Lafayette, Louisiana Highlights

Would you call me crazy if I said trees were my favorite of the Lafayette, Louisiana highlights?  I am utterly obsessed with Southern Live Oaks and magnolia trees.  The camellias here are also as large as trees so let’s throw them into the mix too.

There must be a hundred photos on my phone of trees because just when I completely fall in love with a magnificent beauty, I turn the corner and there is one draped in Spanish moss and I’m even more in love.

It helps that all other trees have lost their leaves so these really stand out.  Many of them are more than 300 years old with trunks and branches inconceivably big.

Avery Island/Jungle Garden

Tobasco is pretty much a staple ingredient in our home, so visiting Avery Island where Tobasco is produced was high on my tourist list.

As with most places we have visited, the people manning the site were so nice and helpful and really added to our experience.

The barrel room where they store and age the pepper sauce is quite impressive and the pungent smell of vinegar is everywhere – but not unpleasantly so.

The grounds are fantastic and the Jungle Gardens offer a self-guided tour through marshes and bayous that can be driven or walked.

Well, you know we walked it – around 3 miles in a loop, but more like 4 with our detours.  We avoided seeing any gators on the cool day, but the snowy egrets and live oaks made my heart sing.

Acadian Village

Period homes relocated to this village represent typical life for the Acadians in the early 1900s.  This park needs a bit of maintenance but since we were staying in the area it was a good choice to visit.

Rip Van Winkle Gardens

The Jefferson mansion and Rip Van Winkle Gardens were another highlight of our visit to the Lafayette area.

The mansion and gardens on Jefferson Island, neighboring Avery Island (and neither are actual islands, BTW) were a next day visit.

Joseph Jefferson was an actor in the 1800s famous for portraying Rip Van Winkle on stage thousands of times.  That was apparently very lucrative because he built a mansion on this island with almost 200 acres of gardens named for his popular role.

We toured the mansion which was quite lovely.  We were the only people in our time slot so it was basically a personal tour and we got great service.

But.  You know it.  The outdoors.  The trees and shrubs and kittens birds and peacocks.  Now this is new to my blog, right?  Peacocks?  There were about 30 peacocks and peahens on the property so we got to meet several.

It turns out the park adopts a lot of birds that owners can no longer handle and they live out nice lives there.

Downtown New Iberia

Louisiana is a juxtaposition everywhere of fantastic restored mansions a block or two away from unbearable poverty and living conditions.  The town of New Iberia is no different.  Focusing on the historic beauty, we took a walk downtown and admired the homes and soaked in the joy of the Mardi Gras festivities and parade that had occurred the Saturday before.

Throughout the Gulf states Mardi Gras parades occur in various places every weekend throughout late January until the actual Fat Tuesday so there is a lot to see even while trying to avoid that particular event. Which we were.

Both Avery and Jefferson Islands have built rookeries to protect snowy egrets and other water birds. There was a nefarious history about the treatment of those birds which I did NOT explore but which led to their protection here over the past 100 years of these magnificent birds.

Stopping in this area for three days was a good decision.  Being in nature is always my favorite thing to do.  The weather could have been five degrees warmer.  Okay, ten, but the fact there were no crowds more than made up for that.

Traveling in February certainly has its appeal.

Thank you for taking this trip with us and God bless your week ahead.