Dingopups: Great Louisiana Plantations

Bayou, Antebellum, Creole, Cajun and American are all terms used consistently in the ‘Big Easy’. For example, today we visited a Creole antebellum plantation and an American Plantation in Cajun country. What does all this mean? Creole, Cajun and American are terms used to describe people and their cultures. A Creole was an individual with mixed race ancestry which included African, French, Choctaw Indians, Caribbean and sometimes German or Spanish. Cajun is the description given to those that live outside of New Orleans (in the country) and who often have French routes. American describes those of Anglo-Saxon origin. The Louisiana Territory was originally French and extended all the way to Canada through the centre of the US. The Louisiana Purchase gave the territory over to the Americans. Antebellum refers to the period before the American Civil War.

We visited two distinctly different plantations on the banks of the Mississippi today. The first and youngest Oak Plantation was of Greco Roman style and its origin is American. It is famous for its Oak tree alley that holds 28 live oaks each approximately 300 years of age. These trees were planted well before the plantation mansion was built and like all tree lined alleys serve the purpose of directing wind blowing across the river to the house for cooling. The second that we visited was a Creole Plantation and the main home here was very different in style and use. Laura Plantation is older being built in the 1700s (Oak Plantation was 1800s). This sugar cane plantation which continues to grow and harvest cane to this day, also retained the original slave quarters. Both tours of each of the properties were fascinating and informative.

Our journey out and back into the city gave us a full appreciation of the Bayous on which the city is built. Many of the freeways and highways that we travelled over today were built directly on top of columns rammed into the bud of the Bayous. The Bayous surround and continue to thrive under these roads. It felt like we were living in a world of water. We also crossed the edge of Lake Pontchartrain.

On our return to the city we stoped for a seafood lunch and Ron got to try a shrimp Po’Boy. A Po’Boy is basically meat and its gravy put into a French stick to make a sandwich. I had a piece of red fish (type of snapper) and it was delicious.

We then hoped on one of the tramcars which dropped us at the Garden District where we walked the streets to look at the expensive old city mansions.