Acadian Culture

Overnight we were woken up by thunderstorm.  The rain was heavy and washed to pollen out of the air. 

Before starting our last day of touring we took time to dry the car off and get gas.  We then met up with the group for breakfast at Mel's diner.

We headed to Vermillionville, the reproduction of Acadian Village. We spent the morning casually strolling through the buildings. Barrett took off in a hurry when we arrived to find the accordion he was hearing. 

The highlight of the village was the s ferry across the bogg.  Darin and David gave several rides across.

Lunch was at the event center on the grounds. This place had the spiciest food so far.  That made it much easier to not over eat. 

We drove .2 miles to the Jean Lafitte Acadian Cultural Center and walked through the artifact display.  We sat through a 30 minute movie about the hard lives of the Acadian people.

We left there and headed to Borden's Ice cream for a late snack.

A short break at the hotel was welcome before closing banquet.  

This was a fun tour and so many new friends were made.  We are looking forward to the next one!

Barrett and Papa drying the car off from the overnight storms. 

Vermillionville entrance

David and Barrett studying the map

The Acadian Chief spoke about his tribe

The boats

1800s dinning room

Some houses

The ferry

A bedroom in the 1800s

More bedroom areas

Barrett learning the accordion 

The gardens next homes

The Bibbs cars

Cars in the parking lot 

Jean Lafitte Acadian Center

Putting stickers on the map

Don't Rain on my Parade

You could see the loaming rain in the distance as we left the hotel.  This was not going to stop our fun. 

We drove quite a few miles past many of the places we had been. We saw the frogs in Rayne, the Rice Theater in Crowel and the crawfish farms that covered the plains, all on the way to Jennings.

Our first stop was on main street. The street was blocked for us.  This was made for great photos.

We started at the Ziegler Art Museam where several Louisiana artists were featured that included James Audubon, Elton Louviere. After viewing the works of art we went across the street to an antique store.  I found some interesting things but did not bring any home with me.

We then walked back to the other end of the street to see the W. H. Tupper  Merchandise Museum. This housed to  entire inventory of the store at its closing in 1949.

We did walk down to the end of the street to check out the bakery. 

Before we knew it, it was lunchtime.

Mike's Seafood provided a buffet lunch that was very good. 

The afternoon took us to Gator Chateau at Oil and Gas Park.  We all took turns holding a year old alligator. 

From this stop we caravaned over to the SW Louisiana Veterans Home. 

It was beginning to rain quite a bit.  We didn't see many Vets but we sure hope they saw us.

We just followed the car in front of us all the way back to the hotel.  We arrived a little early so we rested before the group met for pizza dinner. David and Janet, who rode with David and Joyce joined us for dinner.

Sunrise with the rain clouds in the distance

Ready for a day of adventures 

Entering Main Street Jennings

Ziegler Art Museum 

Inside the museum gift store

Inside the W. H. Tupper General Merchandise Museum

The cars on Main Street 

The 55 parked on Main Street

Old Theater 

Lunch at Mike's Seafood 

The rains moves in but it was thankfully a light sprinkle

Holding an alligator 

Barrett's turn

Turning into the Veterans center

Ken's car

Dinner at PJ Pizza

Riding with Steve and his Buddy

St Martinsville did not disappoint. Today I chose to ride with Steve Eason in his 1957 Corvette.  We followed right behind Eric Marsh.

The morning was spent at St Martin De Tours Catholic Church. When we walked in and all the statues were covered in purple cloth.  We sat for a while in pews that were built in the late 1700.  They were from the original church building.  This church evolved to the cross shape in the 1800s through the very early 1900s. 

After our tour of the church we were on our own to tour the church grounds and the Teche boardwalk. We made it over to the Acadian museum were we listened to a mural of the people tell their story. Each person was told in the voice of their descendant. The African American museum was next door. The museum had many items the displayed the culture of the people. Lunch was at St Johns restaurant.  It was in an old train Depot building.  The food was excellent.  We were lucky to be the first to be seated and served. Due to the mess up in the instruction book many people had to wait an hour and a half to eat.

The afternoon includes a guided tour of Shadows on the Teche.  The Weeks family had a big story to tell about the history of the sugar cane industry, slavery, Civil and War and more.  The grandson was the last member of the family to own the home before donating it to the Historic Preservation Society. 

We all walked to the Bayou Teche Art Museum that housed the Blue dog artist, George Rodriguez.

After our tour before heading back to the hotel we headed over to Baskin and Robin's for ice cream.

Steve Eason's travel buddy

Taking the back roads in the vette

Downtown St Martinsville Perrish

The church 

Learning the history

The church grounds

In the downtown area

The Teche

Learning about the unwanted snails

The art museum 

Remember the Acadian people

St Johns for lunch

The cars

Traveling to the Shadows on the Teche

Our tour guide

In the garden

Mary Weeks room

Famous artist of the area

Blowing up salt

Traveling the roads of Louisiana 

31 flavors