wells next weekend at the literary festival! This is a woman that can tell a story! My favorite of the three books is Little Altars Everywhere but they are all wonderful; I have not read The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder yet, I've been so caught up in the Ya-Ya's. They remind me of my mother and her friends in a lot of ways and oh they are so Southern!
So now I'm looking at the events schedule for the festival and trying to plan my events. This is more difficult than it sounds; there is so much I want to do!
We attended this festival last year and had a wonderful time, made new friends, and fell in love with Iberia Parish. That we would return this year was never in question.
Do I want to do the same events I did last year? (Yes!) Do I want to add new events? (Yes!) The festival organizers have spread things out a bit from last year and there are more opportunities to do things; for example, last year I missed most of the authors fair on Main Street because we were doing the Dave's Haunts and Jaunts tour. During the afternoon a nasty cold front blew in and by the time the bus tour was over most of the authors had closed up.
Last year I didn't do the Bouree lessons and I think that would be sort of fun!
This is my tentative schedule this year:
Friday
Louisiana Seafood Great Southern Chefs Foods Demo 9:30 - 11:00: this was great last year and
we got to sample delicious food!
Dave's Haunts and Jaunts Tour 12:30 - 3:00 We did this one last year but two things make me want to repeat this: James Lee Burke has released New Iberia Blues since then, and Danny Bonaventure. Danny is the tour guide and he's terrific, tons of fun, and excellent at his job. This was a blast and I'm all in for doing this again.
Live Oak Walk 3:00 - 5:00 Main Street is lined with beautiful live oaks and I think this would be fun. The walk is hosted by a local arborist and I would probably learn some things. We did not do this last year.
The Jazz it Up Opening Reception 6:00 - 8:00 There is no way on God's green planet that I would miss this. Hosted at the beautiful Shadows on the Teche plantation home of Weeks Hall, this was a fabulous event last year. The Bunk Johnson Brazz Band provides the music and there is a cochon de lait on the grounds under large white tents. If that's not your thing, you have the option of other seafood specialties. Tables are scattered on the grounds along the bayou and you can eat, visit, listen to music, and at the end of the evening there is a really fun second-line around the grounds! We met so many wonderful people last year at this event; it was one of my favorite things we did. I'm all in
for this one.
So Friday looks to be a pretty busy day! So far I've only picked up one new event.
Saturday
The Dave's Haunts and Jaunts Tour runs again at 8:00; it is a possibility we might do it Saturday instead of Friday.
Books Into Movies Panel Discussion 10:30 - 12:00. I'm maybe interested in this event. The panel will discuss what authors should know about making a film of their books. A lot of people tell me Cane River Bohemia ought to be a movie; I'm not so sure about that, but maybe I'll learn something or get some networking in via this panel.
Allons Manger Food Truck and Music Event begins at 10:30 and runs until 1:30 while the Authors Book Fair runs from 9:30 - 3:00. I think I want to participate in both of these and have a fairly unscheduled day on Main Street, eating, looking at books, listening to music, and watching Bayou Teche. This might give me time to visit the Bayou Teche Museum which we did last year and loved.
Bouree Lessons are from 11:00 - 12:00 and I could fit that in, too.
University of Lafayette Academic Symposium 12:30 - 2:30. We attended this last year and it was great; I definitely want to do this again. The topic is James Lee Burke and Louisiana Politics: right up my alley.
Now this is my problem: if I do the Symposium, I can't do the Reader's Theater which runs from 1:00 - 2:00, and I missed this last year, too. The actors are reading from Divine Secrets and this will be awesome! Ugh!
From 3:00 - 5:00 Rebecca Wells will speak and I'm definitely doing this. I wouldn't miss a chance to meet this storyteller/author! I bet this is going to be awesome!
The Boogie on Down Evening Party is from 6:00 - 9:00 and we will definitely do this again. It was great fun last year. Terry Huval and his group will play fabulous Cajun music, the food will be abundant and delicious, and the friendship and fellowship will be heartwarming!
On Sunday, Steve and I will be heading back home so we will miss the Swamp Tours and the
Symphony in the Park. The trip home for us will include lunch in St. Martinville and a stop in Arnaudville to stock up on Bayou Teche Brewing beers and Cajun Saucer Pizza.
It sounds like an exhausting weekend and I can't wait! And even still there is not enough time to do it all. I did not even list the Art Guild Exhibit, the movie screenings, the Poetry and Music event, or the Sir Speedy Run.
And my gosh, you're in Iberia Parish! When is there time to visit Avery Island? Rip Van Winkle Gardens? Konriko Rice Mill? I'm dying to go to Cypremort Point! I've never been to Jeanerette or Loreauville! The docks at Delcambre are cool to see! There is so much to see and do. This is why after we attended the literary festival last year, we have made at least four more trips to the area since then, and I still haven't seen and done everything there is to do.
