End of the Caravan

Our leaders took an oath at the beginning of the caravan that we would all gain twenty-five pounds.  They have worked very hard to honor that oath including having croissants for our last meal together.  They even went so far as to place a bathroom scale on the ground at our parting breakfast so that we could see if we “measured up”.

Some did and some didn’t.

We have all managed to get around that oath a bit by filling our refrigerators with white take-out boxes that will be breakfast, lunch and/or dinner for days to come.

As we wrote nineteen days ago, we gathered as friends and strangers from throughout the country.  We leave as good friends who have shared a unique adventure that could only have been put on by our great leaders, Rita, Art, Betty and Jack.  Their knowledge and love of Acadia has rubbed off on us and we will all treasure the memories.  Rita introduced us to her personal friends and their special talents and provided us with rare experiences.  She has threatened each of us with becoming her “ami”.

We will smile at memories of U-turns, cheery smiles, Southern drawls, friendly politics,      
skilled repairs, travel tips, clever quips, thoughtful acts, good conversations and way more food than we thought we could consume.

 The nice thing about traveling in motorhomes is that we know we can meet along the road in the future and reminisce about LA Lagniappe 2013.

A Very Busy Last Day

It takes a lot to get this group up early.  Our leaders cajoled about half of us to rise before six am to get in line for breakfast.  This was not just any breakfast, but a zydeco breakfast.  We stood or sat outside for over an hour taking amongst ourselves and with visitors and locals all in line for the seven-thirty opening of Café des Amis.

 

Their pancakes and omelettes are worth a wait.  The zydeco band that played as we ate was the major attraction.  The small dance floor filled as the band played this creole beat.  Locals come every Saturday morning to dance; visitors from all over the world join them and everyone has a good time.

 Peter even tried out for the band.

This restaurant is responsible for the success of the small town of Breaux Bridge.  After it opened and got attention from the Food and Travel Channels, antique shops, inns, and other restaurants opened to meet the needs of the increasing number of tourists.

Believe it or not, our next activity was a Cajun lunch at Prejeans.  We took this time to celebrate and thank our caravan leaders with appropriate gifts: for Rita, a book on New Orleans houses; for Art a collar for the new dog, for Betty and Jack, LSU fan paraphernalia.

Then we took a tour of St. Charles College in Grand Couteau.  Originally a plantation, it was donated to the church by the Smith Family.  It became a girls’ school, then a Jesuit boys’ school.  In 1907 the wooden buildings burned.  In 1925 it was rebuilt as a seminary for Jesuit boys.  Since 1970 it has been a seminary,  a retreat where parishioners come to contemplate in silence under the guidance of a priest, and a retirement home for aging priests. 

Brother Huck took us on a tour of the building that will be reopened from its latest renovation on Monday, April 29.  He explained the changes made in the building and how updates were incorporated.

The cemetery dates back to the 1800s.  General William Tecumseh Sherman’s son, a Jesuit Priest, lies next to the son of the vice-president of the Confederacy. 

This old classroom brought back memories for many of us.

We left the church and took a brief tour of the Acadian History of the Prairie Museum.  The time line detailed North American history from the arrivals of the Acadians to Canada in 1604 to their coming to New Orleans in 1785.

We ended the evening at Liberty Theater in Eunice with a presentation at radio station KRVS (note the call letters).  Every Saturday evening the station presents a ninety-minute program entitled the Cajun French Music Show.   The quintet of a guitar, bass, fiddle, drum and accordion played two-step and waltz music that members of the audience danced to.  A father and eleven-year-old son also played a couple of tunes.  It was nice to see this young boy continuing his heritage.

Cajun Immersion

Vermillion Ville is a Cajun/Creole Heritage and Folklife Center and one of the best living history museums your blog writers have visited.  The Center deals with the years 1865 - 1890.  Most of the buildings brought here are authentic.  Their furnishings are also authentic.  Many of the buildings have a craftsman to show visitors his/her art.

Before starting the tour, we enjoyed gumbo, tilapia, crawfish etouffee on pasta, glazed carrots, broccoli biscuit, and, of course, bread pudding.

After lunch our escort docent took us on a tour of the Center starting with the 1840 Arcenious house.  Mr. Arcenious was one of the people who introduced cotton production to Acadia.  In his time cotton was the leading component of the country’s gross national product.  The government bought most of the cotton and then sold it on the international market.

The cotton spinner demonstrated her spinning wheel and told us it takes her a year to spin and weave the cotton to make a shirt.  She could tell the strength of her thread by sound and touch.   It takes fifty hours to gather a bale of cotton and six bales to make the material for a shirt.  That shirt could last decades.  Brown cotton is for personal use and white is sold.

These rolls of cotton have been died from natural products on the farm.

The loom is more than 200 years old and is no longer in use.

Quilts served a purpose beyond warmth on the bed .  They were communication devices.  When a quilt was hanging on the porch, it was an invitation for people traveling on the river to come in.  It could mean help was needed or company desired. 

Chimneys were painted white to indicate the daughter was available for marriage.

