Country Roads Magazine "The Road Trip Issue" April 2023

Events

11

EMBARK

Set a course for floral festivals, crawfish boils, and garden parties.

6 REFLECTIONS

Pod-estrian Pursuits

by James Fox-Smith

8 NEWS & NOTEWORTHIES

Features

38 44 OVER THE HILLS

“I BELIEVE IN THE DELTA”

A tour guide and an artist drive up Highway 61 by Charlotte Jones and Marshall Blevins

Bluebonnet country is worth the trip, even without the bluebonnets by Alexandra

Kennon

BAYOUSIDE

ATTRACTIONS

Journeying along the historic Bayou Teche by Kristy Christiansen

On the Cover

“THE IMPORTANCE OF BRIDGES,” HONEY ISLAND SWAMP, LOUISIANA, 2020

Artwork by Wyatt Waters

When Mississippi watercolorist Wyatt Waters (page 82) was a younger painter, what captivated him most about the art of “capturing” were details like color, and the effects of light. Over time, he’s found his focus expanding to include particularities and peculiarities of life, of place. “It’s more about the people you meet and the things that happen along the way. It’s the bird that makes a deposit on your painting, which has to turn into a bush. Stuff like that that is not anticipated, what you can’t possibly anticipate and you wouldn’t want to, because it takes a surprise away.” This inclination toward spontaneity is what reaffirms Waters’ commitment to paint his subjects in person, and it’s what keeps him on the road, traveling. “There is something very important about getting out and being in front of your subjects first hand.”

In our second annual “Road Trip” issue, we set our sights further afield, to places rich in culture and riddled in history, and we heed their beckoning call to “Come along, get to know us!”

The inspiration extends to the font our savvy Creative Director used on our cover marquee, which is thoroughly infused with the spirit of the road. Be the first to name it (by emailing editorial@countryroadsmag.com) and receive a free print subscription for yourself or a friend.

Cuisine Culture

58

SWEET ESCAPES

5 French bakeries

62

STRANGE TRUE STORIES OF MY LOUISIANA ANCESTORS

Retracing the steps of Alix de Morainville by Nina Flournoy

Escapes IN THE ROUGH

In a crater in Murfreesboro, a chance to find a girl’s best friend by Chris Turner-Neal

68 74

MAKE YOURSELF AT HOME

A weekend in the most Victorian town in Mississippi by Jordan LaHaye Fontenot

MEET ME OUTSIDE THE STADIUM

3 Southeastern college towns worth the visit by Ted Talley

82 PERSPECTIVES

Wyatt Waters’s “Watercolor Road” by Jordan LaHaye Fontenot

Publisher James Fox-Smith

Associate Publisher

Ashley Fox-Smith

Managing Editor

Jordan LaHaye Fontenot

Arts & Entertainment Editor

Alexandra Kennon Creative Director

Kourtney Zimmerman

Contributors:

Marshall Blevins, Kristy Christiansen, Paul Christiansen, Nina Flournoy, April Hamilton, Sam Irwin, Charlotte Jones, Chris Turner-Neal, Ted Talley Cover Artist Wyatt Waters Advertising

SALES@COUNTRYROADSMAG.COM

Sales Team

Heather Gammill & Heather Gibbons

Advertising Coordinator

Melissa Freeman President

Dorcas Woods Brown

Country Roads Magazine 758 Saint Charles Street Baton Rouge, LA 70802 Phone (225) 343-3714 Fax (815) 550-2272

EDITORIAL@COUNTRYROADSMAG.COM

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Copyrighted. All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced without permission of the publisher. The opinions expressed in Country Roads magazine are those of the authors or columnists and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, nor do they constitute an endorsement of products or services herein. Country Roads magazine retains the right to refuse any advertisement. Country Roads cannot be responsible for delays in subscription deliveries due to U.S. Post Office handling of third-class mail.

The podcast app on my phone looks like a Rorschach test for disorderly minds. Among the thirty-odd podcasts to which I am subscribed are: an economics program delivered by a voluble Scotsman; a British satirical comedy series; an astronomy podcast recorded in a beauty salon; a show named Fall of Civilizations in which a sonorous historian drones on about Assyrians, the Inca, and whoever left the huge statues at Easter Island; a program in which a physicist and a comedian quiz famous people about the laws of the universe; a sociology podcast that explores how people relate with one another; and a show for people obsessed with eating things that they find in the woods. There are series devoted to philosophy, current affairs, revolutions, professional cycling, conspiracy theories, furniture caning, the climate crisis, Arthurian literature, the rise of artificial intelligence, and a dozen other topics about which I am variously curious, enchanted, alarmed, suspicious, or confused. While listening I’ve absorbed enough information about superconductivity, catfish, Bauhaus architecture, composting, how our beliefs shape reality, St. Augustine’s Confessions, the correct way to cook a woodcock, and what it would take for

Louisiana to go carbon-neutral, to be an noying in polite conversation.

Considering this collection, a thought ful observer would probably conclude (a) that the subscriber is an English major with too much time on his hands, and (b) that these days, just about everybody is doing a podcast. On both points the observer would be correct because be ginning this month there’ll be yet anoth er podcast added to this esoteric cast of thousands when Country Roads’ Detours podcast finally becomes available.

For readers, writers, and storytellers, the medium is irresistible. So, given that Country Roads’ editorial department is run by people accurately described by all three labels, the obvious question is “What took you so long?” Well, we have been talking about doing a podcast since 2017, when former editor Chris Turner-Neal made an impassioned case for doing so, right before leaving to take the job of managing editor of 64 Parishes (We hold no grudges. Chris remains a cherished contributor; you’ll find pieces by him on pages 58 and 66 of this issue). The project then sat on the backburner for years, making us feel bad as the medium of podcasting grew from a quirky, niche activity into a mainstream media powerhouse, and while the magazine and its three editors carried on not-getting-any-younger. Finally, last year, while discussing how we would mark Country Roads’ fortieth anniversary, we could ignore it no longer. The time for podcast-

ing was nigh. But how? Sure, we had experience researching and writing down the stories all around us. But could we talk about them? And more importantly, would anyone want to listen? Only one way to find out.

We began by doing what people who don’t know how to do things have always done: we went the library. There on the third floor of the East Baton Rouge Parish Library’s River Center Branch is a state-of-the-art recording studio specifically designed for recording music and, yes, podcasts. All you need to use it is a library card, and a whole lot of help from the library’s patient staff to figure out what all the knobs and dials do. Once given the keys to this high-tech king-

dom, during January and February we spent a lot of time turning those knobs, while sitting across from our favorite story subjects from recent issues, attempting to capture their stories in a new medium. It’s been a thrilling, occasionally overwhelming, learning experience. But now, when we consider how Country Roads will tell a story, we’re thinking about it in a whole new dimension. The opportunity to deliver it in spoken form, complete with the voices, the accents, the music, and the background sounds that are part of every story ever told—well, we think the possibilities are endless.

Actually, there is one shared characteristic that unifies the motley collection of shows populating my podcast app: all are presented by people absolutely passionate about their area of interest. So passionate that they, like us, could not resist the allure of a free, fast-growing medium offering the promise of conversations with an audience of like-minded enthusiasts. So, dear reader, if you love stories about the endlessly evolving cultures of Louisiana and Mississippi and the way Country Roads tells them, I hope you’ll give Detours a try. By the time you read this, we’ll be putting the final touches on our first season, which will be available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and our website on April 18 (so long as we pushed the right button). Happy listening.

—James Fox-Smith, publisher detours@countryroadsmag.com

Jordan LaHaye Fontenot pictured interviewing Michael Papajohn for an episode of Detours in the EBRPL Recording Studio. Look close and spot co-hosts James Fox-Smith and Alexandra Kennon in the reflecton.

A Special Advertising Feature from the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge

And They Dance

You can see it in the spontaneous movement of couples swinging to the beat at local festivals. You can see it in the fluid elegance of performers with the Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre, Of Moving Colors and the Cangelosi Dance Project. It shines through in the impossible athleticism of Southern University’s Human Jukebox and in the unbridled joy of volunteers in Big Buddy’s annual Dancing with the Stars. And it’s demonstrated across the country in the accomplishments of many Baton Rouge-born dancers who got their first taste of movement here and have risen to national success.

There’s no question about it. Dance is an artform that pulses in the Capital City.

This month, National Dance Week is celebrated nationwide April 14—23, 2023, and it’s a great time to mark the importance of this dynamic artform in Baton Rouge. TThe company is one of three dance programs being incubated in the year-old Cary Saurage Community Arts Center. Nyama Contemporary Dance Theatre, founded by Julliard graduate and McKinley Middle School dance teacher Roxi Victorian, is also in residence at the Community Arts Center, as is Tango Lagniappe, a group led by dance instructor Casey Mills, that provides Thursday lessons at the Arts Council to people interested in learning the Argentine tango.

Among the community’s newest dance programs are Dance for All, which welcomes children with neurological and physical challenges; and Vagabondance, a contemporary dance company founded in Baton Rouge by former professional dancers, Scarlett Wynne and Erik

dancer and co-founder of the former Mid City Dance Project, which brought instruction and performance opportunities to at-risk children in Baton Rouge.

The world of dance in Baton Rouge has long been impacted by the work of Debbie Allen, whose Debbie Allen Dance Project brought dance intensives to the Capital City for several years. Allen was a close friend of former Arts Council president and CEO Derek Gordon, and she held annual workshops for many years running for young people in Baton Rouge. Many who attended were so influenced by her direction and support that they went on to become professional performers.

One is Baton Rouge native Brian Jordan, Jr., an actor, singer and dancer who stars in the BET series Sistas. At 18, Jordan participated in a 2008 Debbie Allen Dance Project and was hooked.

“I think dance is the most beautiful and universal thing in the world,” Jordan says.

“And it requires the most mind capacity of any art, to be able to convey with no words a message to a broad audience. Movement is the ultimate conversation.” -Brian Jordan Jr.

Jordan recalls the impact of Allen’s instruction and the confidence it gave him to pursue his dreams as a performer.

“I realized my power as I learned to use my body,” he said. “And it

(Left to right) Giulia Fedeli, free lance dancer and cohort member of Dance For All. Erik Samson and Scarlett Wynn, Vagabondance. Summer Hayes, Nyama Contemporary Dance Theatre.

Community Grocery

When it opens on the Courthouse Square this summer, Community Grocery will be the first new restaurant in Woodville, Mississippi, in awhile. This is good, because with all due respect to Fatty’s Cracklin’s, the Back Porch diner at the Texaco, and Sonic, dining options in Woodville have been sparse lately.

According to Whitney Seal, who with her friend and business partner, Katie McCurley, owns the buildings that will house Community Grocery, the project grew out of a conversation at a Wilkinson County Christian Academy football game. “We got deep into conversation about our love for our community and how much potential it has, if only someone would take a chance on it,” Seal said. “After months of these conversations, we realized that someone is us. Another concern for us is how our town struggles to be unified. So, we want to open a place that provides an atmosphere where everyone feels welcome and relationships are fostered.”

Seal and McCurley are renovating two historic buildings at the south end of the Courthouse Square: an 1840, National Historic Register-listed building that started life as a saddle shop but is usually remembered as the home of Sarphie’s Jewelry; and the 1909 building next door, which has served variously as a boarding house and a wholesale grocery over the years. The restaurant will occupy the ground floor of the Sarphie Building, with kitchen facilities and an adjoining retail space next door. Upstairs will be a bed and breakfast, fittingly named The Saddle House in honor of the site’s original establishment.

Seal explained that with both the restaurant and the retail store, Community Grocery is aiming to fill a void in the local dining scene with seasonal soups and salads, sandwiches made using house-roasted meats, daily entrées, and a range of healthy, fresh-made grab-and-go meals. The menu, which is still in development, offers a cane syrup-brined turkey breast sandwich made on multi-grain bread with pepper jelly and brie; seasonal soups ranging from gumbo to gazpacho; and entrée specials like chicken & dumplings; or pork roast with sweet potatoes, mustard greens, and cornbread. There’ll also be a daily box lunch made using meats, cheeses, crackers, and pickled vegetables that Seal described as “somewhat like a grown-up lunchable.” She explained that the menu has been planned to make maximum use of Wilkinson County produce—from collard greens to venison sausage—and noted that the retail side will provide shelf space to local farmers and food producers alongside the grab-and-go produce, to make Community Grocery accessible, and beneficial to the widest possible cross-section of locals. “We hope to provide our community with something that it’s lacking, and that it will encourage others to follow suit,” Seal said. “It will take all of us coming together to help Woodville reach its full potential. We have complete faith in our community that this can happen.”

Seal anticipates that Community Grocery will be open for lunch by early summer. Plans for Thursday–Saturday evening dinner and a Sunday brunch are in the works. communitygroceryms.com

—James

Fox-Smith

When Nikki Davis-Voigt, owner and chef of A Hint of Lime Tacos, first moved to St. Francisville in 2017 to care for her elderly great aunt Jean Burnett, Burnett would regularly ask Davis-Voigt’s husband David, “When are we gonna get Nikki that restaurant?” While the couple was working on their first foodtruck just outside Burnett’s window, she passed away, content seeing that her great niece’s dream of having a food truck was coming to fruition.

“Our other truck was real sentimental for various reasons … it was just an old piece-of-crap Coca Cola trailer at that time. Anyways, Jean was able to look out her bedroom window and when she saw it, she grinned, and she nodded her head, and she passed that night,” Davis-Voigt said, fighting back tears.

