Natchitoches has a historical town core along the Cane River. Early construction was strongly influenced by the French. Red brick buildings with iron grillwork lined the street. Most had been tastefully restored to preserve the historic appearance. I only wish they had practiced conservative sign control. Brightly colored flower filled hanging baskets along the street. We arrived when they were preparing for a Jazz Festival for the weekend. We would have stayed for acoustic jazz but the size and number of speakers being unloaded drove us away.
Near town is a recreation of Fort St. Jean Batiste. We arrived at the same time as a busload of high school kids. I think that was the best part. All the kids were well behaved—well almost all of them. Very few seemed interested in the presentations or the buildings. I can remember field trips and can understand their interests being elsewhere. The construction techniques were moderately authentic. Guess it’s hard to pass safety rules and regulations while employing methods dating back 300 years.
Several Antebellum plantations are open to the public within the Cane River national heritage area. The first one we visited was the Oakland plantation. We arrived 10-minutes after the group of kids from the Fort arrived. Several of the parents smiled and waved their hellos.
Oakland plantation has been well restored without too much modern presentation glitz. It was still difficult to understand what life would have been like back in the times when the plantation was in operation.
We decided to bypass the next plantation, Melrose, in order to spend more time at the final one, Magnolia. Our mistake. The Magnolia plantation had been taken over by a film production company for three months and would not be open to the public again until late May. I wonder who’s political campaign fund benefited?
Our next stop was the Louisiana State Political Museum in Winnfield, LS. Winnfield is the birthplace of Huey Long and the entire Long family. I have been hearing about Huey Long for more than 40-years. This museum was delightful. There were presentations for all the great, and not so great, Louisiana politicians and state figures. Huey and Earl Long had the largest presentations but memorabilia and campaign buttons for what seemed to be every politician that ever climbed out of a Louisiana bayou was here.
We were tired by the time we arrived in West Monroe. We dined along the banks of the Ouachita River at Gabbeaux’s restaurant. My crab cakes were wonderful; Mary’s dinner wasn’t quite as good.
