Wednesday (5/6)  We are still in the Lafayette area.  We started our day by going to Vermilionville - a living history museum, whose purpose if to preserve and interpret authentic elements of folklife and cultures of the Attakapas area between 1765 and 1890.  It seeks to help ethnic groups of this area gain a better understanding and appreciation of their own cultures and those of others in this multi-ethnic region.  It is a recreation village with many historic buildings and people in period costumes (see picture.)  We ate lunch in the museum restaurant and had the best meal of the trip so far.  It consisted of many cajun dished and bread pudding with rum sauce like we have never seen before.  It is a meal we will talk about for a long time.

The next stop was the Jean Lafitte  National Hsitoric Park and Preserve.  Jean Lafitte was a pirate.  The museum focused on the treatment that the Acadians (Cajuns) had received since their arrival in the late 1700s.  They settled in the bayou country, where their isolation was compounded by their distinctive dialect and their fierce loyalty to family and place.  They endured many hard times and developed new ways to live off the bounty of the delta landscape. They had a diet that was heavily depended on fishing.  

We drove to the St Martinsville area as we were going to take a boat ride on the St Martin Lake.  Arriving early we decided to go for a ride.  We came upon the Longfellow-Evangeline State Historic Site.   Legend has it that it was the meeting place of the ill-fated lovers, Evangeline and Gabriel, from the Longfellow poem, "Evangeline."  In history, it was the meeting place of exiled French aristocrats fleeing the French Revolution and Acadians of Nova Scotia seeking refuge after the British expulsion in 1755.  On the property is an excellent example of a Raised Creole Cottage.  The ground floor walls are 14 inches thick and made of brick.  The upper walls consist of a mud and moss mixture called "bousillage."  The house is brightly painted in traditional Creole colors of yellow, red and green (see picture.)

Now short of time, we hurry to catch our boat ride.  As it turns out, we are the only people on the boat and end up having a personal tour.  Our guide, who has a BS in Zoology/Botany, went above and beyond to give us a most informative tour lasting two hours.  We saw numerous birds, local trees and plant life and about 20 alligators varying in size from 11 ft. to 1 foot (see picture.)  Our guide enticed the alligators so that they came right up to the crawfish skiff we were riding in.  The only trees able to adapt and live in the water are the cypress and the tupelo trees.

We wanted to hear some local music, so we had dinner at Mulates.  It is a restaurant where Cajun and Creole music is played seven days a week.  We listened for a while and watched the dancing before returning to the campground to retire after a long day.