Since then, A Hint of Lime Tacos has become a fixture of St. Francisville’s small-yet-mighty food scene, the lone local taco truck, popping up at the Oyster Bar and various community events in St. Francisville and Baton Rouge. The couple has also made a mission of feeding around one hundred local first responders free meals for Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter. And recently, A Hint of Lime received nominations in four categories of 225 Magazine’s Best of 225 Awards for 2023, including Best Food Truck, Best Mexican, Best Caterer, and a nomination for Best Chef for Davis-Voigt (who is the only woman on that list of nominees).

Unfortunately, on January 7 of this year, the truck was struck and totaled as the Davis-Voigts drove home from serving. The couple was devastated; Davis-Voigt’s “Barbie dream kitchen” they had worked so hard to build was destroyed. But St. Francisville wasn’t about to lose their taco truck, and certainly wasn’t going to let a couple who has done so much for the town go unaided. The community rallied, hosting an auction and fundraiser at the Oyster Bar on February 5 to raise money to help the Davis-Voigts replace their truck.

"I'm used to being involved with fundraisers and stuff. But I'm not used to being on the receiving side,” Davis-Voigt said. “It's very humbling. It definitely put me in my spot, to see all the support that we have and all the people here in this town are just so, so awesome.”

New Generation Food Trailers, a Texas-based company that custom outfits food trucks, reached out to the couple and offered to help, too. In March, the Davis-Voigts took a road trip to San Antonio—and signed a contract and made arrangements to get their new custom-made food truck built.

“Baby, this thing is gonna be better than ever,” Davis-Voigt told me.

The couple hopes to have the truck finished and outfitted this spring, with a tentative reopening date of Cinco de Mayo, 2023—location to-be-decided. facebook.com/ahintoflimetacos. ahintoflimetacos.com.

NEWS, TIMELY TIDBITS, AND OTHER CURIOSITIES W

WHEN THE TACO TRUCK WAS TOTALED, THE TOWN RALLIED

IN WOODVILLE, A NEW RESTAURANT PROJECT AIMS TO OFFER FRESH LOCAL DISHES, SERVED WITH A SIDE OF COMMUNITY SPIRIT

—Alexandra Kennon

Photo by James Fox-Smith

Far-flung Festivals

5 SPRING CELEBRATIONS WORTH A ROADTRIP

Here in the land of elaborate regional celebrations, we know more than most how to use our hometown’s idiosyncrasies as an excuse for a party (see our event calendar for Frog Festivals, Alligator Festivals, Smoked Meat Festivals, Giant Omelette Festivals, the list goes on …). But the sentiment extends along the highways, to towns large and small across the American South. What better way to travel, to really immerse yourself in a place, than to visit when it is celebrating its most prized qualities? Here are five festivals in nearby states that are worth planning a roadtrip around this spring:

Bluebonnet Festival

April 7–9 in Burnet, TX

For the fortieth year, the small town of Burnet hosts over 30,000 visitors seduced by the show-stopping beauty of Hill Country bluebonnets. Besides the blooms, expect a killer lineup headlined by native son Casey Donahew, parades (including one for pets), the Highland Lakes Birding & Wildflower Show, a biergarten, arts and crafts vendors, shootouts, corn hole and dominoes tournaments, and a carnival to boot. Free except for Saturday night’s concert, which is $20 (plus $5 if you want to bring your own ice chest). bluebonnetfestival.org.

Lavender Festival

April 15–16 in Fredericksburg, TX

When owners of Becker Vineyards Estate Tasting Room were initially dreaming about grapes, they came upon something unexpected: the realization that lavender thrives in climates similar to that of their Fredericksburg vineyard. They planted 10,000 lavender plants in 1998, and for the past twenty-four years have hosted guests for two days of celebrating the decadent flower. Expect luncheons, artisans, wine tastings, and live music at the vineyard. $15–$125. beckervineyards.com/events/24thannual-lavender-fest. Read more about the estate on page 44 in Alexandra Kennon’s travelogue across the Hill Country.

Juke Joint Festival

April 13–16 in Clarksdale, MS

The blues have reigned in this Delta town for over a century, but for the last twenty years Clarksdale has claimed its history as home to icons such as Muddy Waters, Earl Hooker, Big Jack Johnson, Ike Turner, and more in this iconic explosion of blues culture. The many historic venues in town will be filled with an unrelenting slate of over one hundred blues performances, enhanced by real Southern cuisine everywhere you look, plus eccentricities like monkeys riding dogs and pig racing, and all your small-town fair fodder. The main festival is Saturday, with hundreds of adjacent concerts and celebrations taking place Thursday–Sunday; most of them free. jukejointfestival.com.

Delta Roots Music Festival

April 22 in Helena, AR

Drawing together the second and third generations of Delta Roots musicians, this newer festival hearkens back to the songs of Delta icons Johnny Cash, Sonny Boy Williamson, Robert Johnson, Conway Twitty, and Levon Helm. This year’s lineup includes Paul Thorn, The Divas on Fire, the Oxford Allstars, Earl & Them, John Mohead, CW Gatlin, Fonky Donkey, and more. Besides the tunes, expect a community bicycle ride, arts and crafts vendors, delicious food, a kids’ area, a harmonica workshop; and a Greens, Beans, and Cornbread Contest. $25, children younger than thirteen are free. facebook.com/deltarootsmusicfest.

Hangout Festival

May 19–21 in Gulf Shores, AL

Think white sand, bright sun, blue water, and some of the biggest names in music—all right there on the Alabama coast. Headliners include Red Hot Chili Peppers, SZA, Calvin Harris, Paramore, Lil Nas X, Flume, Skrillex, and The Kid Laroi. A psychedelic seaside romp through pop culture, this is a highly-curated spring break for music lovers of the dancing-on-the-beach sort, with poolside DJs and Roller Disco, and even a designated spot to get hitched, if you’re so inclined. $349 for three days, with additional VIP options. hangoutmusicfest.com.

A FREE MUSEUM IN THE HEART OF THE FRENCH QUARTER

—Jordan LaHaye Fontenot

around 18,000 colorful eggs, the event offers face-painting and other activities. See listing on page 13. Image courtesy of NOMA.

UNTIL APR 30th

LOCAL HISTORY

STILL RISING: FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR IN ST. LANDRY PARISH

AT THE OPELOUSAS MUSEUM

Opelousas, Louisiana

The Opelousas Museum and Interpretive Center presents a new project and accompanying exhibition, Still Rising: Free People of Color in St. Landry Parish from 1700 to the Present, that delves into the history of Free People of Color in St. Landry Parish—which at one point was home to the largest number of Free People of Color in Louisiana beyond New Orleans. This community was massively influential in St. Landry's culture, business, and other areas prior to the Civil War, and now artifacts and information about their lives will be on display at the Opelousas Museum. Three special presentations about St. Landry's Free people of color will take place on April 1 from 1 pm–3 pm. Free. cajuntravel.com. k

UNTIL APR 30th

FLORAL ART

ARTISTRY AND ACCURACY: BOTANICAL ILLUSTRATIONS BY MARGARET STONES AT LASM

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Australian botanical illustrator Margaret Stones is known for her beautiful and acutely-detailed illustrations of flora from across the world, including a series of Louisiana's flowers and plants. The Louisiana Art & Science Museum is presenting these drawing, which effortlessly bridge biology with fine art, in the Catwalk Gallery. lasm.org. k

UNTIL SEP 16th

FLORAL ART

THE DANDELION: A SYMBOL OF RESILIENCE AT LONGUE VUE

New Orleans, Louisiana

Louisiana-based art historian, curator, and occasional Country Roads contributor Elizabeth Weinstein's latest curatorial project will be on display throughout the

historic mansion of Longue Vue House just in time for the start of spring. In the exhibition The Dandelion: A Symbol of Resilience, the humbly beautiful dandelion will be presented in artistic interpretations by nineteen contemporary artists who are largely from Baton Rouge and New Orleans. longuevue.com. k

APR 1st

LOCAL HISTORY

THNOC'S HISTORY SYMPOSIUM: DEMOCRACY IN LOUISIANA

New Orleans, Louisiana

In June of 2023, a traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian Institution called American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith is coming to The Historic New Orleans Collection—and in preparation, THNOC's 2023 History Symposium will focus on Louisiana's unique democratic system, historic events that have influenced it, and how it functions within the larger American Democracy. Dr. Pearson Cross will moderate an

impressive lineup of speakers, who will discuss topics from early constitutional drafts, to the politics surrounding enslavement, to the women's suffrage movement in New Orleans. This year's symposium takes place at the Hotel Monteleone, which is offering special rates for symposium guests. 9 am–5 pm. $75, $20 for students, teachers, and active military. my.hnoc.org. k

APR 1 st

ANTIQUARIANS

PETITE ANTIQUES FORUM

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

To begin the annual Petite Antiques Forum, guests will meet at the Louisiana State Archives building, where President of the Board of Trustees of the Historic BK House and Gardens in New Orleans R. Larry Schmidt will present a lecture titled, “If these Walls Could Talk—A Small Museum with Many Stories”, highlighting the history, restoration,

Events

Beginning April 1st

and ongoing stewardship of the French Quarter's BK House. Guests will continue with lunch at the Baton Rouge Country Club after the presentation, and then will have the option to tour two private historic homes in New Roads, Louisiana—including the 200-yearold LeJeune House and its 1905-built neighboring structure. Tickets are $125 which includes lunch and both home tours. Registration and refreshments at the Louisiana State Archives building begin at 9:30 am. Register (which is required) or purchase tickets at friendsofmagnoliamound.org. k

APR 1 st

ROW, ROW, ROW TOP OF THE TECHE

Leonville, Louisiana

Tour du Teche calls all paddlers to tackle the Top of the Teche, a 7.7-mile canoe race from Leonville to Arnaudville. Open to all sorts of paddle-driven watercraft, for paddlers ages ten and up. Registration is open until the day before the race; boat checks begin at 7 am at the Leonville Boat Launch. $40. tourduteche.com. k

APR 1st

EGGCITEMENT

NOMA EGG HUNT AND FAMILY FESTIVAL

New Orleans, Louisiana

For many NOLA kids, The Egg Hunt and Family Festival is their first introduction to the New Orleans Museum of Art and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden. It's a fun and festive event for families featuring arts & crafts, games, face painting, snacks, drinks, music, and 18,000 eggs hidden throughout the NOMA grounds. Two egg hunts will begin at 10:30 am: one for kids under four, and another for those ages five and older. 10 am–1 pm. $18 day of event.noma.org. k

APR 1st

KOURI-VINI

TAMBOU FILM SCREENING

Port Allen, Louisiana

The West Baton Rouge Museum will present a screening of Tambou, a film whose script is primarily in Kouri-Vini (or Louisiana Creole), and invites guests to converse in the Creole language for a

cocktail reception beginning at 5 pm. The screening begins at 6:30 pm, followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers. Free. westbatonrougemuseum.org. k

APR 1st - APR 2nd

BUNNY BUSINESS

EASTER BUNNY PICTURES AT THE MILL

New Roads, Louisiana

Get your little ones all dolled up in their springtime best and bring them to the Old Cottonseed Mill for photos with the Easter Bunny—it's that time of year. In conjunction with this spring's Market at the Mill, Easter Bunny photos will be available on Saturday and Sunday from 11 am–2 pm. bontempstix.com. k

APR 1st - APR 2nd

MUSIC FESTIVALS

GATESFEST ARTS & MUSIC FESTIVAL

Metairie, Louisiana

For Metairie's premier live music festival, expect four stages of live music, featuring Marc Broussard, Cowboy Mouth, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Lost Bayou Ramblers, Funky Monkey ft. Arsene Delay, and Cap Carter, plus the Team Gleason Beer Garden, a Family Fest Area just for kids and their grownups, food trucks, and plenty more fun at

Congregation Gates of Prayer in Metairie. Noon–7:30 pm. $25 for general admission. gatesfest.org. k

APR 1st - APR 2nd

COLLECT 'EM ALL ST TAMMANY COLLECTORS CONVENTON

Mandeville, Louisiana

If you have an epic collection, are working on one, or aspire to have one: this convention is for you. Over one hundred tables and booths packed with action figures, comics, toys, video games, local art, and more will fill the Castine Center for your perusal. Also catch a costume/cosplay contest, photo opportunities, and charity events.

