Louisiana swamp country, continued

shimmering reflections

Next we spent time in Acadiana, LA, cajun land, the real swamp country. It just so happens that Louisiana has a rather complicated history that I knew little about. I mean I knew about the Louisiana Purchase from France, but I had no idea that Louisiana had ever been claimed by Spain. So I'll try to be as succinct as possible, without leaving out anything too important. If you're not interested in the history, then skip to the next paragraph!

Louisiana and much of the Gulf Coast around the Mississippi River was claimed by the French in 1682 and they developed New Orleans as an important center of New France. They claimed right up the Mississippi River and then spread east through the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway to the Atlantic, west and of course north. England, on the other hand, claimed the eastern seaboard straight west through to the Pacific. And Spain claimed southern lands, Florida, and the southwest, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, etc flowing right up through California. That proved to be a bit of a problem since there were clearly overlapping land claims…and as often happens, (unfortunately is still happening today in Gaza and Ukraine) the countries end up going to war. Interestingly, in the US, we refer to it as the French and Indian War, but everyone else calls it the Seven Years War (even though it lasted 9 years). The primary opponents were England and France and by the end, France was the big loser. How their territory was divided has much to do with Louisiana’s complicated history. France ceded their Gulf Coast land to Spain, one of their allies in the war. Which resulted in Spain controlling land from Florida through to the Pacific Ocean. (France also lost lands to the north, “New France”, which of course became Canada.). After being in Spanish control for some time, Napoleon regained control of the land for France for a brief time. He was hoping to reconstruct the French empire in North America, but when he lost too many men in an unsuccessful attempt to regain Haiti, he realized the futility of that thought and sold the land to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase.

Consequences of "The War" include Louisiana's patchwork history, between 1658 and 1803 Louisiana had been French, Spanish, French and then American. Another consequence of the French and Indian War was the expulsion of the French from the island of Acadia, now Nova Scotia in 1764. Again, this had a huge impact on Louisiana's historical and cultural development.

Reference dates:

The French and Indian War, 1754-1763 (that's about 125 yrs after the pilgrims landed and 14 years prior to us declaring independence)

Expulsion of Acadians: 1755, 1758

Now that we have the complicated history out of the way, the important points are:

1.Although the French settled in eastern Canada and Louisiana, a fair number of the new settlers of Louisiana came from Canada, rather than France, to do the hard work of draining swamps, trapping, clearing fields and building communities.

2. Spain controlled an area of Louisiana for nearly 100 yrs during which time settlers from the Canary Islands and Spain settled in the area

3. When the Spanish were in control was also when another mass influx of Acadians came from Canada (expulsion)

4. French regained control

5. French ultimately sold Louisiana to USA in 1803

The influence of all these cultures can be seen throughout Louisiana. Spanish influence is seen in all the elaborate grillwork of New Orleans. Acadian influence is seen in the language, music and small homesteading farms. Caribbean influence is seen in architecture, Canary Islanders in their bright colors and all the cultures influence the food, a fusion of types and flavors way before fusion was a thing, Caribbean, West African, French, Spanish and indigenous all mixed together and all delicious (according to almost everyone, just not me 😝! 😭😂).

On to pics:

We looked for the cousins of our neighbors to the north, the Quebecoise, and found them on the first day! Listened to some fun Cajun music while sipping some brews. Not our favorite beer of the trip, but loved the music, artwork and atmosphere.

Atchafalaya Basin (Swap). Atchafalaya translates to “long river” and is the area where the Atchafalaya River meets the Gulf of Mexico. It is the largest swamp in the US covering nearly a million acres.

We went on a private tour, a small fishing boat with just us and our guide. It was a cold morning and our guide told us the water level was high, so we likely wouldn't see many alligators... but we'd see other things. He said he loved it when the water was high and that it was his favorite time in the swamp. Our guide also told us that quite a few people make their living off the swamp: fishing, shrimping and catching crawfish and some people build shacks. Some of these were falling apart, some looked pretty sweet. I kept trying to imagine what the swamp would look like later in the year when the trees were leafed out and everything was green, but I couldn't quite picture it.

shacks in the swamp

cypress reflections

heading down the main channel, early morning sun, water smooth as glass

No alligator, but I'll take this beauty any day.

And here's another one just taking off

and a juvenile bald eagle (not quite as noble looking as the adults, yet ... but has the attitude down. haha)

Who would have thought a swamp could be so beautiful?

What do you call a group of vultures? If they're perched in a tree? A committee! 😂

shimmering cypress reflections

red shouldered hawk

an osprey

taking flight

Great egret or white heron … the definition of elegance

Red-bellied woodpecker

We really enjoyed the swamp tour. The Atchafalaya was an unexpectedly beautiful, peaceful and contemplative space full of interesting stories that our guide shared with us, to say nothing about the incredible magnificent birds we found there!!!

We checked out a couple more plantations. This one was a working farm and the main plantation house was built in the Creole or Caribbean style which features bright colors, a low hip roof line (so the wind can't blow it off as easily during big storms), a design of a large center room and small rooms off it with a door on each end to help with ventilation. It also features large verandas with slanted shutters to provide shade and sleeping areas in the hot summer.

The fabric covered “window frame” hanging down over the table, is actually a fan. A rope is attached and a slave, would stand in the corner, pulling the rope so the fan would provide air for the diners.

More camelias. So beautiful.

The back of the plantation house showing the shutters pulled down (at the far right) and the outside staircase to the sleeping porch (logia).

Different size kettles used in making sugar.

The guest cottage.

They also showed a typical early Cajun or Acadian cabin

It was basically a three room cabin with a loft for the boys to sleep in up above.

Our first longhorns of the trip!

We also went to a plantation up further north in Louisiana. This was interesting for a couple of reasons. 1. It was never part of a Spanish colony, (Spain only controlled the strip of land along the Gulf Coast) and 2. James Audubon worked here as an tutor and made several of his illustrations for his Birds of America masterpiece while living and teaching here. His arrangement was to tutor in the morning and have his afternoons free to work on his own pursuits.

canopy from the bed, such elegant pleating

gardens

flowers in the greenhouse…

and of course, red berries ❤️

We also visited Vermillion, an Acadian historic village museum, (think Shelburne museum). This was an example of a typical Cajun house. Note the outside stairs up to the sleeping loft for the boys.

schoolhouse

church

another Creole-Caribbean, style house. Built especially to manage the heat and tropical storms.

One of the things that I found quite fascinating was the type of French spoken in the area. While the rhythm and intonation sounded familiar, for the life of me, I couldn't understand a word they were saying. It turns out there was a reason for that. They speak an old form of French, an archaic form, from the late 1600 to mid 1700. It is different from Quebecois French and way different from the French spoken in France today, just as the English we speak today is different from what was spoken during the revolutionary war period. Being isolated from France they never changed (modernized) their use of the language.

But whether the language is Cajun French, Quebecois French, modern French or English, a sheep’s baaaa is the same.

I decided to try out some of the local delicacies while I was there and had a platter of frog legs. Let me just say these must have been some giant frogs. And while I may not like peppers and spicy things, the frog legs were yummy! (Tasted just like chicken wings 😂)