I drove to New Orleans from Baton Rouge this morning. I stopped at the Louisiana State University's Rural Life Museum in Baton Rouge. It has a terrific indoor museum with all kinds of artifacts from the 1600's up to the past century, such as baskets, carriages, old cars, quilts, looms, steam engines, dolls, and much more. Outside it is divided up into sections. One part has reconstructed buildings from a typical 19th century plantation, including a post office, commissary, overseer's house, kitchen, slave cabins, sick house, smoke houses, blacksmith shop, sugar house, pigeon cote, and chicken house. The Folk Architecture (Upland South) has reconstructed buildings representing different cultures of Louisiana, including a split cypress barn, country church, a log house, a pioneer's cabin and outbuildings, a log house, and more. A Gulf Coast section showed Creole and Acadian structures. It was fascinating, but hot and humid.
Then I stopped off at a Cajun Village, which was really just a tourist trap of shops, and then went to the Houmas House Plantation. It was once the largest sugar plantation in America. It is huge and opulent. The part of the house that was built in the 1770s is still in very good shape, and the rest of the mansion is very beautiful. A guide, dressed in a 19th century southern belle costume, took us through the house, showing us all the many treasures it has inside. It still contains many of the paintings, furniture, etc. from the antebellum days. The owner at that time told both sides he was British and neutral, so the plantation was never occupied by troops. Our guide was very good - she told us many stories about the house and owners, as well as showed us most of the beautiful things inside the house.
Then I headed on to New Orleans. I'm staying at a KOA campground tonight and tomorrow night (if I can take the heat tonight without an air conditioner). I'm only 13 miles from the historic quarter. The KOA offers a free shuttle to it. I go at 9:00 a.m. and come back at 5:00 p.m.
Then I stopped off at a Cajun Village, which was really just a tourist trap of shops, and then went to the Houmas House Plantation. It was once the largest sugar plantation in America. It is huge and opulent. The part of the house that was built in the 1770s is still in very good shape, and the rest of the mansion is very beautiful. A guide, dressed in a 19th century southern belle costume, took us through the house, showing us all the many treasures it has inside. It still contains many of the paintings, furniture, etc. from the antebellum days. The owner at that time told both sides he was British and neutral, so the plantation was never occupied by troops. Our guide was very good - she told us many stories about the house and owners, as well as showed us most of the beautiful things inside the house.
Then I headed on to New Orleans. I'm staying at a KOA campground tonight and tomorrow night (if I can take the heat tonight without an air conditioner). I'm only 13 miles from the historic quarter. The KOA offers a free shuttle to it. I go at 9:00 a.m. and come back at 5:00 p.m.