10:30 am–5 pm. $10; kids younger than twelve free. sttammanycollectorscon.com. k

APR 1st - APR 2nd FARM FESTIVITIES

AGMAGIC

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Though much more visible in today's "eat-local" culture, experiences with agriculture outside of popular farmers market venues is relatively scarce among urbanites. So what's the best form of education campaign, sure to bring out the young and old alike? A big ol' party. Visitors can tour seven portals that

Events

Beginning April 1st - April 2nd

explore various facets of agriculture, from agronomic crops and insects to farm animals and good nutrition. Kids will have a chance to make rubbings of insects and leaf stamps, dig for worms and sweet potatoes, and make wildlife tracks in the sand. Free. lsuagcenter.com/agmagic. k

APR 1st - APR 2nd

PARTY ANIMALS

ZIPPITY ZOO FEST

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Celebrate BREC's Baton Rouge Zoo at its annual spring festival. Zippity Zoo Fest will feature an "EdZooCation" station where guests can learn about topics like animal conservation and pollination. Keepers will stationed throughout the zoo, birthday cake in hand. If you're lucky, you might even get to celebrate with some of the animals, who will get their own special birthday treat. 9:30 am–5:30 pm. Regular admission applies. brzoo.org. k

APR 1 st - APR 2 nd

ARTISTS TAKEOVER

ART IN THE PASS

Pass Christian, Mississippi

Art in the Pass has been going strong for over two decades now as a two-day fine arts festival that overlooks the scenic beaches of Mississippi's Gulf Coast. Over one hundred artists from ten states will display and sell their work at War Memorial Park. There will also be children's activities, tasty treats, the Celebrate the Gulf Marine Education Festival just nearby on Saturday, and live entertainment. Free. 10 am–5 pm each day. artinthepass.com. k

APR 1 st - APR 2 nd

FLORAL FANATICISM

THE FLOWER FEST

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Nestled off of the Mississippi River, the tiny community of Pointe-Marie in Baton Rouge will spend the first weekend of April decked out in a wildly colorful collaboration between human artistry and nature's impeccable touch. For the third annual Flower Fest, groups of floral professionals will compete to showcase their abilities, vision, and execution. All in the name of flora, local chefs, musicians, artisans, and locals will come together to indulge in a lush vision of creative community. Day tickets are $20/day; Saturday's gala ticket is $125. theflowerfest.com. k

APR 1st - MAR 1st

ART-IVERSARY EXHIBITIONS

KNOWING WHO WE ARE: PARTS TWO AND THREE AT THE OGDEN

New Orleans, Louisiana

In 2023, Ogden Museum celebrates its twentieth year of providing a home for one of the world's most significant collections of Southern art with its first exhibition to encompass each floor of the museum since it opened in 2003. Knowing Who We Are, which updates the South's narrative as told through contemporary artwork, will roll out in parts eventually encompassing the entire museum, featuring artwork both from the Ogden's permanent collection and newer acquisitions. The second part of the exhibition, Knowing Who We Are: The Rise of Abstraction, Vernacular Art and Photography, traces the rise of abstraction in Southern art, and opens on the fourth floor. The third part of the exhibition, Knowing Who We Are: From 19th Century Academic Painting through Southern Regionalism, follows Southern art’s journey from early photography, through impressionism, the Arts & Crafts movement, American Scene Painting, Social Realism, and Regionalism, and opens on the third floor. ogdenmuseum.org. k

APR 1st - MAY 6th

ARTS & CRAFTS ON DISPLAY AT ARIODANTE GALLERY

New Orleans, Louisiana

Ariodante Art Gallery on Julia Street in New Orleans continues to cycle in fresh artists and their creations. April's Featured Artist is Erin Lee Gafill, and other works include crafts by Jerry Hymel, jewelry by Betsy Meyers, and works by Milton Cheramie in the Lagniappe Area. An artist reception will be held on April 1 during the First Saturday Artwalk from 5 pm–8 pm. ariodantegallery.com. k

APR 2nd

EGG-CITING TIMES

NATCHEZ GARDEN CLUB

EASTER EGG HUNT

Natchez, Mississippi

Yet again, the Natchez Garden Club is inviting little ones to bring their grownups out for a lively Easter Egg Hunt on the grounds of Historic Monmouth.Light refreshments will be served, and a cash bar will be available. 2 pm–4 pm. $10 per child; $25 per family (of three or more children). facebook.com/natchezgardenclub. k

APR 2nd

INTERNATIONAL DANCE

WORLD BALLET SERIES: CINDERELLA

Metairie, Louisiana

The Jefferson Performing Arts Center presents Cinderella, performed by the multinational cast of over forty professional dancers with the World Ballet Series. 7 pm. Tickets start at $40. jeffersonpac.com. k

APR 2nd

NIGHT AT THE OPERA

OPÉRA LOUISIANE PRESENTS

ROCKING HORSE WINNER AND APPROACHING ALI

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Opéra Louisiane presents a double bill of Rocking Horse Winner and Approaching Ali at the Manship Theatre. Based on D.H. Lawrence’s short story, Rocking Horse Winner tells the tale of a developmentally challenged boy fighting to win his mother's love. Approaching Ali tells of a young man who becomes obsessed with Muhammed Ali, and his journey to eventually meet his hero. 3 pm. $25–$100 at bontempstix.com. operalouisiane.com. k

APR 2 nd

STREET MUSIC ABITA SPRINGS BUSKER FESTIVAL

Abita Springs, Louisiana

If you brake for buskers, don't miss the Abita Springs Busker Festival at the Abita Springs Trailhead. This festival showcases the talents of young musicians honing their craft on Louisiana's street corners and far beyond—this year, six sets of local

talent will perform, including Jacky Blair and the Hot Biscuits, Max and the Martians, Secret Six Jazz Band, The Deslondes, The Jump Hounds, and Tuba Skinny. The Busker Festival is jointly presented by the Abita Springs Opry and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Plenty of food, and of course Abita beer, will be available at the event. 11:30 am–7 pm. Free. louisiananorthshore.com. k

APR 2 nd

BUNNY BUSINESS EASTER EGGSTRAVAGANZA

Port Allen, Louisiana

The West Baton Rouge Parish Library and the West Baton Rouge Museum team up to host an old-fashioned Easter Egg Hunt for all ages. There will be games, crafts, face painting, critters from Barnyard Belle's & Beaux's Petting Zoo, and a special visit from the Easter Bunny himself on the beautiful grounds of the West Baton Rouge Museum. Kids should bring their own Easter baskets. 2 pm–3:30 pm. wbrmuseum.org. k

APR 2 nd

ENVIRONMENTAL DOCS SCREENING OF HOLLOW TREE

Lafayette, Louisiana

In Kira Akerman's latest documentary, three young women—one Indigenous, one white, and one Angolan—come of age on the frontlines of the climate crisis, growing up in Louisiana. The Acadiana Center for the Arts will screen Hollow Tree from 4 pm–6 pm, followed by a Q&A with Akerman and the cast. $15. acadianacenterforthearts.org. k

Both serious paddlers with competitive streaks and leisurely hobby rowers will enjoy the annual Top of the Teche race—which traces 7.7 miles of Bayou Teche, from Leonville to Arnaudville. See listing on page 13. Image courtesy of St. Landry Parish.

Events

Beginning April 4th - April 13th

APR 4th

FOOD FESTIVALS

ACADIANA POBOY FESTIVAL

Lafayette, Louisiana

This festival gathers a large variety of poboy purveyors from the area together in Lafayette's Parc Sans Souci, a challenge to the primacy of New Orleans' poboy scene. Over twenty-five poboy shops make up the cast. Plus kids activities, live music, arts & crafts vendors, and—naturally—a poboy eating contest. 11 am–6 pm. Free admission, but bring money to buy your poboys. acadianapoboyfestival.com. k

APR 5th - APR 16th

TOURING MUSICALS

MOULIN ROUGE! AT THE SAENGER

New Orleans, Louisiana

The wild and glamorous movie musical Moulin Rouge!' s national tour takes the stage at the Saenger, sweeping audiences into the Parisian world of the Green Absinthe Fairy at the Moulin Rouge. 7:30 pm Wednesday and Thursday, 8 pm Friday and Saturday, 1 pm and

6:30 pm Sunday. Tickets start at $65 at saengernola.com. k

APR 6 th

CREOLE CONCERTS

PRESTON FRANK & THE FRANK FAMILY BAND AT THE ACA

Lafayette, Louisiana

Oberlin born-and Soileau-raised, steeped deep in the real true Creole musical tradition, Preston Frank and his family band, formed in 1977, are best known for their Zydeco standard "Born in the Country". In its current iteration, the band includes Preston's children Keith, Brad, and Jennifer. Catch him onstage at the Acadiana Center for the Arts as part of its Louisiana Crossroads series. Show starts at 7:30 pm. $35–$55. acadianacenterforthearts.org. k

APR 6th

KILTS

ROSEDOWN TARTAN DAY

Saint Francisville, Louisiana

Didn't know there was a National Tartan Day? Hoots, mon, where've

ye been? Rosedown Plantation State Historic Site will be honoring Scottish culture as it remembers Daniel Turnbull, the original owner of Rosedown Plantation, who was of Scottish descent through his father, John Turnbull of Dumfriesshire, Scotland. For National Tartan Day, Rosedown will fly the Turnbull Clan flag and decorate the house with the Turnbull tartan. 10 am–4 pm. 12501 Highway 10. (225) 635-3110. k

APR 6th

JAZZ GREATS

SWINGTIME IN SPRINGTIME

Covington, Louisiana

Immense local talents Dr. Ben Redwine, Don Vappie, Jason Marsalis, Richard Moten, and Wendell Brunious will kick off the start of spring as well as the Northshore Traditional Music Society's season with a traditional jazz concert at Fuhrmann Auditorium. 7 pm. Tickets start at $20 at bontempstix.com. k

APR 7th

COMEDY CONTESTS

THE IMPROV RUMBLE

Lafayette, Louisiana

The Improv Rumble will pit teams of improvisers against one another in an all-out brawl, leaving it to audience

members to vote on their favorite performances via cell phone to determine a team winner. The show will feature twenty five improv performers from Lafayette and Baton Rouge groups, all participating in short and high-energy improv “games” not unlike the popular show Whose Line is it Anyway? 7 pm. $18. acadianacenterforthearts.org. k

APR 7th

SONGKRAN

LAO NEW YEAR CELEBRATION

Coteau, Louisiana

Iberia Parish's not inconsiderable Laotian community holds its New Year celebration, known as Songkran, every Easter weekend, and thousands from near and far will be there to honor a tradition that preserves Laotian culture here in Louisiana. The friendly folks of Lanexang Village and the temple there, Wat Thammarattanaram, offer parades, authentic cuisine and clothing, jewelry, sand castle building, live music and dancing, pageantry, and children's activities. (337) 658-3229 or visit the event's Facebook Page. k

APR 7th - APR 8th

BUNNY BUSINESS

EASTER EGGSTRAVAGANZA

Berwick, Louisiana

Easter arrives at Cypress Lake Resort,

Scan to explore Dickson Street

with all of the egg-tivities you can possibly think of: egg hunts, egg tosses, egg pocking, egg-cetera. Catch Cliff Hillebran onstage on Friday, and Leon & the Hot Sauce on Saturday. Starts at 11 am each day. Details at Cypress Lake Resort's Facebook page. k

APR 7 th - APR 9 th

SEA FARERS PIRATES OF THE PONTCHARTRAIN

Hammond, Louisiana

Each fall the Louisiana Renaissance Fest converts a chunk of Hammond into the English Village of Albright, and each spring Albright transforms into a sea-faring town embracing the Golden Age of Piracy on the Caribbean. Expect pirate shows, games, family merriment, and swashbucklingly raucous concerts. Camping will also be available. 10 am–6 pm. $15 per day, kids younger than six are free. lapop.net. k

APR 10th - APR 14th

BUGGIN' OUT ARTSPLOSION! SPRING CAMP

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Fill the kids' spring break with arts and crafts, dance, music, museums, and more—through the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge's Artsplosion! Camp at the Cary Saurage Community Arts Center. This year's spring session is called "Bug Boot Camp," which will be led by artist and biologist Dr. Brandon Ballengée. For kids in kindergarten through fifth grade. 8 am–3:30 pm each day. $200 per child, with discounts available for multi-session and multi-child registration. artsbr.org.k

APR 11th

JAZZ GREATS

RIVER CITY JAZZ MASTERS: PEDRITO MARTINEZ GROUP

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

As part of its River City Jazz Masters Series, the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge welcomes Afro-Cuban folkloric music and batá drum master Pedro Pablo "Pedrito" Martinez—who has worked with the likes of Paul Simon, Wynton Marsalis, Paquito D'Rivera, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews, Sting, and countless other legends. See him on the Manship Theatre stage at 7:30 pm. $25–$45. manshiptheatre.org. k

APR 11th - APR 14th

TOURISM & TUNES CLEVELAND MISSISSIPPI MUSIC TOURISM CONVENTION

Cleveland, Mississippi

Celebrate Mississippi's rich music

history and the ample opportunities for tourism and economic development it creates at the Mississippi Music Tourism Convention. Over the course of four days, participants will have the opportunity to learn and connect with participants and speakers ranging from music festival and event promoters and organizers, to tourism experts from global boards, to musicians, tour organizers, and beyond. An opening reception at the GRAMMY Museum will kick things off, followed by two days of speakers and events, then a full day of taking in many of the Mississippi Delta's most famous music attractions— from the B.B. King Museum & Club Ebony in Indianola to Morgan Freeman’s Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale. Find more information, including the full schedule of events and tickets at musiccitiesevents.com. k

APR 12th

BANJO TALKS

24TH ANNUAL BILL RUSSELL

LECTURE: THE BANJO AT THE CROSSROADS OF NEW ORLEANS AND THE CARIBBEAN

New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans has an extensive history with the banjo, which in ways underscores the Crescent City's continued cultural exchange with the Caribbean. THNOC is hosting a discussion between professor Laurent Dubois and musician Don Vappie about the history of the instrument; melding lecture, live musical performance, and a look at some of THNOC's unique archival holdings. 6 pm. $20. my.hnoc.org. k

APR 12th - APR 16th

PARTY ON WHEELS

CYCLE ZYDECO

Lafayette, Louisiana

This April, Louisiana's cycling festival rolls through Cajun Country, letting riders experience the heart of Acadiana from the seat of their pants. During five days of cycling that cover almost two hundred miles, participants will follow one of two routes, visiting several cultural spots that prove the tag line "The Best Party on a Bicycle." And there'll be no need to hold back from any of the fantastic food available since you'll have more than enough opportunities to ride, or dance, the calories off again along the way. This year's festival rides through the Bio Blitz at Atelier de lat Nature in Arnaudville on Saturday, plus plenty more memorable side trips and rest stops. Details and registration are at cyclezydeco.org. k

APR 13th

MUSIC FESTS

FRENCH QUARTER FESTIVAL

New Orleans, Louisiana

The largest free music festival in the South is back at the most beautiful time

Events

Beginning April 13th - April 14th

of year to spread four days of musical performances throughout the French Quarter. Every genre is represented here, from traditional and contemporary jazz, to rhythm and blues, New Orleans funk, zydeco, brass bands, folk, opera, and gospel. Music beckons from twenty music stages arrayed around the Quarter, and delicious smells waft from over fifty New Orleans restaurants and chefs selling food. 10 am–8 pm. Free. fqfi.org. k

APR 13th

BIRD BRAINED TALK WITH NOAH STRYCKER

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The Baton Rouge Audubon Society has invited Birding Without Border s author, Birding Magazine editor, and general adventurer and avian enthusiast Noah Strycker to present a talk at LSU's Energy, Coast & Environment Building. 6:30 pm. Free. braudubon.org. k

APR 13th - APR 15th

SILVER SCREEN FILMS AT THE MANSHIP

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Each month, the Manship Theatre offers a slate of films, from modern classics to engaging new documentaries and locallyproduced stories. Here's what's in store:

April 13: What the Hell Happened to Blood, Sweat & Tears? : This film has something for everyone: It's a political thriller, with action sequences, about a rock band, featuring lost documentary footage. 7:30 pm. $10.50.

