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Many unique experiences await you in southern Louisiana.
Your host, Claudette, will be happy to recommend area attractions, day trips, and restaurants.

Nearby Attractions

Oak Alley Plantation  - 30 minutes, Vacherie, LA 
                                       It can be viewed between two long rows of twenty-eight live oak trees that are over 250 years old.
Laura Plantation  - 30 minutes, Vacherie, LA
                                 Experience 200 years of daily life at this Creole sugarcane plantation. See the original slave quarters, and
                                 family artifacts including clothing, toiletries, business and slave records, Mardi Gras

Houmas House - 50 minutes, Darrow, LA
                              Experience the life of a wealthy sugar baron in the 1800's. Explore 38 acfres of lush gardens or relax with a
                              refreshing mint julep and enjoy the breeze off the nearby Mississippi River.

Ardoyne Plantation - 20 minutes, Schriever, LA
                                    See back in time with this historic tour of a grand scale Victorian Gothic Sugarcane Plantation home.




Airboat Tours by Arthur  - 10 minutes - Des Allemands, LA 
                                           Experience the ride of your life on an airboat that skims through the marshes and deep in the cypress
                                           swamps where most tours cannot go.

Zam's swamp tours & Torres' swamp tour - 15 minutes, Kraemer, LA
                                                                          Take a tour on Bayou Bouef where you can see wild alligators, turtles, snakes,
                                                                          nutrias, herons, egrets, pelicans, owls, and eagles from the  comfort of one of the
                                                                          tour boats. 

Greenwood Gator Farm -  25 minutes, Gibson, LA
                                            Here you will meet gators face to face.  You will see a real alligator farm in the swamps of Louisiana
                                            and get to hold young gators for photo-ops, then experience the feeding of the gators.



Jean Lafitte Wetlands Acadian Cultural Center  - 10 minutes, - Thibodaux, LA - Cajun music on Monday nights

St. Joseph Co-Cathedral -  A Renaissance Romanesque design reflecting architectural design common to churches in Paris
                                             and Rome. 

Nicholls State University - 10 minutes, Thibodaux, LA

 The E D White House Museum  - 15 minutes, is just north of Thibodaux. It has the distinction of being the home of one of Louisiana's
                                                     governors, Governor Edward Douglass White and his son, United States Supreme Court Chief
                                                     Justice, Edward Douglas White.

Laurel Valley Plantation, - 10 minutes, Thibodaux, LA, the site of the largest intact remaining turn-of-the-century sugar plantation
                                           complex in the southern United States which has been used in numerous movies and television shows.
 

Gospel Singing - Third Zion Church - 3 minutes, on Sun. and Wed. nights.

Mandalay National Wildlife Refuge and Wildlife & Walking Trail - 25 minutes

Tabasco Pepper Sauce Factory and Jungle Gardens - 90 minutes, Avery Isalnd, New Iberia, LA

Scenic Drive " Down the Bayou" to Grand Isle & the Gulf of Mexico - 90 minutes, follow Bayou Lafourche for 80 miles where you
will see the fishing villages, shrimp trawl boats, oyster farns and the Cajun culture along the bayou.

Restaurants

                                  Casual Dining

                                 Spahr's - Des Allemands
                                 Griffin's - Raceland
                              Bubba II's - Thibodaux
                              Flanigans - Thibodaux
           Boudreau & Thibodeau's Cajun Cookin' - Houma
         A-Bear's Cafe - Houma - Cajun music on Friday nights

                                   Fine Dining

                               Cinclares - Thibodaux
                                Fremin's - Thibodaux
                              Cristiano's - Houma
                              Flanigans - Thibodaux
                                 Milano's - Houma

Shopping

                                  Antique Stores

  My Favorite Things and More - Mathews
            Picket Fence Antiques - Thibodaux
                              Laignappe - Thibodaux
                 		                                  Retail Stores

                          Southland Mail - Houma
                

Night Life

Andreas Piano Bar - 10 minutes, Raceland,

 


Cajun Language

Listen carefully as you travel for one-of-a-kind Cajun words. Some you may hear:

Etoufee – a spicy Cajun stew of crayfish or seafood, vegetables, and seasonings, served over white rice

Pirogue – a flat-hulled, canoe-style wooden boat, that is small and maneuverable for navigating canals and bayous

Beignets – a square, deep-fried doughnut-like pastry

T. Mike or any name with the letter "T" in front of it – “T” is short for "petit" (meaning "little")

Envie- Desire or craving

Sac a Lait - White Perch

Gumbo – A traditional southern Louisiana hearty soup made from a roux base.   Although it typically includes onions, green peppers, okra, and spicy seasonings, there are many varieties of gumbo, so any or all of the following can be added:  Smoked sausage; Seafood such as crab, shrimp, oysters from the Gulf of Mexico, or crayfish; Fowl such as chicken, duck, or quail; and even alligator!

According to an expression of the region, Cajuns live to eat!!!    In order to survive on the bayous, the Cajuns had to become accustomed to eating what was available, such as turtle, alligator, shellfish, fish, crab, shrimp, and other foods from the marshes, swamps, and bayous of the area. To make the foods more flavorful, hot and spicy flavors were added. For example, Tabasco sauce, produced at Avery Island, Louisiana, is known worldwide.

 
Bayou Lafourche History

Early French explorers found a fork splitting off the Mississippi River at present day Donaldsonville, about 60 miles from the Gulf. They named the slow moving distributary Lafourche – “the fork or the splitting".

Bayou Lafourche still flows in the same path today. It runs just over 100 miles through the middle of the swamps, marshes, and sugarcane fields of Lafourche Parish on its southward path through Thibodaux, Raceland, Galliano, and Golden Meadow before emptying into the Gulf of Mexico near Grand Isle, Louisiana. Today you may see shrimpers and crabbers as you travel down the bayou. In season, you can buy fresh seafood directly from them.

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Email For Reservations

A Chateau on the Bayou is conveniently located near both New Orleans
and the Cajun bayous, swamps, and marshes. Visit us for your Southern Louisiana vacation!

 

Claudette L. Pitre
3158 Hwy. 308
Raceland, LA. 70394
(985) 537 - 6773 or (985) 413 - 6773
ClaudetteLP@Charter.net

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