Louisiana Beyond New Orleans: Bayous, Backroads and Full Bellies

Yeah, absolutely.

And so I think if maybe if we could wrap up some of the history as well, if people wanted to go and see the Whitney Plantation or Oak Alley and, uh, or maybe some of the historical sites that we spoke as, about as well, the Cajun, Acadian historical sites, can you sort of place them for us geographically, Jay, like where they are in relation to New Orleans and, and how we might build a trip around that?

Yeah.

So many of the historic plantations, uh, and museums connected to them are located within about an hour's drive of New Orleans along what's known as the River Road.

I know Whitney Plantation is, uh, within about an hour of New Orleans, but then also where I work at Vermilionville and here in Lafayette, which, uh, we kind of refer to as the heart of Acadiana, it's about a two and a half hour drive from New Orleans, depending on, uh, whether or not the Tigers are playing in, at LSU [laughs] that night, that might slow you down.

But yeah, we're just about two, two and a half hours west of New Orleans along the state.

If you can imagine Louisiana as a boot, we're, we're the high arch of the boot.

[laughs]

And also, like Jackie, in terms of that, I think, you know, that's Whitney Plantation an hour away.

That's, that'd be an easy day trip if you're in New Orleans.

But, you know, so in terms of heading further afield, it's, it is really manageable, isn't it? You know, one of the other things I did was go to like one of, some of the local swamp tours and stuff like that, which you can also do as a, a day trip.

And it's brilliant, isn't it? I think like the swamp has a bad rep, like Disney-

[laughs]

... has given swamps a bad rep as like this dark and dingy place, but they're beautiful, I think.

They are beautiful, I think so.

And you know, I think th- they're so full of life as well.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, the bird life and, and the alligators and the turtles.

Actually some of the best swamp tours I have done would be in the Northshore region-

Hmm

... of Louisiana, so across Lake Pontchartrain, um, north of New Orleans, there are some incredible tours you can do and some beautiful state parks.

So there's Fairview-Riverside State Park, which protects, um, some of the, uh, Tchefuncte River, and I would wanna shout out Louisiana Tours & Adventures.

There's an incredible guy there called Mike Jones, who runs these beautiful tours of, um, through that part, you know, through kind of Spanish moss-cloaked cypress trees and, you know, really beautiful part.

And then there's, uh, Fontainebleau State Park as well, just in that same Northshore region, which has these beautiful beaches, um, right on the shores of the lake.

Yeah, absolutely.

And so I think if maybe if we could wrap up some of the history as well, if people wanted to go and see the Whitney Plantation or Oak Alley and, uh, or maybe some of the historical sites that we spoke as, about as well, the Cajun, Acadian historical sites, can you sort of place them for us geographically, Jay, like where they are in relation to New Orleans and, and how we might build a trip around that?

Yeah.

So many of the historic plantations, uh, and museums connected to them are located within about an hour's drive of New Orleans along what's known as the River Road.

I know Whitney Plantation is, uh, within about an hour of New Orleans, but then also where I work at Vermilionville and here in Lafayette, which, uh, we kind of refer to as the heart of Acadiana, it's about a two and a half hour drive from New Orleans, depending on, uh, whether or not the Tigers are playing in, at LSU [laughs] that night, that might slow you down.

But yeah, we're just about two, two and a half hours west of New Orleans along the state.

If you can imagine Louisiana as a boot, we're, we're the high arch of the boot.

[laughs]

And also, like Jackie, in terms of that, I think, you know, that's Whitney Plantation an hour away.

That's, that'd be an easy day trip if you're in New Orleans.

But, you know, so in terms of heading further afield, it's, it is really manageable, isn't it? You know, one of the other things I did was go to like one of, some of the local swamp tours and stuff like that, which you can also do as a, a day trip.

And it's brilliant, isn't it? I think like the swamp has a bad rep, like Disney-

[laughs]

... has given swamps a bad rep as like this dark and dingy place, but they're beautiful, I think.

They are beautiful, I think so.

And you know, I think th- they're so full of life as well.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, the bird life and, and the alligators and the turtles.

Actually some of the best swamp tours I have done would be in the Northshore region-

Hmm

... of Louisiana, so across Lake Pontchartrain, um, north of New Orleans, there are some incredible tours you can do and some beautiful state parks.

So there's Fairview-Riverside State Park, which protects, um, some of the, uh, Tchefuncte River, and I would wanna shout out Louisiana Tours & Adventures.

There's an incredible guy there called Mike Jones, who runs these beautiful tours of, um, through that part, you know, through kind of Spanish moss-cloaked cypress trees and, you know, really beautiful part.

And then there's, uh, Fontainebleau State Park as well, just in that same Northshore region, which has these beautiful beaches, um, right on the shores of the lake.