April 15: Hollow Tree : Kira Akerman's latest documentary, exploring the experience of growing up at the forefront of the climate crisis in Louisiana from three diverse perspectives. A filmmaker Q&A will follow the screening. 7:30 pm. $10.50. manshiptheatre.org. k

APR 13th - APR 16th

PAGE TURNERS

LSU BOOK BAZAAR

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Bookworms, rejoice! Volunteers from the Friends of the LSU Libraries Book Barn have gathered a veritable mountain of books for the 2023 Book Bazaar, requiring the John M. Parker Coliseum to accommodate them all. Over 65,000 books representing dozens of categories will be up for grabs, from contemporary fiction to rare and collectible books. Proceeds from the Bazaar go into an endowment supporting LSU Libraries. 9 am–7 pm Thursday and Friday; 9 am–

5 pm Saturday; and 9 am–4 pm Sunday. Admission is free. lib.lsu.edu. k

APR 13th - APR 27th

GREEN THUMBS MASTER GARDENER TALKS

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The East Baton Rouge Master Gardeners Association presents the following talks at East Baton Rouge Parish libraries this month:

April 13: "Ground Covers and Mulching" and "Composting" at the Carver Branch Library

April 27: "Weed Control" and "Lilies" at the Fairwood Branch Library 5:30 pm. Free. ebrmg.wildapricot.org. k

APR 14th

SYNAGOGUE SOUNDS

VERLON THOMPSON AT TEMPLE SINAI

Saint Francisville, Louisiana

A lucky audience at the acoustically astounding Temple Sinai will experience this special performance by Nashville singersongwriter Verlon Thompson following his annual songwriting workshop. 7 pm–9 pm. $35. bontempstix.com. k

APR 14th - APR 15th

FEATHERED FESTIVITIES

THE GRAND ISLE MIGRATORY BIRD CELEBRATION

Grand Isle, Louisiana

Every April since 1998, during the height of spring migration, the Grand Isle Sanctuary Group has hosted The Grand Isle Migratory Bird Celebration, when the protected pockets around Grand Isle will be the educational playground of bird lovers who will flock to the area, binoculars in hand, to explore the chenieres via kayak and boat tours, attend educational workshops on bird banding and native plant identification, take in local history on an Old Homes Tour, tour the Cox Oil maritime forest restoration project, attend talks by avian experts, peruse local artwork, and otherwise enjoy all nature has to offer. The day will conclude with the bird count, refreshments, and door prizes at the Celebration’s headquarters, Jo-Bob’s Conoco Station. Details available at townofgrandisle.com. k

APR 14th - APR 15th

PORK PARTIES

PARKS CRACKLIN' COOK-OFF

Parks, Louisiana

Chewy, crunchy, or with a thick seam of meat—no matter how you like your

TURNING SPOKES

Geaux Ride

A HEALTHY & SOCIAL OUTING LIGHTING UP BATON ROUGE ON TWO WHEELS

By Ed Cullen

The quiet of a Thursday night in north Baton Rouge’s Glen Oaks neighborhood was suddenly ablaze with flashing blue lights and the “ba-rupt-ba-rupt” siren bursts of sheriff’s SUVs. Faces appeared at kitchen windows. A few residents stepped tentatively onto their front porches, then moved into their yards to greet a line of fifty lighted bicycles coursing down Glen Oaks Drive.

“Hey, neighbor,” shouted cyclist E.J. Putman, seventy-seven, who’s lived in Glen Oaks since the 1970s. “Get on your bike and join us.”

Bicycle clubs with names like City to City Riderz, United Riderz and Tuesdays on Wheels were joining Geaux Ride’s inaugural Glow in the Dark Neighborhood Wellness Ride.

The brainchild of Charles “Chuck” Daniel, Geaux Ride operates as a retail and events space at the corner of Main and Third streets downtown. Once a month, these free neighborhood rides are open to anyone as part of Daniel’s mission to promote mental and physical health in Baton Rouge.

Geaux Ride also offers a free weekly social ride—for which guests may rent bicycles or ride their own—as well as a slate of special Glow in the Dark Bicycle Tours, with focuses ranging from downtown bars to Baton Rouge historical sites.

The business grew out of Daniel’s own cycling which served as a stress reliever when he worked as a tech consultant in New Orleans. “I needed some balance in my tech work,” he said. “Eventually, I bought some bikes, a truck, and trailers” — and Geaux Ride was born.

The night of the first neighborhood ride, Daniel, forty-two, tall and fit, moved easily through the swarm of cyclists in the parking lot of Bordelon’s Super Save Pharmacy on Plank Road. A bemused Paul Bordelon, sixty-four, one of the owners of the family pharmacy, looked out over the crowd, greeting some old customers who grew up in the neighborhood.

The cyclist who was supposed to have asked Bordelon about starting the ride in the parking lot had forgotten. “I got a call,” he laughed. “‘The parking lot’s full of cars, and the cops are there!’”

Deputies, actually, in eight SUVs with blue lights blazing. “It’s good for the community,” Bordelon said, as riders approached to thank him.

For these neighborhood rides, Daniel invites elected officials, church leaders, and civic association representatives to address the cyclists—granting access to the community’s decision-makers in a casual and fun atmosphere.  “It breaks down the barrier of who to tell about potholes or some issue on your street,” Daniel said. For the Glen Oaks ride, the cyclists heard a few words from District 5 Metro Councilman Darryl Hurst, said a prayer, and put shoes to the pedals. Sheriff’s SUVs roared off to block car traffic at Glen Oaks Drive and a Plank Road service street north of Airline Highway.

Lesetta Crawford, fifty-four, who lives near LSU, started riding with Geaux Ride during the 2020 shutdown. “There wasn’t much I could do so getting outside felt safe. Now, I leave a bike at Geaux Ride for downtown rides and haul another one to rides like tonight’s.”

For this ride, cyclists came from other parts of Baton Rouge and neighboring parishes. There are at least ten bicycle social clubs in the Baton Rouge area, Daniel said.

Donald Green, fifty-eight, was riding with his Baker group, City to City Riderz. “We brought a lot of people out during COVID. Socializing, moving around, you know, fighting depression.”

Though Daniel promotes Geaux Ride’s events as wellness outings, most riders are here for the social venue, and the experience of riding through the night on bicycles lit up like Mardi Gras floats. h

Geaux Ride’s next Wellness Tour Ride is April 6. Learn more at geauxridebikes.com.

A special advertising feature from Cajun Coast Tourism

Relish the Wonders of Springtime on Louisiana’s Cajun Coast

Spring is a magical time to explore the exotic charm of Louisiana’s Cajun Coast. Mild temperatures envelop sightseers as they soak up the area’s breathtaking beauty and its history-rich small towns. From paddling along sleepy Bayou Teche, to window shopping in downtown Franklin, and lakefront camping in Morgan City, memory-making awaits in picture-perfect St. Mary Parish.

Find it in Franklin ‘Under the Lampposts’

Stroll along Franklin’s wrought iron-trimmed downtown for a dose of serious Southern charm. One of just 35 accredited Main Street America cities in Louisiana, downtown Franklin entices visitors with its shops, eateries, and historic properties—all set against the dreamy backdrop of Bayou Teche. Proprietors extend a genuine welcome as visitors pop in and out of local businesses housed in vintage storefronts. Meander from shop to shop on your own to discover gifts, art, fashion, and furnishings, or to really get the inside scoop, join a guided walking or ghost tour led by local company Tours By Steven. It’s easy to snap Instagramworthy pictures in front of the Spanish mossdraped oaks here. At night the town’s beauty shines brighter, lit by the cast iron lampposts lining its main boulevard. Topped with globe lights, these iconic fixtures inspired Franklin’s catch phrase, “it’s all under the lampposts!”

Favorite downtown landmarks include The French Door, which greets shoppers with a generous bounty of trendy clothing, pretty and practical home décor, and furnishings; while Gather on Main is a vintage market specializing in artwork, handmade wood items and antiques. After shopping, enjoy a tasty respite at The Lamp Lighter Coffeehouse & Bistro, housed in what used to be Franklin’s main pharmacy. The restaurant plies guests with distinctive local eats from burgers to gumbo, and from coffee to beignets. There’s regular live music, too.

You’ll also find FIFOLET Candle Makers, a locally owned artisan candle studio and retailer, lighting up the heart of Franklin’s historic district. Stop by to see how hand-poured candles are made and don’t forget to pick up your favorite scents to bring home.

Restore Your Soul in Paddler’s Paradise

Ahh, hear the birds sing, feel a coastal breeze against your skin and listen to bayou waters lapping against your kayak. The Cajun Coast works wonders to restore your spirit. After all, it features 135 miles of waterways so pristine they’ve been designated a National Water Trails System by the National Park Service.

This paddler’s paradise gives adventurers easy access to quintessential Louisiana waterways including historic Bayou Teche and the 170,000-acres Atchafalaya Basin Swamp. Paddling enthusiasts know they’ll have a top-notch experience when they hit the water, with plenty of boat launches and local outfitters,

including Tours by Steven and Lake End Rentals, making exploration by kayak or canoe both convenient and accessible. No fewer than six National Water Trails System padding trails, ranging from easy to difficult, provide access to the scenic waterways of the Cajun Coast—an environment National Geographic described as “hauntingly beautiful land.”

Exploring St Mary Parish by water is an excellent way to revel in this distinctive region’s stirring natural beauty.

The Many Charms of Morgan City

Home to outdoor recreation, artisan makers, and friendly people, Morgan City is an essential stop along the Cajun Coast. Visit nearly three dozen arts and craft vendors, and small businesses under one roof at The Market. As you wander from booth to booth you’ll find a wide variety of eclectic handmade items including jewelry, clothing, gifts, charcuterie boards, local honey and jams, artwork, and more. The Market also serves daily plate lunches by Rojay’s, bakery items, and specialty food items. It’s an inspiring place to spend the day.

For outdoors lovers, Morgan City’s popular campground and marina, Victor Guarisco Lake End Park, opens the door (or the tent flap) to a multitude of experiences. The park is right on the shores of beautiful Lake Palourde and welcomes families, couples, and friends. Fish for catfish, largemouth bass, and bluegill from the banks or fishing pier. Spend the day on the water in your own boat or rent a vessel from the onsite marina (Lake End Rentals rents pontoon boats, kayaks, paddleboards, jet skis and more.) Splash and swim in the lake’s cool waters. Plan an overnight stay and wake up to birds calling from the resident grove of bald cypress trees. The park features 147 modern, convenient RV hookups, primitive campsites, and rustic cabins with front porches perfect for watching the sun set after a full day on the lake.

Warm nights, warm folks, and a picturesque setting make Louisiana’s Cajun Coast a one-of-a-kind destination to enjoy this spring. Visit www.CajunCoast.com to get started.

