New Orleans

Although not particularly private, the camp sites at Bayou Segnette State Park were spacious, clean and full service. We arrived in late afternoon, rolled onto our site not too far from the washrooms and free laundry - yes, free laundry - and settled in for the week. New Orleans lay just a short $1 ferry ride across the mighty Mississippi. We were anxious to explore!

View of a street in the French Quarter of New Orleans. 

Many intersections in the French Quarter featured street musicians.

As we were camped at the State Park on the West Bank of the Mississippi, we had to cross over by ferry every day to visit the city. parking cost us $5 for the day and the ferry which ran each half hour cost another $2, half that for seniors like us.

One pretty sight apart from the busy waterfront was this tall ship from the Netherlands. She was sailed by a few young crew as far as we could see, all very friendly and able to speak English.

This was also the end of the road for my traveling companion. After an early morning drop off at the airport I was alone again and began to make plans for heading back eastward and northward in the coming days. Next stop, Georgia!

Backtracking to New Orleans

Our time in Beaux Bridge was coming to an end as we had a reservation at the state park across the river from New Orleans. However, we headed one last time into Lafayette to take in the musical lunch in the park. A great modern zydeco band was playing and a ladies group was selling boxed lunches. What could be better than that!

In the afternoon we headed over to the Acadian Center near the airport to take in the musicians jam session. It was a great chance to meet some musicians, dance to some tunes and generally have a great afternoon. The traditional houses and other buildings on the site were well worth the visit. I even enjoyed towing the ferry across the water!

Then it was onward, southward with a brief stop at the Longfellow-Evangeline Musuem. While the story of Evangeline is exactly that, a fictional story, it does harken back to real events making the museum a worthwhile visit. The site and buildings is actually more Creole than Acadian, but nonetheless all very interesting and well worth the visit.

From there is back on the strangely rollicking roads of Louisiana towards our next campground. What is it with those roads? They were simply awful and even dangerous while towing anything large like an RV. I was more than a bit happy to arrive in one piece at our next camping spot where we planned to stay for the next five days or so exploring the French Quarter and nearby neighbourhood of New Orleans.

Paddling on Lake Martin

Just a few miles south of Breaux Bridge is Lake Martin where we discovered one can rent various sorts of kayaks or even take tour boat rides. We drove from the campground and soon had ourselves a double sit-on-top kayak to paddle about on.

 

Much of the lake's shoreline is a cypress swamp with what looks like drowned trees, but in fact this is their habitat along with lots of other things. The latter include the occasional alligator, but much more frequently we saw birds and fish. The water quality was questionable as it seemed full of green algae to the point of a serious bloom. I'm wondering if agricultural runoff is a problem here or whether it's natural having so much algae...

 

In the middle of the lake, there were several hunting blinds. It wasn't hunting season, but the blinds apparently are left up all year and are quite elaborate. The hunter's can drive their boats right inside the blind and then get out on an attached shooting platform. All of this is covered with vegetation which at this time of the year had gone brown and will likely need to be replaced before the next hunting season begins.

So a nice little adventure, especially for my partner who had not had much paddling experience in gator infested waters!

Louisiana - Breaux Bridge

Safely parked in our first Louisiana campground in Breaux Bridge, just off the I-10 highway. The highway had been horrendous because of its undulating surface which was so bad I was forced down to 40 kph and running the flashers! It was unbelievable that an interstate highway was still in this condition, especially in an oil state, but there you go...

The campground facilities were excellent and other than the road noise from the nearby highway, we had little to complain about.

 We were lucky to run into a lady walking her dog in a little park beside the river. She took the time to lead us in her car to the Pont Breaux bar and grill. This turned out to be a very drab looking place from the outside, but was a legendary place for Cajun music. Just about everyone you can imagine has either played here or visited. We stayed for lunch and then a few days later returned for supper and to listen to some live music. The place was packed on a week night forcing us to wait at the bar for a table.

Breaux Bridge is on the Bayou Teche, a muddy looking river which slipped along one end of the campground. This lovely house was right beside the town bridge crossing the river. I loved the colours, the flowers, the whole setting of this house!

Meanwhile, the Bayou makes its muddy way through the rest of the town and on to the sea.

We enjoyed the town and found it a great place to explore the surrounding territory for local colour, music and food!

I even met a fellow Quebeçois who thought he might have met me in Kuujjuaq in 1974!  Possible, but I didn't recognize him...