Guess that means I'll keep on coming back to Iberia Parish!
As my summer vacation comes to a close and the hectic school-year calendar approaches, Steve and I made one more trip to south Louisiana before we become consumed by school schedules, his Masters studies, and my book events. In this sort of calm before the storm, we threw ourselves into the Jeep and headed south.
After our first visit to New Iberia in April to attend the Books Along the Teche Literary Festival, we fell in love with the city and with the people. I am simply enchanted with all of it: the hospitality, the natural beauty, the lyrical Cajun accents, and the complete joie de vivre that we found there. And because the weekend of the literary festival was so fun and so full of activities, we didn't get a chance to see and do everything we wanted to, so a return trip was more than needed.
The attractions around Iberia parish are epic. When we were there in April we did a quick tour of the Tabasco factory (because it was Sunday they were not in production that day), and Jungle Gardenson Avery Island. Both were amazing and call for a return trip. I want to see Tabasco when they are in production and Jungle Gardens is beautiful and deserves more than the quick couple of hours that we were able to give to it before going home.
For this trip we wanted to visit New Iberia again, catch up with some friends we made in April, and tour Jefferson Island.
When we arrived, my friend Wendy asked if we were up for going with them to the Cajun French Music Association dinner and dance with them and so we tagged along for that which was big fun. We danced a bit and learned a couple of Cajun dance steps.
Cajun French Music Association dinner and dance.
The evening ended at Clementine on Main where we had a couple of drinks and the most divine bread pudding on the planet. After listening to our New Iberian friends, I decided I need to brush up on my French! If I lived in New Iberia, I'd go to the French breakfast at Victor's Cafeteria on Thursday mornings and learn a few things!
The next day, our only full day this trip, was dedicated for Jefferson Island. We stopped in Delcambre on the way and looked at the boats which was pretty cool.
Somebody please throw me on a boat and take me out into the Gulf!
Shrimp boat at Delcambre.
You have to see Jefferson Island to believe it. I took lots of pictures and not a single one does it justice. Driving into the parking lot, we had to go really slow to avoid hitting peacocks.
Peacock on Jefferson Island.
The island isn't actually an island, but a rise from a salt dome, just as Avery Island is. In November, 1980, a Texaco drilling rig on Lake Peigneur pierced the salt mine which cause the huge lake to drain into the mine, backed up water from the Delcambre canal and the Gulf of Mexico rushed into the mine and lake bed, and remarkably, none of the mine workers were injured, although much damage was done and property lost. You can easily see the chimney from a home which is all that remains. The litigation dragged out for years.
After his death in 1905, Jefferson's heirs sold Jefferson Island and the 2,000 acre plantation in 1917 to a partnership of John Lyle Bayless, Sr. of Anchorage, Kentucky; Paul Jones, bourbon distiller of Louisville, Kentucky; and E. A. McIlhenny of Avery Island, maker of TABASCO® Sauce. John Lyle Bayless, Jr. affectionately called Jack, developed Rip Van Winkle Gardens around the historic home in the late 1950's after selling the salt mine that tunnels under the island and lake. Bayless donated the home and 800 acres to a private operating foundation which he formed to assure its continued operation far beyond his lifetime to share with everyone, the place he so loved and enjoyed.
The house was amazing:
Joseph Jefferson home.
We spent the entire day in this paradise; the gardens are gorgeous.
Rip Van Winkle Gardens on Jefferson Island.
There are many oriental influences in the gardens including these gates:
Rip Van Winkle Gardens on Jefferson Island.
I was mesmerized by the lotus garden and took a million photos here.
The Lotus Garden.
The flowers were so delicate and beautiful.
Lotus flower.
Here's another:
I took another million pictures and videos of peacocks. I really wanted to capture their calls on video but wasn't able to do that.
We spend a long time just sitting on one bench or another, listening to the sprinklers, watching butterflies, raccoons, peacocks, and squirrels, or just watching the lake.
There is the chimney - all that remains of the house.
For lunch we went to the Jefferson Island cafe which offered air conditioning (yay!) and a beautiful view of the lake. I imagine in cooler weather (that is, not over a hundred degrees...), people dine outside because there's a nice cooling breeze coming off the lake, fanned by the Spanish moss, and through the trees.
I had a pastrami and Swiss cheese sandwich and Steve had an eggplant dish that he raved over.
We spent a couple more hours in the garden after lunch then went back to the hotel to shower and change for dinner.