Events

Beginning April 14th - April 15th

cracklin', there will be a version for you at this cook-out and festival. Expect a poker run, raffles, fun jumps, arts & crafts, and other fun along with live music, including Darel Gros & High Rollin' Band, Corey Ledet Zydeco, and more. Everything takes place at Poché Memorial Park in Parks. parkscracklincookoff.com. k

APR 14th - APR 16th

BERRY GOOD TIMES

PONCHATOULA

STRAWBERRY FESTIVAL

Ponchatoula, Louisiana

Celebrate the season with a strawberrystained grin at the annual Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival. From humble beginnings, the event has ripened into a Louisiana celebration to which thousands travel. Come take part in the rides, games, music, food, and of course, the finest Louisiana strawberries. A dizzying array of events includes the Strawberry Parade, Strawberry Auction, and Strawberry Strut, as well as carnival rides, food booths, games like the strawberry-eating contest, sack races, musical entertainment, pageantry, and kids' activities, all in Ponchatoula Memorial Park. Free. lastrawberryfestival.com. k

APR 14th - APR 16th

SMOKE SHOWS

SCOTT BOUDIN FESTIVAL

Scott, Louisiana

It's the annual event that celebrates the best little rice-and-meat-stuffed concoction on any side of the Mississippi—and arguably, no place does it better than Scott. Don't miss three days of live music and the chance to eat boudin both competitively and casually. This year's lineup includes performances by Keith Frank, Chris Ardoin, Lil Nate, and many more. scottboudinfestival.com for details. k

APR 14th - APR 16th

GET LIT

FRIENDS OF THE JEFFERSON

PUBLIC LIBRARY BIG BOOK SALE

Kenner, Louisiana

The Friends of the Jefferson Public Library's semi-annual book sale returns to fill the Pontchartrain Center this month. Over 65,000 (yes, that many) used books will be up for grabs, including cookbooks, travel books, art books, history books, and local and regional titles. DVDs, CDs, puzzles, sheet music, audio books, and more on sale, too. 10 am–7 pm Friday–Saturday; noon–5 pm Sunday. 4545 Williams Boulevard. Free. friendsofjeffersonlibrary.org. k

APR 14th - APR 16th

CREATIVE CLASSES

SONGWRITING WORKSHOP WITH VERLON THOMPSON

Saint Francisville, Louisiana

Acclaimed singer, songwriter, and guitarist Verlon Thompson is returning to Birdman Coffee, Art & Music for his three-day songwriting workshop for musicians. 9 am–4 pm. $250 for Saturday and Sunday, $325 for all three days. Tickets at bontempstix.com. k

APR 14 th - APR 16 th

TREASURE HUNTS

ANTIQUE FAIR & YARD SALE

Washington, Louisiana

Come to historic Washington for a chance to browse the wares of over two hundred vendors at this enormous Antique Fair & Yard Sale at the historic, circa 1934 Old Schoolhouse Antique Mall—all 40,000 square feet of it. Expect plenty of food and fun, but perhaps more importantly, great bargains on a wide variety of decorative tidbits for house, home, office, yard, or anywhere. 9 am–5 pm each day. oldschoolhouseantiquemall.com. k

APR 15th

ARTFUL OUTINGS

ARTS EVENING AT OLDE TOWNE SLIDELL

Slidell, Louisiana

This event is one of the largest and most celebrated cultural festivals on the Northshore, an entertaining evening filled with art, food, live music, dancing, fine dining, and antique and boutique shopping. More than one hundred artists and art organizations will display their works at locations throughout Olde Towne, with live music and entertainment throughout. This year's featured exhibition will be staged at the Slidell Municipal Auditorium.

5 pm–9 pm. Free. myslidell.com. k

APR 15th

BIO BOUNTY

FÊTE DE LA NATURE: BIOBLITZ AND CRAWFISH BENEFIT

Arnaudville, Louisiana

Celebrate the natural beauty of Acadiana at the Atelier de la Nature reserve in Arnaudville with the quintessential Cajun al fresco meal: boiled crawfish. Throughout the day, scientists will head an official BioBlitz—encouraging guests to search the property for as many species of birds, reptiles, insects, plants, fungus, and more that they can find. The Culinary Institute of Baton Rouge will be onsite

offering edible insect tasting workshops and cooking demos; and live music will be provided by Sweet Crude. Crawfish and music from 11 am–2 pm; Bioblitz events lasting all day long, from 6 am–11:30 pm. Admission is free, but proceeds from crawfish purchases ($20 for 3lbs, with potatoes) will benefit youth educational programs at Atelier de la Nature. Register at eventbrite.com. atelierdelanature.org. k

APR 15th

ARTFUL EXCURSIONS

ARTS ALIVE 2023

Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi

Bay St. Louis's Depot Art District will be alive with color as artists and other vendors flock to the neighborhood. This year there will be a demonstration area and a Dessert Competion. Details at hancockarts.org. k

APR 15th

FUNDRAISING FOR FIDO

FUR BALL

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Fido, Spot, and Duke are invited, along with their human parents, to this festive, pet-friendly, black-tie-optional gala benefiting the Companion Animal Alliance of Baton Rouge. You and your well-mannered, on-leash, or incarrier canine companion are invited to celebrate the relationship between man and his (or her) best friend, with the theme "Diamonds in the Ruff". 6:30 pm–10:30 pm at the L'Auberge Casino in Baton Rouge. $200 per person; $350 per couple; $100 per pet. classy.org/event/2023-furball. k

APR 15th

PETAL PARTIES

FESTIVAL DES FLEURS

Lafayette, Louisiana

Lafayette's biggest garden show and sale promises plants, supplies, pottery, tools, gifts, gardening books, garden ornaments, and more. There will be displays by the bonsai, orchid, and daylily societies, door prizes, and children's activities, too. Proceeds benefit the Ira Nelson Horticulture Center at ULL and the Lafayette Parish Master Gardeners. 8 am–4 pm at Blackham Coliseum. $5; free for children under twelve. festivaldesfleurs.org. k

APR 15th

MISSISSIPPI BLUES

JUKE JOINT FESTIVAL

Clarksdale, Mississippi

For the twentieth year in a row, "the world's biggest little blues festival" holds court in Clarksdale, filling the tiny Delta town with a huge variety of music acts, racing pigs, monkeys riding dogs, workshops, history bus

tours, and much, much more. A host of pre-festival celebrations will take place throughout the month, but the main event is Saturday—which will center blues music on twenty two stages all throughout the city and long into the night. Full schedule and details at jukejointfestival.com. k

APR 15th

BREW BASHES

CHAFUNKTA BREWING'S 10TH ANNIVERSARY BASH

Mandeville, Louisiana

Celebrate ten years of good times and good local brews at the Northshore's Chafunkta

Brewing Company's Tenth Anniversary Bash. Of course, it wouldn't be a party without a live band, food, and you guessed it—plenty of local craft beer. Noon–10 pm. Free. chafunktabrew.com. k

APR 15th

COMMUNITY CONCERTS

ABITA SPRINGS OPRY

Abita Springs, Louisianaa

The long-running Abita Springs Opry is devoted to preserving Louisiana's indigenous music in all its guises. Arrive early (around 5 pm-ish) and join the folks in the neighborhood who've made a ritual of enjoying gumbo, hot dogs,

and homemade pastries, not to mention the pre-show sound checks and front porch concerts. It all adds up to the good ol' family atmosphere that the Opry strives for. The lineup for April includes performances by The Bad Pennies Pleasure Makers, Ben Russell and Friends Bluegrass, Gina Leslie, and The Lostines. 7 pm–9 pm. $20. abitaopry.org. k

APR 15th

ART & ABOUT SPRING FOR ART

Covington, Louisiana

Celebrate the arrival of spring as well

Upcoming Events

StoryTime in the Garden

April 1 9 a.m.-noon Free

LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens

Old Fashioned Easter Celebration

April 2 2:30-5 p.m.

LSU Rural Life Museum

Birding at Burden

April 15 7-9 a.m.

LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens

Tickets available at Eventbrite.com

Gourmet in the Garden

April 20 6-9 p.m.

LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens

Tickets available at Eventbrite.com

An Evening at Windrush: The Magic Returns April 28 6:30 p.m.

LSU Rural Life Museum

Go Public Gardens Days

May 20-21

LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens

Botanic Gardens

For details about these and other events, visit our website or call 225-763-3990. Admission may be charged for some events. Burden Museum & Gardens . 4560 Essen Lane . 225-763-3990 . DiscoverBurden.com . Baton Rouge . Open 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily

Events

Beginning April 15th - April 19th

as local art and artists at Spring for Art: a celebratory event in downtown Covington featuring live music, art, performance, food, and much more. 6 pm–9 pm. Free. sttammany.art/spring-for-art. k

APR 15th

AUTO-MATIC CRUISIN’ THE CASTINE

Mandeville, Louisiana

This spring, a fleet's worth of classic, antique, and muscle cars, trucks, motorcycles, Jeeps, side-by-sides, and more will be on display at the Castine Center in Pelican Park to be admired. Public viewing 10 am–3 pm. Also look forward to food trucks, craft vendors, and fireworks. Free to attend; $30 to register online; $35 day of. Details at the Pelican Park's Cruisin' the Castine Car Show event on Facebook. k

APR 15th

MOVEMENTS

VAGABONDANCE PRESENTS

PROJECT DUST

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Baton Rouge-based contemporary dance company vagabondance have

APR 15 th

SYMPHONIC SKEET BRSO SPORTING CLAY TOURNAMENT Port Allen, Louisiana

partnered with biomechanist and owner of KineticFX Bill Downs on project dust: a cutting-edge research study that explored the impacts of dance movement on the male body, through inviting participating men ages twenty through fifty-five to engage in the art of dance for the first time. The results of project dust will be presented at Baton Rouge Gallery. 6:30 pm. Free. vagabondance.org. batonrougegallery.org. k

APR 15 th

HOMEBREW HIVEMIND

BOOT BREW FEST Eunice, Louisiana

Introducing the Boot Brew Fest—a hearty gathering of homebrewers from across the Southern region at Lakeview Park and Beach. The day features educational opportunities for burgeoning brewers, plus plenty of craft beer samples from seasoned experts, the event ends very properly with a Cajun barn dance and awards ceremony. $10 admission; $40 for full access passes; $65 VIP. Must be twenty-one years old or older. bootbrewfest.com. k

APR 15th - APR 16th

ARTISAN ACTION MELROSE

ARTS & CRAFTS FESTIVAL Natchitoches, Louisiana

Take aim, sports men and women of Louisiana: the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra is bringing back its sporting clay shoot to benefit the symphony and all of its programming. Shooters will be responsible for bringing their own shotgun and shells, as well as eye and ear protection, to Bridgeview Gun Club. $150 per person to enter, $600 for a team of four. 8 am–1 pm. brso.org. k

APR 15 th - APR 16 th

LEAF

IT

TO THE EXPERTS HILLTOP SPRING FLING PLANT SALE

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Your garden's winter blues (well, browns) don't stand a chance against Hilltop Arboretum and its group of "plant literati," all on hand to help stock your garden for the season at this year's Spring Fling Plant Sale. This year, extra attention is placed on local and native plants, from grasses to trees and everything in between. 9 am–4 pm Saturday, noon–4 pm Sunday. Free. lsu.edu/hilltop. k

Every spring, Melrose Plantation hosts an Arts & Crafts Festival, the longestrunning of its kind in the state. The festival presents local artists, handmade items for your home and yard, works of art, flowers, local food, and live music. Melrose’s festival focuses on presenting artisans who demonstrate their crafts at the festival itself, so that festival-goers can get a first-hand look at the artistic process in action. Jewelry, paintings, wooden furniture, and other items will take shape, and examples will be available to purchase directly from the artists. Saturday 9 am–5 pm; Sunday 10 am–4 pm. $5, $2 children six to twelve, free for kids fiveand-younger. melroseplantation.org. k

APR 15th - JUN 4th

CREATIVE RECOVERY

ART & ADDICTION AT THE WEST BATON ROUGE MUSEUM

Port Allen, Louisiana

Baton Rouge artist Ben Peabody has translated his personal journey from addiction through recovery into a series of paintings titled Art & Addiction. Using a captivating carnival-reminiscent motif,

Dream without boundaries

Knowing you’ve got the strength of the cross, the protection of the shield and thousands of top doctors to lift you when you need it. The Right Card. The Right Care.

Peabody's forty-piece series illustrates the invisible but firm hold substances like drugs and alcohol can have on a person—and now, that series will be on display at the West Baton Rouge Museum. An opening reception with the artist and live music by We the Band will take place April 15 from 6 pm–8 pm. westbatonrougemuseum.org. k

APR 16th

BOIL BASH

CALL ME CRAWDADDY: CRAWFISH BOIL SOCIAL & COSTUME CONTEST

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The Crawfish Couyon from out in New Iberia will be at Circa 1857 in Baton Rouge boiling up crawfish for a fun crowd, all to benefit Baton Rouge Pride. The LEUR-hosted event will also include a costume contest, music, food, and art. 11:30 am–5:30 pm. Tickets start at $25 at charliefeet.com/events/callmecrawdaddy. k

APR 16th

CHURCH MUSIC

CHRIST CHURCH'S THIRD SUNDAY CONCERT SERIES

Covington, Louisiana

The historic Christ Episcopal Church will host Concert of Winds, performed by faculty of Southeastern Louisiana University. 5 pm. Free. christchurchcovington.com. k

APR 16th - AUG 31st

STYLE THAT BINDS

'TIL TRENDS DO US PART AT LSU TEXTILE & COSTUME MUSEUM

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The LSU Textile and Costume Museum's latest exhibition walks viewers through the history of bridal fashion through the ages. A special "behind the scenes" tour will also take guests through some of the museum's most prized holdings. An opening reception will be held from 2 pm–4 pm April 16, with a Gallery Talk at 2:15 pm. lsu.edu/textilemuseum. k

APR 17th - APR 23rd

BOOT-IFICATION

LOVE THE BOOT WEEK

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Keep Louisiana Beautiful, with the support of Governor John Bel Edwards and Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser, is spearheading the largest litter removal effort in Louisiana's history, to take place alongside Earth Day. Individuals, businesses, and organizations statewide are encouraged to plan and partake in community cleanups in an effort to create a cleaner, more beautiful Louisiana. Event registration and volunteer sign up at lovetheboot.org. k

