Acadiana Pit Stop

Hi! It's Ellyn, tonight. Geoff is already asleep - usually we write the posts together and he posts the photos but I wanted to get something posted so it's just me and no photos.

We're camped in the heart of Louisiana Cajun which is nicknamed Acadiana and a blending of Acadian and Louisiana. Acadia is now known as Nova Scotia and the French Catholics, there, were expelled by the British back in the 17th century. They were dispersed and then, ultimately, resettled in Louisiana. They became known as the Cadians which evolved into being called Cajun. It's an amazing story of cultural survival that, after 300 years, their culture, language and cuisine have survived - well, actually thrived.

We had intended to stay here only 4 days but our car is in the dealer service center awaiting brake parts so our stay is extended to at least 8 days. It's not a bad place to stay. The food in incredible in this area and we've only been eating in the local small places....more on that, below.

And Betty's RV park is the smallest and funnest campground people, ever. Last night, 12 of us went out for a crawfish dinner and tonight Betty made YUMMY Chicken Sausage Gumbo for us all PLUS she brought in a 3 piece band made up of a guitar playing vocalist with a bass and a lead guitar player. The vocalist was incredibly good and the guitar players were fantastic musicians. We both had wished the music was a bit more cajun instead of country-ish but we loved it and it was great to be part of the enthusiastic audience in Betty's RV Park gathering room. The gumbo was supurb - very much a long simmering rich chicken soup with cajun but not too spicey flavors.

The evening's festivities capped a day of driving in the country side. We had hoped to do some bird watching but we only got to see egrets which still do delight us. It was a sunny sunny day but chilly (starting out at 34F!). We did see a lovely little cemetery, had a great lunch at Suire's Grocery and Restaurant. We met one of the owners as we were walking in. She asked where we were from which happens with everybody we meet, here, and we answer "Connecticut" even though that isn't quite accurate, anymore. The owner went on the to tell us that a TV crew had been at the grocery just a few days earlier - I think she mentioned that the chef with them was Chef Besh and that he told her that when he was done being a chef in New Orleans that he would come there to work. We shared one crawfish and one shrimp etouffee stuffed pirouette (fried dough). Here's an article from the NY Times from 2002 that is a great description of where to get the good food here and mentions Suire's.

We also stopped in a Cajun jam session at a small cafe, in Erath, for about an hour. There were six musicians including an incredible acordian player playing incredible music. Plus we stopped by Delcambre to see the shrimp boats, which we saw, but there was no action on them as it's the weekend. We love driving by the countryside - seeing horses, cattle, crawfish fields and the occasional egret. It's very very flat here as it is all part of the deltas from the Mississippi and its offspring.

All in all, today was a heavenly day - beautiful sunny drive through the countryside, two venues of incredible live music and great food. Ahhhhh....the RV life! Now, if only our car is fixed on Monday! 


Update by Geoff, 12/9/2009: We have left Acadiana and headed off to Florida and the rest of our lives. But we would be lying if we did not say that our time in Abbeville had not changed us. When we arrived, I thought "Gee, this is a pretty basic RV park" as all was gravel, the sewer lines were above ground, the electric connection had no local breaker and the box door would not close over the connection. However, we did get right off to a fast start because there was a "happy hour" going on right as we arrived, so we got to meet most of the other campers. The camp owner, Betty, was hosting the party, had snacks out, and everyone brought their own drinks. This went on every night from 4:30 until about 6:00 or whenever people decided to head back to their rigs. We quickly learned that it was something to also show up for because everyone got to share what they had done that day and we could get ideas of other places to go and, especially, places to eat. Also, Betty was always planning outings for whomever was interested, usually to go for dinner or lunch. One evening she made gumbo for us and invited in some local musicians who were wonderful. We had a great time that night.

Between the great times with Betty, all the cultural things we got to see, we even met the mayor of Abbeville, and listening to a radio station with lots of Cajun music in both English and French, we feel like we have truly experienced Acadiana.