Tar Heel Travels

Cajun Country
It's 'bon temps' in the home of crawdads and Jake Delhomme

By Bill F. Hensley

Lafayette is the heartbeat of Louisiana’s famed “Cajun Country,” a unique and enjoyable ethnic region in this deep south land of French-speaking natives. I knew I was in for a good time when I heard the battle cry “laissez les bon temps rouler,” which means let the good times roll.

 Life here revolves around good food, drink and music, and every day is Mardi Gras. A true Acadian — known as Cajuns — never met a party he didn’t like.

Cajuns are fun loving, hospitable people who can laugh at themselves. They work hard and they play hard, and there are 700,000 of them in the largest French-speaking area in the United States. You might be a Cajun, too, if the horsepower of your outboard motor is greater than that of your car; you pass up a trip to Europe to attend the annual Crawfish Festival in nearby Breaux Bridge; or you give up Tabasco sauce for Lent.

There’s always a party somewhere in Acadania to celebrate such diverse things as shrimp, frogs, sugar cane, omelets, pepper, wildlife, flowers, rice or even days of the week. Occasionally, Cajuns will celebrate the fact that there is nothing to celebrate.

My French has never been good, but even I could interpret many of the signs I encountered. For example, I figured out that Rue Principle Sud means South Main Street, and Rue Pont Est is East Bridge Street. Not bad for a Tar Heel hillbilly

If you look in the local telephone books, you will find a few Smiths and Browns, but not many. There are, however, four pages of Broussards, two pages of LeBlancs and Guidrys, and a lot of folks named Breaux, Boudreaux and Thibodeaux.

You’ll find some of the best cuisine in the world in these parts, so why not eat and enjoy it? The food reflects the culture of the French-Canadians who were exiled from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in 1755 and settled here. In no time, you will learn to like jambalaya, gumbo, etouffee, boudin, rice, gravy, cracklin and bignets. Restaurants advertise “plate lunches,” a daily special or a meat and vegetables. Fried alligator is often on the menu, and you absolutely must flavor most dishes with a hot pepper sauce made locally. If the supply of crawfish suddenly vanished, Cajuns would starve to death. And the spicier the food, the better they like it.

When not eating, Cajuns are listening to music — called Zydeco (pronounced ZY-de-co) — and dancing, a major pastime that can begin in the early morning and last well into the night. Zydeco is a rare style that combines about every type of music — jazz, country, blues and rock — with a Cajun twist. A band will center around two instruments: an accordion and a “washboard,” but also includes a guitar, bass and sometimes a fiddle.

At the CafÈ Des Amis in Breaux Bridge (the home of Carolina Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme), the dancing started at 8:30 on a Saturday morning over coffee and bignets and lasted until well past noon. By that time, the drink of the day was mimosas and Cajun bloody marys, and the small dance floor was jammed with enthusiastic two-steppers, young and old, keeping time with the lively beat. A 6-year-old local boy — with more energy than talent — thrilled the crowd with his drum solos, and the dancing got wilder.

Visitors to the area are easily caught up in the friendly atmosphere of this historic site, a popular destination as well as a jumping off place for such larger Louisiana towns as New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lake Charles and Shreveport. There are good restaurants and hotels galore.

Lafayette has a modest downtown area of tree-lined streets, offices, shops, museums, galleries and a half-dozen medium-rise buildings that overlook a park where outdoor dancing is a weekly feature throughout the spring and fall. The city recently has undergone a renaissance to enable art lovers to share the sidewalks with coffee shops and antique stores.

A new art museum on the campus of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette has opened to rave reviews and displays an eclectic offering of local, regional and national art works, and enough Picassos and Wyeths to satisfy the artistic soul. At nearby Evangeline Downs, there is thoroughbred racing from April through Labor Day. The track is a favorite action spot for locals as well as tourists who like to bet on the ponies.

To learn more about the history and culture of Acadians, there are two authentic villages that feature homes complete with period furniture that reflect the lifestyle of the early settlers. At Vermilionville, there are costumed craftsmen, live music, cooking demonstrations and 17 structures in a 23-acre park along the river.

And don’t miss the small towns nearby such as St. Martinville, New Iberia and Abbeville, where stately homes and intriguing Cajun history come alive on every corner.

On Avery Island, you can tour the Tabasco factory and learn that the renowned sauce is sold in 120 countries around the world and has labels printed in 21 languages.

Everything is “bon temps” in Lafayette, whether it’s fishing in productive waters, dining in Cajun or Creole restaurants, or dancing to a peppy Zydeco band. For further information, call 800-346-1958 or visit www.lafayettetravel.com.