APR 18th - APR 29 th

COMING-UP CREATIVES

KIDS ARE ARTISTS TOO! AT LAFAYETTE ART ASSOCIATION

Lafayette, Louisiana

This month, celebrate the work of Acadiana's youngest artists at this exhibition at the Lafayette Art Association, featuring work by children in grades Pre-K through eighth grade. lafayetteart.org. k

APR 19 th

PENAL PERSPECTIVES

THE VISITING ROOM PROJECT SCREENING

Saint Francisville, Louisiana

Engage with the remarkable work of The Visiting Room Project, a digital experience that invites us to sit "faceto-face" with over one hundred people serving life sentences at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, without the possibility of parole. The massive oral history project elevates the lived experiences of the over 55,000 Americans currently existing within the confines of our country's penal system. This screening, held less than thirty miles from Angola Prison, invites West Felicianians to listen and reflect on the lives of these men. Starts at 5:45 pm. Free. visitingroomproject.org. k

APR 19 th - APR 22 nd

"YES, AND..." BATON ROUGE IMPROV FESTIVAL

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The Baton Rouge Improv Festival is a multi-day event featuring everyone from comedy professionals to amateurs in stand-up competitions, improv shows, talks, and more. The shows and workshops are held mostly at LSU and offered for all ages, focusing on education, inclusion, elevation, and collaboration. As well as workshops, BRIF is dedicated to spreading joy, laughter, and learning in the Baton Rouge community and surrounding areas. Schedule and more information at batonrougeimprovfest.com. k

APR 20 th

FLORAL FINDINGS

EVERYDAY ROSES

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Paul Zimmerman, who is regarded as the preeminent rose expert for his informative YouTube videos and general rose enthusiasm, will be leading a talk at Burden about how to incorporate roses easily into your home garden. Free. 9 am–11 am. lsuagcenter.com. k

EDNA J. MURRAY Broker, 601-807-2245

LYNN JAMES 601-807-7046

KENSEY SHAFFER 225-603-7003 MEGAN LONGMIRE 979-201-1581

ANTHONY SHORT 601-807-9038 TIFFANY RUSSELL 601-657-0332 GRANT MURRAY 601-431-9977

TRAVIS MURRAY Appraiser, 601-807-0490 CANE LANEHART 601-870-9804 LEIGHTON NETTERVILLE 601-431-4358

JOIN THE NCVRW KICK OFF CANDLELIGHT CEREMONY

Tuesday evening, April 18 at LSU-Alexandria

Events

Beginning April 20th - April 21st

APR 20th

GARDEN TO TABLE GOURMET IN THE GARDEN

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Enjoy local flavors among the blooms and under the stars during this annual dining event held at Burden Museum & Gardens. The evening will include food creations from local restaurants prepared with locally grown products along with samplings of beverages from Louisiana distilleries and local mixologists. It will culminate with presentations of the People’s Choice and Juried Awards. Tickets include samplings of food and cocktails along with live music; all proceeds from this event fund education programs at the Botanic Gardens and the Louisiana Culinary Institute Foundation. $85 before April 16, $100 before April 19; $125 at the gate. 6 pm–9 pm. eventbrite. com. lsu.edu/botanic-gardens. k

APR 20th - APR 21st

STYLE THAT BINDS LONGUE VUE DESIGN SYMPOSIUM

New Orleans, Louisiana

Longue Vue's Design Symposium, a beloved annual fundraising event, makes its return to Longue Vue's gardens. The event, which features an elegant picnic lunch, music from the Panorama Jazz Band, and speakers including headliners owner and founder of Pedram Couture, Pedram Pasha Taheri; and master landscape architect and botanist Mary Palmer Dargan. There will be a Patron Party Thursday evening, with the symposium taking place Friday. Tickets begin at $250 at longuevue.com. k

APR 20th - APR 23rd

CAR CRAZE NATCHEZ CONCOURS D'ELEGANCE

Natchez, Mississippi

Fine cars from vintage imports to contemporary stunners will line Broadway Street in Natchez for the first-ever Natchez Concours d‘Elegance Car Show. Arrive early for the Early Bird Party on Thursday evening from 5 pm–10 pm, stay for the Scenic Drive at 10:30 am Friday and Car Show during the day Saturday. Free. visitnatchez.org. k

APR 20th - APR 29th

MATRI-PHONEY

THE WEDDING SINGER AT THE STRAUSS THEATRE CENTER

Monroe, Louisiana

Find eighties nostalgia, weddings-gonewrong hilarity, and rom-com charm onstage at the Strauss Theatre Center

in Monroe this month for Music

Theatre International's production of The Wedding Singer. 7 pm Thursday–Saturday; 2 pm on Sunday. strausstc.com. k

APR 20th - JUL 30th

ART ASSESSES MEDIA UNBRANDED: REFLECTIONS IN BLACK BY CORPORATE AMERICA AT LSU MOA

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Artist Hank Willis turns his lens to the ways media depicts African Americans, commenting on what they imply about race relations and unveiling hidden stereotypes and bigotry. Through forty photographs and digitally-altered images narrowed down from his original eighty-two works, Unbranded at the LSU Museum of Art walks the viewer through half a century of print advertising intended for Black Americans. The exhibition was organized in part by LSU MOA Curatorial Fellow Clarke Brown, and the LSU MOA thanks Alabama art collectors Becky Patterson and Doug McCraw for generously loaning the selection from their complete set lsumoa.org. k

APR 21 st

AVIAN ACTION

GREAT LOUISIANA BIRDFEST

Mandeville, Louisiana

Bird watchers—novices and experts alike—travel from all over to attend this premier birding event sponsored by Northlake Nature Center. Spring migration, when numerous migrant bird species pass through South Louisiana on their way from Mexico and South America north, makes for ideal birdwatching conditions. The Fest will start at Joyce Wildlife Management Area/Manchac Swamp, then head into "Stinking Bayou" for more bird and alligator viewing. 6:30 am–noon. $50. Bring your own binoculars, notebooks, bug spray, etc. Times and more info at northlakenature.org/birdfest. k

APR 21st

UNPACKING THE BLUES

HISTORICAL HAPPY HOUR: NICK SPITZER AND KENNY NEAL

Port Allen, Louisiana

For its Historical Happy Hour series this month, the West Baton Rouge Museum is presenting Tulane professor, anthropologist, folklorist and host of NPR's American Routes Nick Spitzer,

Events

Beginning April 21st

who will present a talk alongside a set by Baton Rouge bluesman Kenny Neal. 6 pm–8 pm. Free. westbatonrougemuseum.org. k

APR 21 st

ORCHESTRAL ORDEALS

LOUISIANA PHILHARMONIC PRESENTS BEETHOVEN'S SYMPHONY NO. 7 Covington, Louisiana

The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra is setting up at the Covington High School auditorium for a performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 7—all led by LPO Music Director Carlos Miguel Prieto. 7:30 pm. $35; $10 for students. lpomusic.com. k

APR 21st

WINE & DINE

WINE DOWN ON FALSE RIVER

New Roads, Louisiana

Immerse yourself in New Roads’ distinctive small-town charm with a weekend of Napa Valley wine tastings, carefully-curated local cuisine, art, and live music—all served lakeside. A sparkling

winemaker's dinner will kick off the weekend on Friday from 5:30 pm–6:30 pm at private Pointe Coupée venues. The meal will feature wine pairings with select menu items.

6:30 pm–9:30 pm. $250. Saturday's event will take visitors to Main Street, where they can sample fine wines and crafted cocktails while exploring local boutiques, restaurants, and venues—each of which will feature artists and wineries from Napa. Make every stop on your punch card for a chance at winning the special raffle. 6 pm–9 pm. $60. Tickets at bontempstix. com. winedownfr.com. k

APR 21st

GESTALT GASTRONOMY CAN-I-BALL?

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Mat Keel and Liz Lessner of Baton Rouge's arts-forward organization Yes We Cannibal are transitioning their Government Street space into something new entirely: CanI-Ball ? The concept restaurant aims to deconstruct and reassess our perceptions of dining experiences, while incorporating ingredients from local purveyors across the

South highlighted by spices from global spice company Burlap & Barrel and spirits by New York's Matchbook Distilling Company. yeswecannibal.org for updates and ticket information. k

APR 21st

ROOTS ROCK

FRIENDS OF THE CABILDO CONCERT SERIES: THE IGUANAS

New Orleans, Louisiana

An intimate concert with the New Orleans grown roots rock band The Iguanas at the Jazz Museum's third-floor performance center listening room. 7 pm–9 pm. $30. nolajazzmuseum.org. k

APR 21st - APR 22nd

BOTANICAL BONANZAS GARDEN SYMPOSIUM & PLANT SALE AT THE BIEDENHARN

Monroe, Louisiana

The Biedenharn Museum & Gardens will host gardeners—both amateur and professional—for its annual symposium and plant sale. Speakers will address topics as diverse and useful as sustainable farming, flower arranging, and choosing plants that will thrive in your garden. Plus, there'll be a plant sale the day before. Symposium $70; Plant Sale is free. 9 am–3 pm. bmuseum.org. k

APR 21st - APR 22nd

MUSIC FESTS

BATON ROUGE

BLUES FESTIVAL

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The Baton Rouge Blues Festival is one of the oldest free blues festivals in America and exists to encourage promotion, preservation, and advancement of Baton Rouge's native Blues music. This free-to-the public, family-friendly festival will feature an impressive lineup of internationallyrecognized performers and local blues legends alike, including: Tommy Castro & the Painkillers, Elizabeth King, The Peterson Brothers, TC Carter Band, and more. Held at Repentance Park and Galvez Plaza, downtown Baton Rouge. Free. batonrougebluesfestival.org. k

APR 21st - APR 22nd

TREE TIME

LOUISIANA FOREST FESTIVAL Winnfield, Louisiana

At the annual Louisiana Forest Festival in Winnfield, aspiring lumberjacks will find their heaven. With chopping and chainsawing galore, this almost fiftyyear-old festival salutes the Louisiana timber industry with verve. Attendees can learn more about this history through equipment displays and exhibits, as well as enjoy excellent

Events

Beginning April 21st - April 22nd

food and entertainment throughout the day, including live music by Travis McCready, Spencer Brunson, Swampland Revival, Deep Water Rehab, and more. $15. Details at laforestfestival.com. k

APR 21 st - APR 23 rd

ESPAGNE ET LOUISIANE EL FESTIVAL ESPAÑOL DE NUEVA IBERIA

New Iberia, Louisiana

This popular celebration of New Iberia's Spanish roots returns, offering three days of events and activities all centered around the town's central Bouligny Plaza under the theme, "Sweet Home New Iberia," celebrating Nueva Iberia with food, music, and culture. The festivities begin Friday with the blessing of the Crochet ceiling in Church Alley. On Saturday, the festival will provide many activities throughout the day such as Running of the Bull’s Dog-Friendly 5K/1 Mile Fun Run, parade, re-enactment of Spanish arrival, arts and crafts show, paella, tapas, jambalaya and Spanish desserts cook-off, genealogy displays, visiting royalty, paella eating contest, and a children’s tent and fun zone with face painting, fun jump, and petting zoo.

On Sunday, the public is invited to attended a mass of Thanksgiving at the Nativity of Our Lady Catholic Church, in honor of New Iberia’s founding families (Gary, Lopez, Migues, Prados, Romero, Segura, and Viator). newiberiaspanishfestival.com. k

APR 21 st - APR 23 rd

AUTHORIZATION

DELTA MOUTH

LITERARY FESTIVAL

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Since 2009, the annual Delta Mouth Literary Festival has been a flagship event for the literary arts here in Baton Rouge. The Louisiana State University Department of English joins together with The Southern Review, New Delta Review, and the English Graduate School Association to bring together nationally acclaimed writers, artists, and performers from across the state and throughout the nation for a three-day event that includes readings, panels, food, drinks, music, and a unique gathering of Baton Rouge’s creative community. The lineup of writers attending this year includes: Dorothy Chan, Ana Reyes, Pritha Bhattacharyya, Tiana Nobile, Alison

Pelegrin, Skye Jackson and Country Roads' own Jordan LaHaye Fontenot. For more information and the complete schedule, visit deltamouth.com. k

APR 21 st - APR 23 rd

LOCAL LANDSCAPES ABITA SPRINGS EN PLEIN AIR EXHIBITION

Abita Springs, Louisiana

Abita Springs and the surrounding areas, with their serene natural landscapes, provide ample inspiration for artists who paint "en plain air," or outdoors in the open air. To celebrate their work, the Abita Springs Trailhead Museum hosts an annual exhibition of around seventy-five recent paintings of Louisiana landscapes by local artists. Some of these works of art are so new, the paint is still drying upon arrival at the Trailhead Museum, which receives 30% of the proceeds from every painting sold. A lovely reception with ample refreshments honoring the artists will take place on Friday, April 21 from 6 pm–9 pm. The exhibition will also be on display April 22 and 23, from 10 am–4 pm. Free. trailheadmuseum.org. k

APR 21st - APR 29th CENLARTS TOM PEYTON MEMORIAL ARTS FESTIVAL

Alexandria, Louisiana

For over five decades, the Annual Tom Peyton Memorial Arts Festival has brought high quality arts programming and exhibits to Central Louisiana. The festival's main exhibit, hosted at the First United Methodist Church in Alexandria, features more than seventy works of art by regional artists alongside an In Memoriam show featuring works by Henry Blount and Joseph Appalucci, longtime Alexandria artists. Merit Awards and a gallery talk will be presented by juror Philip R. Jackson during an opening reception on April 21 at 6 pm. Other festival programming includes and an al fresco concert in the courtyard on April 28, from 6 pm–8 pm. Details available online at fumca.org/artsfestival. k

