We had a fairly short drive today from Baton Rouge down to New Orleans, only about an hour and half to go, so we decided to use the day as a sight seeing day.
We first stopped at Darrow, about half an hour down from Baton Rouge, to see Houmas Plantation House. Amazing place with a very colourful history.
The house was huge and established in the mid to late 1700's. Interesting facts about the place include: the house is still used as a residence by the current owner (who is leaving the entire estate to his three Labradors); the owner who had the place at the time of the civil war had freed all of the 100 plus slaves prior to the war, gave them each land and then re-employed them, paying them a wage; the house as it currently stands is the original homestead and then the extension built in the early 1800's by a new owner; the outside looks like sandstone but is in fact a faux painted finish (I didn't realize that until the tour guide specifically told us, that's how convincingly it was done.); the inside is completely furnished in period pieces, many originals from the homestead itself, others purchased in to replace lost pieces; the beautiful avenue of trees at the front of the house is about half the size it originally was due to the building of the levy, but they actually planted the trees in rows like that to create wind tunnels, funneling the cooling breezes into the houses.
From Darrow we headed further south and stopped near a town called La Place and put ourselves on a Swamp Tour. This was actually a pretty cool way to spend a couple of hours for the afternoon. The captain of the boat, who apparently lives on a small island beyond New Orleans, considered himself a true Cajun and had amazing knowledge of the area. He pointed out numerous turtles and alligators to us along with different flowers, types of grass, a couple of snakes (not my favourite) and we also got to watch him hand feed some of the alligators and raccoons along the canal and bayou edges. Interestingly, they fed them all (yes, the alligators too!) marshmallows.
The swamps are both a cool and creepy place.
From there it was on into New Orleans. Some of the streets were blocked for the beginning of Jazz Festival, but we found our way to the hotel and it was in a fantastic spot. (Ok, it cost us a fortune, but it was worth it!)
We made the most of the evening and wandered over to have a look at the Mississippi River (BIG!!) and had dinner on the edge of it before taking a short wander down the French Quarter.
More exploring tomorrow.