We got to Main Street a couple of hours before our dinner reservation so that we would have time to shop. We stopped at Books Along the Teche and visited with Howard and Loraine Kingston for a while and purchased a couple of books. Loraine told me that Burke has a new Robicheaux book coming out in January called New Iberia Blues. I can't wait! Anything James Lee Burke related, Howard and Loraine know.
Books Along the Teche.
It was still too early for our dinner reservation so we walked Main Street, visited with some locals, and finally stepped into Bourbon Hall for a cold beer and a couple of quick games of pool. We went to this sports bar when we visited in April and because the service was fast and friendly, we went back. I lost three games of pool, but hey, I'm out of practice.
On to dinner.
Our dinner choice was Clementine on Main. Clementine originally opened in 1980, closed for two years, and recently reopened under new owners. They describe themselves as "southern casual fine dining" and I can attest to that. The beautiful, old, tiger oak bar is stunning.
Tiger Oak bar at Clementine.
The restaurant was busy when we got there; a lot of the locals were having an early dinner before the Iberia Performing Arts League production of Annie.
We both opted for the flat-iron steak which was divine. Perfectly seasoned, perfectly cooked, and tender as it could be. Steve had a sweet potato/sausage hash and grilled, smoked vegetables for his sides and I had fries and wilted spinach which had just the right touch of fresh garlic.
Our appetizer was Avocado Tartar which was described as a "deconstructed guacamole" and this raised the level of guacamole to new heights. Let's just say that I ran out today to buy avocados and Tabasco's Sriracha sauce so I can try to recreate this.
Avocado Tartar at Clementine
At the end of the meal I sent a text to my friend Wendy confessing that I was eating the bread pudding once again - I couldn't stop myself.
Fabulous bread pudding at Clementine.
After dinner we walked around downtown a little and then walked through St. Peter's cemetery right before dusk; it was serenely beautiful.
There is a lot of history in the cemetery and the city does cemetery tours each year with residents playing the parts of various people and telling their stories.
One more pass through downtown to see Church Alley alight:
and we called it a night.
Our final morning in New Iberia consisted of a tour of Konriko, the Conrad Rice Mill, which is the longest operating rice mill in the country.
Konriko.
Our tour guide was adorable, full of personality, and told us the story of the mill, showed us how everything worked, gave us samples of their signature Wild Pecan Rice (yes, I bought a bag - it's amazing!)
The mill is on the National Register and so they are a little limited as to what modernization they can do, but with over a dozen employees, they still produce a quality product and the thing I loved most: they waste nothing. Nothing! They either sell or donate hulls and broken rice and other by-products to farmers for feed, or breweries for their production needs.
The mill store is a relatively modern structure but a great deal of it was built with salvaged lumber and other items. It was well worth the stop, plus we got to meet the mill cats who we are assured control any rodent problems!
We took one more pass through downtown and hit Highway 31 heading toward St. Martinville.
It is a stunningly beautiful drive with sugar cane fields everywhere and the two-lane highway is lined with towering oaks draped with Spanish moss.
In St. Martinville we toured the Acadian museum and memorial.
The full sized mural that greets you inside the museum is simply gorgeous. It is 12 x 30 and was painted by Robert Dafford.
There is an audio that lasts for about twenty minutes as some of the people depicted tell you their stories. I expect that this is a terrific place to come do research if your family has Acadian ancestry.
We saw the Evangeline statue which was pretty awesome.
Evangeline
And the Evangeline Oak:
And we ate (again) at St. John Restaurant which was delicious. I had alligator au gratin and Steve had another eggplant dish. Both were excellent and we had a cool view of Bayou Teche while we ate.
We stayed on Highway 31 through Breaux Bridge and on to Arnaudville where we stopped for a cold beer.
Bayou Teche Brewing.
A cajun band was playing outside,
a mobile cigar lounge was parked under the trees...
and a BBQ food truck was there. I could have stayed all day but I filled a growler, listened to a couple of songs, and came on home.
We've been to New Iberia twice now and each time I love it more. And there is still more to see. I want to return to some of the places we saw the first time, like the Bayou Teche Museum. We haven't been to Loreauville or to the Jeanerette Museum. I could spend an entire week on Jefferson Island and Avery Island. I still haven't made it to Cypremort Point, I haven't done a swamp tour on the Bayou, and there are lots of restaurants I still need to try (although you may never get me away from Clementine). And this weekend is the Iberia Film Festival! The Cajun French Music Association has dinner and dancing once a month and there is always some festival or another either in New Iberia or nearby.
I'm so impressed with how these people love their community and work so hard to make it a lovely place for both locals and tourists. New Iberia has recently reinstated their own police force, too, and this has instilled a lot of pride and excitement in the town which saw some spike in crime after Hurricane Katrina.
I love Iberia parish and I hope they'll let me be an honorary Cajun because I'm brushing up my French and plan on coming back really soon!