APR 21st - APR 30th

SLUMBER PARTIES DREAMGIRLS AT SLIDELL

LITTLE THEATRE

Slidell, Louisiana

In Slidell Little Theatre's production of Dreamgirls, follow the inspirational tale of

the African American trio "The Dreams" as they navigate the world of 20th century R&B, featuring performances of classic songs like "And I am Telling You," "I'm Not Going,"and "One Night Only". 8 pm Fridays and Saturdays; 2 pm Sundays. $28 adults; $18 children and students. slidelllittletheatre.org. k

APR 21st - JUN 1st ART IMMITATES LIFE LIFE, GROWTH & WISDOM AT HAMMOND REGIONAL ARTS CENTER

Hammond, Louisiana

Erica Larkin Gaudet, Mitchell Gaudet, and Paulo Dufour are all nationallyknown artists, who combine their passion for the artistic process and layering with explorations of the human experience in a new exhibition on display at the Hammond Regional Arts Center. An opening reception will be held April 21 from 5 pm– 8 pm. hammondarts.org k

APR 22nd

HISTORY FESTS

COMMUNITY HISTORY

FESTIVAL

Pride, Louisiana

The Pride-Chaneyville Branch of the East Baton Rouge Parish Library hosts this community history festival each year. This year's theme is "The Sportsman's Life." Expect a day of country fun, food, games, crafts, and entertainment. Activities also will include virtual reality gaming, bingo, animal meet-and-greets, a barbecue and hot sauce demo, and more. Chef and author Philippe Parola will do a special signing of his book If You Can't Beat 'Em, Eat 'Em! , followed by a tasting of invasive game gumbo. The Louisiana Lagniappe Dulcimers and the Upbeats will provide music, and

once an hour it's time for the ever-popular old-fashioned Cake Walk. 10 am–2 pm. ebrpl.com. k

APR 22nd

PLANT PARTIES SPRINGFEST

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Anyone looking to stretch their branches outside more this spring is invited to Moncus Park's Springfest—where gardening and plant experts will be present to educate guests about the ecosystem and how to start or improve their own home gardens. Tree climbing, kite flying, park tours, environmental vendors, an Easter Bunny appearance, and more will be on the docket. 3 pm–7 pm. Free. moncuspark.org. k

APR 22 nd

HORSIN' AROUND BOOTS & HOOVES DAY

Lawtell, Louisiana

Head over to the stables at Coasting Z in Lawtell—the Equine Capital of Louisiana, where guests of all ages can delight in stick horse rodeos, boot scrambles, a cook-out demonstration, and horseback riding. Local vendors will be onsite selling leatherwork and custom art, and musicians will provide a spirited backdrop. The day's end brings a marshmallow roast at the firepit to wrap it all up. 9 am–5 pm. Free, $10 to ride horses, and $5 for certain games. facebook.com/coastingzstables. k

APR 22nd

SIGNED COPIES

AUTHORS ROW

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Celebrate Louisiana writers at the East Baton Rouge Parish's annual Authors

Lafayette's Moncus Park kicks off their innaugural Springfest this month—offering kids and grown-ups alike a chance to get outside for a plant sale, tree climbing, and much more. Courtesy of Moncus Park.

A Mississippi Delta Adventure

BASE YOUR EXPLORATION OF THE “DEEPEST SOUTH” IN THIS CHARMING DELTA TOWN

from New France or The Midlands, or even Yankeedom, to come and explore when looking to observe and experience what the greater Deep South is all about.

Discover the Delta from Cleveland

Back a decade or so ago, in his book, “American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures in North America”, journalist Colin Woodward asserted that the United States was comprised of eleven distinct nations. By studying the dialects, recipes, historical movement and immigration patterns and other attributes of people living in different areas of the country, he was able to provide an understanding, or at least a theory of an understanding, of regional identities.

From naming Yankeedom (New England and Northern PA and Ohio), Tidewater (Eastern NC and VA), Greater Appalachia (Western VA to North Texas, including Northeast Mississippi), The Deep South (most of the southern states including North Florida and Southeast Texas), New France (Southern Louisiana), and others like the Far West, the Left Coast, the New Netherlands, El Norte and The Midlands, Woodward

catalogs the nuances and motivations of each region.

Mississippi is a state that contains the border of two regions: Greater Appalachia and The Deep South. Some have said that much of the great writing and great music that has come from the state has come from the confluence of these cultures, from both the resistance to and assimilation of these two very

Beginning in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel in Memphis and ending on Catfish Row in Vicksburg (according to author David Cohn), this rich alluvial plane made up of soils deposited by rivers with names like Tallahatchie, Sunflower and Yazoo has been fertile ground for America’s (the whole nation’s, not just a region’s) culture and history. Blues Music was born here and later combined with Greater Appalachia’s Country Music to form Rock and Roll (America’s greatest cultural export). The list of musical artists from the Delta is legion and one can scarcely drive a mile without happening on some blues marker or historic site. The Civil Rights movement galvanized in these

From renowned pottery places with ties to William Faulkner, world-class restaurants and roadside shack tamale shops, higher-end shopping and accommodations, blues clubs, blues museums, and a host of other attractions (like the $13 million GRAMMY Museum in Cleveland, built there as Mississippi has more GRAMMY winners per capita than any other state), there is more than a weekend’s worth of “must do’s” within an hour’s drive of the small university-town of Cleveland, Mississippi, the home of Delta State University, whose mascot is the Fighting Okra.

Located on historic Highway 61 in the literal heart of the “Deepest South” Delta, and less than 45-minutes from Clarksdale, Greenwood, Greenville, Rosedale, Mound Bayou and many other Delta communities, Cleveland boasts lodging, dining, shopping, entertainment, and attractions all in a safe, very attractive, and walkable downtown.

It truly is a lovely town in the middle of the Delta and as such is the best home base for your next Delta adventure. ***

different identities.

But today we are only talking about one of Mississippi’s identities: The Deep South.

Known as “The Most Southern Place on Earth,” the Mississippi Delta could also be known as the “Deepest South” of the Deep South, and it is the place for folks

old cotton towns. Even Kermit the Frog was born here, inspired by the denizens of the bayou near Jim Henson’s childhood home in Leland, Mississippi. And it all is set on the flat seas of green and brown (depending on season) under the fantastically immense Delta sky.

To plan your exploration of the Greater Delta from Cleveland, check out the city’s travel planning website at www.visitclevelandms.com where you will find itineraries (Civil Rights, antiquing, Blues, family-friendly, couples, girlfriends, etc.), events to plan around, dining and lodging options, and more.

Some have said that much of the great writing and great music that has come from the state has come from the confluence of these cultures, from both the resistance to and assimilation of these two very different identities.

Events

Beginning April 22nd - April 27th

Row at the Jones Creek Regional Branch. Published local authors will be available to share their work and to sign their books. 11 am– 2 pm. Free. ebrpl.com. k

APR 22nd

WHEELIN' & DEALIN' LOUISIANA BICYCLE FESTIVAL

Abita Springs, Louisiana

“Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.” Encouraging words from H.G. Wells, who would no doubt endorse the Louisiana Bicycle Festival. Each year, bike enthusiasts take over the tiny town of Abita Springs to see and show antique and creative custom bikes, and even catch a parade. There's a bike flea market, Tammany Trace cruise, and plenty of contests and prizes for two-wheeled tricks. Live music and festival food, too, at a bike fest that the web-zine Bike Ride & Custom declared “the biggest custom bike festival in the United States.” The festival cycles town-wide, but look for cyclists gathering at the Trailhead from 9 am–1 pm. Free. louisiananorthshore.com. k

APR 22nd

HEADS OR TAILS? CRAWFEST

New Orleans, Louisiana

Did you go to a college where they dumped eighteen thousand pounds of crawfish in the quad each spring? No? Then be on campus when Tulane University hosts its annual Crawfest celebration of mudbugs and music. New Orleans' venerable seat of learning lets down its gown for a day, presenting boiled crawfish by the ton and served up alongside live music by Tank and the Bangas, Hans Williams Eddie 9V, the Honey Island Swamp Band, and more. Plenty of food vendors and local artists displaying, too. 11 am–7 pm on Tulane's Uptown campus. Free for Tulane students or children twelve or younger; $20 otherwise. crawfest.tulane.edu. k

APR 22nd

INFINITE CRAWFISH

ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT CRAWFISH COOK-OFF

Slidell, Louisiana

Historically, this 40,000 pound crawfish

feast hosted by the Hospice Foundation of the South was considered the largest one-day event on the Northshore. Over fifty teams will be boiling away in Fritchie Park in Slidell, and guests will have access to as much as they can eat. Look forward to entertainment by Christian Serpas, The Bucktown Allstars, and Pine Leaf Boys. 11 am–6 pm. Admission for ages thirteen and older is $35 and includes all you can eat crawfish. Other food and beverages will be available for purchase. crawfishtickets.com. k

APR 22nd - APR 30th

WHALE OF A PLAY

MOBY DICK REHEARSED AT 30 BY NINETY THEATRE

Mandeville, Louisiana

See 30 by Ninety Theatre take on Orson Welles' adaptation of Herman Melville's classic when they stage Moby Dick Rehearsed. 8 pm on Fridays and Saturdays, 2:30 pm Sundays. $19 adults, $17 seniors and military, $14 for students. 30byninety.com. k

APR 23rd

JAZZ MUSIC MUSIC AT ST. JOHN'S CONCERT

Thibodaux, Louisiana

Founded almost thirty years ago, the

Music at St. John's Concert Series at St. John's Episcopal Church in Thibodaux brings seasonal performances set in the church's historic space—designed to promote the study, appreciation, and understanding of music by affordable exposure to professional musicians. April's concert features The New Orleans Rug Cutters, a Dixieland Jazz Band from banjo player Gabriel Cavalini. $15; free for students. stjohnsthibodaux.org. k

APR 23rd

BOOKISH BIRTHDAYS TERREBONNE PARISH LIBRARY 20TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

Houma, Louisiana

In April of 2003, the Terrebonne Parish Main Library moved into a state-of-theart 70,000-square-foot building, which offered the first drive-through service of any library in the state, as well as the only amphitheater in a Louisiana library. To celebrate twenty years of serving the community in that location, the Terrebonne Parish Library is inviting all for an anniversary party. After an opening ceremony at 2 pm, guests will be treated to live Cajun music, snowballs, a color explosion walk, a magic show from Magician David LeBoeuf, family story times,

a Terrebonne Parish Animal Shelter Adoption Tent, and more. 2 pm–5 pm. Free. mytpl.org. k

APR 23 rd

MUD BUGS SOUTH LOUISIANA CRAWFISH FESTIVAL

Gonzales, Louisiana

Dreams Come True Louisiana takes over the Lamar Dixon Expo Center in Gonzales, bringing a competitive spirit to all things Louisiana—cook-offs for jambalaya and cracklin's, cornhole and a classic car show, contests for crawfish boiling and crawfish eating. Plus crafts, live music, a petting zoo, and more. $5. crawfishfestival.org. k

APR 26 th

PRICELESS FOOTAGE

FRIENDS OF THE CABILDO FILM SERIES: 1970 JAZZ FEST FILMS

New Orleans, Louisiana

During the first-ever Jazz Fest in 1970, a series of 16mm film reels were taken. Now, this incredible archival footage possessed by the Louisiana State Museum will be shown at the Jazz Museum's third floor Performance Center listening room. 6:30 pm–8 pm. $15. nolajazzmuseum.org. k

APR 26 th - APR 30 th

CULTURE FESTIVALS

FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL DE LOUISIANE

Lafayette, Louisiana

Anyone looking for a reason to feel proud to be a Louisianan need only make plans to be in downtown Lafayette when this beloved five-day festival returns in full-force to Acadiana, bringing artists from countries the world over—with an emphasis on the Francophone diaspora—to Lafayette. Music, visual arts, theatre, dance, and cuisine combine into a melting pot that celebrates the common threads that bind their cultures and Louisiana's own artistic expressions together. "Festival," as it is simply called by the locals, transforms downtown Lafayette into an entertainment complex with many music stages presenting local, international, and emerging musicians; food court areas, street musicians, animators; arts & crafts boutiques; art galleries; cultural workshops; and a world music store. As usual, scores of bands this year are coming from all corners of the globe, and plenty of Louisiana greats are there to make things complete. It's big, it's colorful, and best of all, it's free. festivalinternational.org. k

APR 27 th

GARDEN PARTIES

AN EVENING AT WINDRUSH: THE MAGIC RETURNS

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The LSU Rural Life Museum presents an elegant Southern supper at Windrush Gardens, designed by Steele Burden in appreciation of the gardens of Europe and Louisiana in the nineteenth-century. Guests will enjoy cocktails and music in Windrush Gardens followed by a seated supper by Chef John Folse and desserts and coffee on the museum grounds. 6 pm to 9 pm. $150 per person; reservations required. bontempstix.com. k

APR 27 th

KORA-NATION

SONA JOBARTEH

AT THE MANSHIP

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The West African Griot is recognized as an individual who holds within themselves the stories of their people, communicated through music, poetry, and storytelling. In a special concert at the Manship this month, Sona Jobarteh emerges from this tradition as a master of the Kora, a stringed instrument that shares features with the lute and the harp. Jobarteh's singular power for expression has extended into Hollywood, where she has performed at major venues such as the Hollywood Bowl and scored blockbuster films such as Motherland and Beast. See her perform in this more intimate setting, starting at 7:30 pm. $35–$50. manshiptheatre.org. k

