We're just back from a terrific weekend in Louisiana's Cajun country. Thanks to friends who had made the same trip last year, my husband and I knew exactly where to go and what to do - and it made for a rockin' weekend that we'll remember for a long time. We heartily recommend it to anybody who likes good food, real Cajun music and friendly, fun-loving people. Lafayette is only a three-hour drive from Houston, so we will definitely repeat this trip - maybe during next year's Mardi Gras.
A disclaimer: If you are extremely refined, don't drink beer, can't stand accordions and don't like to dance, then maybe you won't enjoy it as much as we did. (But you could always go fishing.)~ Here's the plan:
Head out I-10 for Lafayette after work on a Friday afternoon. Get there in time for a late dinner at Mulate's in Breaux Bridge, which bills itself as the world's most famous Cajun restaurant (and has a place in New Orleans named after it). The menu features specialties of crawfish, catfish or frog legs and offers plenty of fried Louisiana shrimp and oysters, hearty gumbos and fantastic bread pudding. It also has live Cajun music every night and a huge cypress dance floor that's been pounded with two-steppers and waltzers for around 75 years.
Mulate's has its own beer label, its own gift shop and plenty of charm - but it certainly isn't the only good restaurant with live music in the Lafayette area. You could also go to Prejean's or Randol's or - on weekend nights - a half dozen other places for a feast of food, music, dancing and bon temps.
But don't stay out too late.
Get a plain hotel room and go to sleep. You must wake up very early Saturday and hit the road for Mamou, a small town roughly 50 miles northwest of Lafayette. You will pass through rolling countryside of corn fields and crawfish farms, dotted with little churches that have those crowded-looking, above-ground Louisiana cemeteries.
At Mamou, wheel into the parking lot of Fred's Lounge (420 Sixth Street) no later than 9 a.m. To be assured of getting a table, make it more like 8:30. If you can't face a beer at this hour, order a bloody Mary from the bar and get ready to party down. The Saturday morning Cajun music broadcasts on a local radio station have been originating in this little bar for years, and the local dance crowd wouldn't think of missing it. (Although somebody has pinned up a hand-lettered sign that says "This is not a dance hall" and warns that the management can't be responsible for injuries.) Most of the radio broadcast, all the commercials and all the music are in French.
Farmers are rolling into town in their pickups, heading straight for Fred's. The town folks have staked out places at the bar and have already started heavy trading in suds. There are tourists, but not many: A couple from Hammond, La., who polka their way around the U.S., with their French niece in tow. A guy in shorts and dress shoes with a camera dangling from his chest; and a couple of others besides Buddy and me.
We became acquainted with a young couple from Lafayette who met at this place a year ago and have returned to celebrate their engagement. And a 40ish blonde who supports the cause of her late husband, a member of the Cajun Music Association, by dancing all day long. An attractive woman in her 60s who effortlessly cuts a rug with the best dancers in the house, including young bucks who perform their intricate two-step at a death-defying pace. And lots of small, dark men with sharp chins - young ones and old ones - who speak French with each other but speak English while they dance.
The bartender, also the manager, is also the widow or ex-wife of the late Fred, we are told. She likes to sing, and the band indulges her for a couple of numbers later in the morning. On this particular day, a famous fiddler was staging a reunion with his former band during the broadcast. Lucky us~! These musicians presented some of the best full-bodied, foot-stomping fiddle and accordion music I've ever had the pleasure to enjoy, ~and it certainly wasn't wasted on the standing-room, dance-at-your-own-risk crowd.
Near noon, a couple of the local people invited us to go next door for the weekly afternoon jam session (where I saw my first Cajun line dance, if you can imagine that.) It seems the good people of Mamou dance at Fred's on Saturday morning until about 12:30 p.m., then move just down the street to continue their party in the afternoon. On Saturday nights, they dance some more - usually at the VFW hall.
If you're a willing dancer, then you will dance - mixing with the local Cajuns about as much as you desire. They aren't at all pushy, but they do have a down-home way of treating visitors as guests and making the first effort to get acquainted. Of course, it's easy when everybody is having so much fun.
Mamou is a pretty strenuous Saturday, but there is lots more to do in the Cajun Country. In Eunice, for example, on the way back to Lafayette, you can stop at the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park & Preserve - a beautiful facility with free demonstrations on the history, language, crafts, music and cooking of Acadiana. Even there, the music reigns supreme, with old-timers who play and sing letting visitors join in on steel triangle or Canjun spoons. There is also a good collection of local books and family memoirs that explore the fascinating history of the Acadian (Cajun) people and how they settleed the Louisiana bayou country after their exile from Nova Scotia.
On Sunday, there are jazz brunches at some of the Lafayette restaurants - or good ol' Cajun breakfasts. Then you can take one of the swamp tours on the moss-draped Atchafalaya Basin or the mysterious Bayou Teche. (The fishermen we saw were pulling out huge bass.) There are also alligator farms, outlet stores and frequent festivals featuring crawfish, shrimp and/or zydeco music; horse racing at Evangeline Downs; many museums and gardens - and don't forget video poker. There's also a land-based casino down the road at Charenton - past Avery Island, where you could tour the Tabasco Sauce factory if it wasn't Sunday. You can tour the attached Jungle Gardens and wildlife preserve anyway.
It's genuinely different place, with more fun and interesting things than you can do in a weekend. Lafayette Convention & Visitors bureau is 1-800-346-1958.
Copyright (c.) 1994 by Sharon Watkins Gee
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