Day 41: Plantation Tour

We actually got up early enough to go out for breakfast this morning. I had scoured yelp for good places and chose a place on Frenchman Street called Cafe Rose Nicaud. It was more of a sandwich place but they had local Kombucha so I tried that. Our tour bus picked us up at our hotel and since we were the first stop we got a bit of a tour of some of the other hotels nearby.


We passed by some Cypress swamps on the way out to the plantations (it's about an hour drive). The bus driver narrated the whole drive and I learned a bunch about the history and geography of the area.

The first stop was the Laura Plantation which was an completely average Creole plantation of its time except that the owner (above) recently found a journal written by a woman who lived there that gives life to the place through her personal stories. It was fascinating and very memorable.


The second place we went was Oak Alley plantation which is very picturesque with its 300 year old oak trees and northern style mansion. It was a beautiful place but had a little less character than the Laura Plantation. Both of the plantations grew (and still grow) sugar cane which surprised me, I had always assumed it would be cotton. Back in town we drove out to Parkway Bakery which according to the internet had the best Roast Beef Po-boy's in town. We were underwhelmed, it tasted more like pot roast that roast beef. Which is fine, just not what I was hankering for.


Mom bought a Groupon for a bar near our hotel that we weren't sure we'd make it to. I'm so glad we did because it just so happened to be the place Rachel took me to last time I was in town, The Rusty Nail. I had been trying to remember the name of it the whole time we were in New Orleans. We were hoping to hear some music but on Sunday nights they watch the HBO show Treme. I'd never seen it but watching it there was fairly magical. That particular episode was about Mardi Gras and involved local celebrations and customs we had just recently learned about at the State museum and from locals. And the people at the bar were really into it. I tried a seasonal Abita beer called the Strawberry Harvest Lager. It was delightful!


We still wanted to see some live music and the people we talked to all steered us towards Le Bon Temps Roule (another place Rachel had taken me to). The place was completely deserted but the band kept on playing until midnight so we got a private one hour concert. They were called Chapter Soul but were more funk/jazz oriented. The sax player was really good at improvising. Mom was pretty toasted at that point but seemed to really enjoy it, I don't think she wanted to leave when they closed up for the night.

Next: Cooking school.

6/5/11