Cajun Country

I used to think that the United States was a bland array of similar communities all with a Walmart and a Mall and I’m finding that this isn’t true at all.  I’m not sure what has created that impression more - the nature of the RV trip or the perspective of time.   

The Vermillion River

Traveling on the ground, not into airport, is very different. No more clear is it than here in Louisiana.  Driving through coastal Mississippi we saw our first King Cake, a kind of large pastry made with various fillings and associated with New Orleans Mardi Gras.  Advertisements for parades and “Krews” - the group sponsoring floats and balls.  In New Orleans, the French Quarter and Cajun and Creole cooking.  And the parades are throughout the region, in every small town.  Beads are thrown, costumes made or bought at significant cost, balls attended with Kings and Queens, schools are closed for the week.

Phillip gets lots of Mardi Gras beads

Today we are deep in Creole country and it is the Saturday before Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, the last day before Lent, and we were invited to a Crawfish boil next door.  It was festive and fun and the food was good.  We saw the giant bag of crawling crawfish earlier that day then brown, now a bright red.  Little did we know the rice fields Neal and I thought we were seeing were really crawfish farms and we are in the heart of crawfish country.  

Crawfish farms are ubiquitous

The French here are related to those from Acadia in eastern Canada were we visited early on in our trip.  After the French community was exiled from Canada in the 1800s some eventually returned to Canada, and some came here.  Our neighbor"s grandparents still speak French and English. And they speak fondly of their culture - cajun music, food, and folkways are all distinct.  “We should speak French” says the younger crowd.  In this area, south of Lafayette, there are still many mostly French speaking communities.  They urged us to attend parades and listen to  the Zydeco music that is so famous.  

We considered it but decided to keep moving West - in part because the weather is going to be bad today and tomorrow, especially north of us and in part because we are a little like migratory birds - we must keep moving instinctively in a direction - now West.  We liked it here and the culture is deep rooted and rich, not what I would have thought had I landed in a plane to experience New Orleans Mardi Gras, but what I can see clearly from the middle of the marshes in Cajun country where we now sit.