In the Ecole, school, Mr. Merlin fiddled tunes.  He is eighty-nine years old, fought in WWII, and has a reputation as a flirt.  He played G-d Bless America, Dixie and Yankee Doodle. 

This message on the chalk board warned students not to speak French anywhere near the school.

Below the chalk board are the French and Creole flags.

Students would bring vegetables in these cups to put in a common pot to make jambalaya to share for lunch

Maison Mouton is a replica of a house built in 1810. Cliff, a woodworker, explained the hand tools on display.  The first ones were provided by the Spanish government (Spain owned the land when the Acadians first came). 

He explained that a fungus in wood creates this spalted effect.

These passe partout saws were passed from neighbor to neighbor.

An outside room of the house was for visitors to stay in.  Since they were generally strangers, they did not have access to the rest of the house.

A seventh-generation blacksmith was in La Forge.  He explained that the three essential tools were the anvil, hammer and fire.   

La Maison Acadienne is a hospital, emergency room and pharmacy.  The garden club has created a Healer’s Garden filled with medicinal herbs labeled as to the conditions they treat.

 Considering that some Acadians lived in Haiti before moving to Louisiana, the hospital also had voodoo dolls. 

Maison Boucvalt belonged to a German family and had an indoor toilet.  Th picture was made from hair of a girl who was either deceased or had became a nun.

 The barn had a 500-pound bale of cotton (standard size) and wooden tools.

A Creole dollmaker demonstrated her clothespin dolls that take four hours to make.  A corn shuck doll takes a year to make.

We took a ferry across the stream to the church.  It is a replica of a non-denominational church.  The pelican is a treasured symbol because it will sacrifice its own flesh to feed its young.
The rectory was built in 1830 and has its interior door atilt.

Our final artisan was a builder who used the traditional boussage, (moss, mud and horse hair) to line the walls of homes.  Spanish moss, named for its similarity to the beards of Spaniards, is used for rope, mattress stuffing, and some car seats.

The last buildings on our tour were a washhouse, a kitchen and a native Palmetto cabin.

The tour reinforced and increased what we have learned in our travels through Acadia.

In the evening we continued our “lesson” in Cajun food at Randol’s.  This dinner had a wonderful Lagniappe, Cajun dance music.  While some of our group graced the dance floor, others got great pleasure from watching.

 Mr. Merlin from Vermillion is a fiddler in the Cajun band at Randol’s.

Our leaders Art and Rita tripped the light fantastic.

 Pam is a happy dance partner.

Carolyn is adept at Cajun dance.

 Peter and Carol looked lovely on the dance floor. 

The Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist

As per our custom, our day started with food.  Poche’s Meat Market and Smokehouse serves tasty Cajun style lunches and also has a large range of meat for sale.  Several of us bought food souvenirs for after the caravan.

At the Cathedral, we met our docent, Jan MeKree, under a 500-year-old cypress tree.  It is the third oldest in the US.  It is 9 feet 9 inches in diameter and 126 feet tall.  One main branch weighs 72 tons.  Father Barriere came from France and chose this site to establish the church.  The land was donated by Jean Mouton.   

This is the third building on this site, the first one destroyed by fire and the second by hurricane.  The current one was built in 1916 in the Dutch Romanesque style for $75,000.  To keep it safe, it is build on the high ground, 17 feet in elevation.  The color of the bricks is vermillion.

The stained glass windows tell events from Jesus' life. 

The fourteen Stations of the Cross are shown in small pictures around the apse.  The organ has 3038 pipes and was made in Canada.  The pelican represents the church feeding the Eucharist to the congregation and is symbolic of the state of Louisiana.

The carillon chimed as we entered the museum.  The replicas of the three churches are made of such materials as popcicle sticks and oatmeal boxes. 

Display cases are filled with artifacts from the earlier churches and from the bishops.  The shoes of one bishop were made by Prada and worn at Vatican II.

The main feature in the room is a Nativity scene made of 18th century figures.

The cemetery has been used since before the Civil War.  We found one grave of a soldier of the Confederate States of America.

After leaving the church a few of us went geo-caching.  The cache was near this Liberty Road Marker that honors the road from Normandy during WWII.

To tide us over until dinner we stopped at Poupart Bakery for a tidbit and some more food souvenirs.  Here are some mouthwatering mice that we found in the bakery.

 

Then it was on to Nash’s for a lovely dinner.

 The owner Miss Jenny, called the 1908 house “Cinderella’s Castle” when she was a child.  We ate in the St. Julian Room, originally a boys’ bedroom. 

Jenny told us that she found the glass chandelier in the women’s restroom ugly until she learned it was worth $5000.  Now it is so beautiful even the men want to go in to see it.

Our caravan leaders, one of whom is a retired teacher, want to confirm that we are gaining culture on this trip.  We were given a test on our knowledge of Cajun food (what could be more important?).  Scores ranged from Cajun to Coonass to Redneck.

Jack attempted to read T’was the Night Before Christmas in Cajun but was stopped mid-page.

The evening ended with a lagniappe surprise for each couple.