From our campground in Gonzales, Louisiana, we drove southwest to the town of Vacherie, crossing the Mississippi River again.
Vacherie is the home of Laura, a Creole Plantation on the Mississippi River in sugarcane country.
A Creole is born in Louisiana of any racial descent, Catholic, speaks French, and traces origins to being in Louisiana before it became part of America. The plantation house and sugarcane business was built by the Duparc's of French descent in 1804, but men in this family died early and the plantation was run by women for three generations.
The Creoles kept to themselves separate from the Americans and had their own culture and language. Their Plantations were raised and painted bright colors to differentiate themselves from Americans who painted their homes white. The house was built by slaves whose African ancestors were master boat builders and they used boat building techniques to construct homes without nails.
We toured the house and beautifully landscaped grounds, learning about the family stories from a memoir written by the last Duparc owner who lived until 1970's. She sold the Plantation in 1892 when she married a man from St. Louis.
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| The logs were hewn and labelled using Roman Numerals in order to construct the home |
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| No Surprise - French doors everywhere! |
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| Beautiful painted door panels |
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| Photos of the last owner of the Plantation - Laura. The central photo is her dressed for Mardi Gras |
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| Showing original construction under the "bousillage" plaster of shells, clay and horsehair |
A fascinating home and family history along with the tragic stories of slaves where a mother was sold separated from her young child (technically illegal, but done nonetheless) and a recaptured runaway slave's forehead branded with the Duparc family initials.
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| Slave Cabin |
Although Br'er Rabbit was based on slave stories in Georgia, similar stories of a rabbit and hyena were recorded in French at this Plantation.
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| Fats Domino's Family lived on land that was once part of the Duparc Plantation |
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| Indigo - once a vital part of Charleston crops before rice |
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| This water garden is in a sugarcane kettle |
After our tour, we headed north 4 miles to check out Oak Alley Plantation - we did not stop to tour, but what a gorgeous entrance.
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| This sign is on the levee - blocking all views of the Mighty Mississippi |
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| Oak Alley Plantation |
We drove an hour and a half west to a small town just outside Morgan City - a huge petroleum city with access to the Gulf of Mexico, where we got a very nice campsite in shade at a Parish Park.
The Creoles kept to themselves separate from the Americans and had their own culture and language. Their Plantations were raised and painted bright colors to differentiate themselves from Americans who painted their homes white. The house was built by slaves whose African ancestors were master boat builders and they used boat building techniques to construct homes without nails. 
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