APR 27th - MAY 31st

ART COLLECTIONS

DEREK GORDON AND RODOLFO

RAMIREZ-RODRIGUEZ—A COLLECTION RETROSPECTIVE

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Throughout his life, Derek Gordon had an impressive career in the arts, besides being a keen collector. He did stints working for Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York as well as the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., before returning to his hometown of Baton Rouge to serve as president/CEO of the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge until his passing in 2012. Recently, the Ramirez-Rodriguez family approached the Arts Council about what to do with Gordon and his partner Rodolfo Ramirez-Rodriguez's substantial art collection—and the result is possibly the most impressive array of artwork to go on display at the Cary Saurage Community Arts Center's Shell Gallery. Fifty carefullychosen pieces from the over 500-work collection cover lithograph, charcoal drawings, etchings, pop art, and beyond. artsbr.org. k

Events

Beginning April 28th - April 29th

APR 28th

ART ABOUT TOWN

OLDE TOWNE SLIDELL SPRING CRAWL

Slidell, Louisiana

In the heart of Olde Towne Slidell, over seventy-five vendors gather for a night of shopping, sipping, live music, food, and more. 5 pm–9 pm in Olde Towne Slidell. Free. louisiananorthshore.com. k

APR 28th - APR 30th

ÉTOUFFÉE ALL DAY ARNAUDVILLE ÉTOUFFÉE FESTIVAL

Arnaudville, Louisiana

Over thirty years young, this annual affair at the Little Flower Auditorium occasions the creation (and consumption) of all sorts of étouffée, then adds in friendly rivalry, live music, children's activities, the Mayor's Cook-Off, antique shopping, and an antique car and truck show. Music lineup includes: the Adam Leger Band, the Nik L Beer Band, Geno Delafose & French Rockin' Boogie, and more. Free. arnaudvillecatholic.org/ etouffee-festival. k

APR 28th - APR

FLORAL FESTS

NORTHSHORE ARTS IN BLOOM

Hammond, Louisiana

Downtown Hammond will pop with vibrant swaths of over thirty colorful floral displays by local and regional designers at the annual Northshore Arts in Bloom, presented by the Northshore Arts Foundation. A Patron Party on April 28 starts the weekend, which in addition to flowers includes art of other mediums, playwriting, lectures, and more. Find times and tickets at northshoreartsfoundation.com. k

APR 28th - APR 30th

PASTA-BILITIES

THE ITALIAN FESTIVAL

Tickfaw, Louisiana

Combine the Louisiana parade tradition with the Italian pasta tradition, add in some small-town festival fare and a parade, and you've got The Italian Festival in Tickfaw. With live music from After 8, Sugar Shaker, and more. The parade rolls at 10 am on Saturday. theitalianfestivalorg.com. k

APR 28 th - APR 30 th

SOMETHING'S FISHY PLAQUEMINES PARISH

SEAFOOD FESTIVAL

Belle Chasse, Louisiana

Plaquemines Parish Seafood Festival-

goers get to feast on fresh Gulf Coast seafood (of course), bow down before the Seafood Queen, peruse crafts from local artisans, watch the big oyster drop (and find out what that is), enjoy some favorite carnival games and rides, and take in an eclectic mix of local music— this year including Rockin’ Doopsie Jr., Supercharger, Groovy 7, and others. Friday from 6 pm–10:30 pm, Saturday from 11:30 am–10:30 pm, and Sunday from 11:30 am–8 pm. Free on Friday, on Saturday and Sunday $5 for adults and free for children. facebook.com/ppshfest. k

Baton Rouge, and West Feliciana will count toward Baton Rouge. By playing, participants are also gathering open-source data that helps local agencies and research scientists. citynaturechallenge.org. k

APR 28th- MAY 7 th

MUSICAL LEGACIES

NEW ORLEANS JAZZ & HERITAGE FESTIVAL

New Orleans, Louisiana

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival is the city's hallmark international festival, famous for immersing the country's most powerful entertainers in the city of New Orleans' incomparable musical legacy. This year's festival is headlined by none other than Ed Sheeran, Lizzo, and The Lumineers. But we all know

APR 29th

WILD CARDS WAGS & WHISKERS GALA

Saint Francisville, Louisiana

The West Feliciana Animal Humane Society's annual Wags and Whiskers Gala returns to Hemingbough. Featuring a silent auction, food, cash bar, and live music. Lots of special shelter dogs and kittens will be there to love on. 6 pm. $30 adults, $20 for children. bontempstix.com. k

APR 29th

LOCAL LEGENDS CODY CANADA & THE DEPARTED AT THE MANSHIP

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The Red Dragon Listening Room presents frequent visitor and local legend Cody Canada & the Departed, opened by Steve Judice. 7:30 pm. $49.95–$69.95. manshiptheatre.org. k

APR 29th

MEMORIAL RIDES RIDE FOR ROX

Arnaudville, Louisiana

Indulge in some bicycling and brews to honor the memory of Roxanne Richard with this annual bike ride on the smooth roads of St. Landry Parish . Athletes and leisure riders of all skill levels are accommodated with a choice between 9, 18, 34, 44, and 73-mile long trails. The longest three trails will visit Rox's memorial at Lastrapes Garden Center All rides will begin and end at Bayou Teche Brewing. Registration ($25) begins at 7 am, and includes water, lunch from Tante Marie, and one free specialty draft from Bayou Teche Brewing. latrail.org/ride4rox. k

APR 29th

APR 28 th - MAY 1 st

ACT NATURAL

CITY NATURE CHALLENGE

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Get ready to help put Louisiana on the map during the four-day international nature competition—which involves identifying trees, shrubs, birds, and other flora and fauna. For four days, participants need only seek out the wildlife in their area—birds, insects, or plants—and snap a picture. Upload your observations to inaturalist. org or with the iNaturalist mobile app to be added to the competition, representing competing cities: Baton Rouge, Southwest Louisiana, and New Orleans. Observations made in Ascension, Assumption, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Iberville, Livingston, Pointe Coupee, St. Helena, St. James, Tangipahoa, West

that Jazz Fest isn’t just about big names, as there are hundreds of other musicians and bands on the schedule this year, each bringing their unique style and following. In addition to the music, happening simultaneously on multiple stages, the Heritage Fair offers its lip-smacking array of food (more than one hundred offerings available), as well as contemporary and folk crafts. Numerous areas highlight Louisiana’s diverse influences, including the Congo Square African Marketplace, the Contemporary Crafts area, and the Louisiana Marketplace. Festival parades, starring brass bands and marching clubs, begin and end in Heritage Square. Everything happens at the New Orleans Fairgrounds. Single day advance tickets start at $80; Weekend packages $225 for Weekend 1 and $275 for weekend 2; VIP and travel package options also available. nojazzfest.com. k

CHILI OUT CODE RED CHILI AND SALSA COOK-OFF

Zachary, Louisiana

Bring a hearty appetite to this delicious chili cook-off, a fundraiser for Lane Regional Medical Center. Cast a vote for your favorite chili (and salsa) while enjoying live music by Laine Hardy, Blue Crab Redemption, and Whiskey Row—and other family-oriented activities. 10 am–5 pm at the Historic Village in Downtown Zachary. Free. lanermc.org. k

APR 29th

AUTHORITIES ONE BOOK ONE COMMUNITY

AUTHOR TALK

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The East Baton Rouge Library, as part of its annual One Book One Community initiative, has invited musician and

Vintage treasures from clothing to collectibles will be up for grabs from over fifty vendors at the Covington Heritage Foundation's annual Antiques and Uniques Festival at the Covington Trailhead. Image courtesy of the City of Covington. See listing on page 34.

Events

Beginning April 29th - April 30th

author Chris Thomas King to discuss his book, which is this year's OBOC selection: The Blues: The Authentic Narrative of My Music and Culture. Free. 4 pm. Several other free community events, from a concert with Jonathan "Boogie" Long to a screening of the Slim Harpo documentary The Original King Bee, will be hosted at various libraries throughout the month of April. Find a complete list of parish-wide events at ebrpl.com or readonebook.org. k

APR 29th - APR 30th

FLY HIGH

KITE FEST LOUISIANE

Port Allen, Louisiana

Here's something to put some wind in your sails. Once again, West Baton Rouge is launching high-flying festivities at the West Baton Rouge Soccer Complex. The event has been named "Festival of the Year" by the Louisiana Travel Promotion Association and a Top 20 Event by the Southeast Tourism Society. The kiteloving crowds will get to enjoy a kite design contest, indoor kite flying, and other professional kite exhibitions, plenty to eat and drink, kite vendors, musical entertainment, kite-flying lessons, and kite-building workshops. Plus, don't miss the big fireworks display on Saturday night. Starts at 11 am each day. Free. westbatonrouge.net. k

APR 29 th - APR 30 th

FUN FINDS

ANTIQUES AND UNIQUES FESTIVAL

Covington, Louisiana

Two days of pure, unabashed eclecticism await: antique furnishings, period collectibles, random knickknacks and adorable hats. The Covington Heritage Foundation's juried, free Antiques & Uniques Festival is back again, featuring over fifty vendors selling locally-made fine art, antiques, architectural salvage, period collectables, food, and much more. 10 am–5 pm Saturday and Sunday at the Covington Trailhead. Free. covingtonheritagefoundation.com. k

APR 29 th - MAY 20 th

BLUFF SONGS

NATCHEZ FESTIVAL OF MUSIC

Natchez, Mississippi

Every May since 1991, the Natchez Festival of Music has been making Mississippi musical, staging a monthlong whirlwind of operas, operettas, Broadway musicals, jazz, and special

concerts in historic venues around the city. Here are just a couple events among the highlights:

April 29 : Die Fledermaus! (Or…The Bat Gets Even!) — The comic opera by Strauss will be performed by a full orchestra and vocalists from across the globe. 7 pm at the Natchez Civic Center.

May 2: An Evening with Ella Fitzgerald — Katrina Cox accompanied by the David Pellow Jazz Trio will perform Ella Fitzgerald's greatest hits.

7 pm at Smoot's Grocery.

Find the full lineup and prices at natchezfestivalofmusic.com. k

APR 30th

ART & NATURE

LOUISIANA SCENIC RIVERS ART FESTIVAL Folsom, Louisiana

The Folsom Scenic Rivers Art Festival returns for its third year to the Far Horizons Collective at Giddy Up Folsom. The subject matter of all of the artworks are the 3,000 miles of water protected by the Louisiana Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Those who attend will enjoy discovering local art from Louisiana craftsmen and women—with everything from paintings, drawings, and photography to ceramics, fine jewelry, and handmade clothing. Live music, local food, and guest speakers will also guide the day. Find more information at farhorizonsart.com. k

APR 30 th

CYBER JAZZ

VIRTUAL INTERNATIONAL JAZZ DAY CELEBRATION Online

Check out the New Orleans Jazz Museum's Facebook page for a full day of virtual lectures, performances, special archival content, and more virtual programming related to the birth of jazz music. 10 am–5 pm. Free. nolajazzmuseum.org. k

For our full list of April events, including those we couldn’t fit in print, point your phone camera here.

Features

38 HIGHWAY 61 IS EXACTLY AS LONG OR SHORT AS YOU NEED IT TO BE // 44 THE HILL COUNTRY’S ALIVE WITH THE SOUND OF MUSIC, THE TASTE OF BARBECUE, AND THE GHOSTS OF BLUEBONNETS //52 WHERE THE WATER TAKES YOU W

MISSISSIPPI

“I Believe in the Delta”

RAMBLING ACROSS BLUES COUNTRY WITH ONE TOUR GUIDE, ONE POET, TWO MULES

One crisp autumn day, I was paying my respects to Mississippi singer and guitarist John Hurt. Sunbursts refracted across the high pines, and then the sudden bray of a mule echoed across the cemetery. Cutting the second bray short, I answered the phone: Stan Street, friend and owner of the Hambone Art Gallery, asked, “Are you in Clarksdale yet? We’re going out, so we may not be here when you get into town.”

Longtime readers of Country Roads will know Clarksdale. Nestled in the Yazoo-Mississippi River Delta (or simply “the Delta”), the city has become an interesting case study in revitalization over the last few decades. Every April, during the annual Juke Joint Festival, downtown Clarksdale becomes an entrepot for music, art, and general revelry.

Clarksdale is just one of the several small towns to dot this alluvial plain. To the untrained eye, the farms, swamps, and Double Quick convenience stores hint at monotony. But this is a rich cultural landscape, an area deeply affected by human activities harmonious, destructive, symbiotic.

For visitors like myself, the Delta extends its welcome over and over again. For others, like my friend and co-author, Marshall Blevins, it becomes home. For both of us, the Delta provides a canvas against our linked but distinct explorations of the quintessentially southern Mule We became friends because we both recognize just how historically underappreciated the mule (yes, the animal) is. I bring its history to light through lectures, presentations, and factchecked articles; Marshall taps into emotional dimensions, and beautifully explores our own humanity via the humble Mule through painting and the written word. Though we share a muse, and Southern accents, Marshall and I tend to operate on different frequencies. Marshall is the artist, and I am the tour guide and historian. And for this adventure, there is not a Mule in sight.

Prose by Charlotte Jones • Poetry by Marshall Blevins “Church Goin’ Mule” • Photography by Jones & Blevins • Art by Blevins

I believe in the Delta, and then I believe in the South, and then I believe in humankind; the only way to the Delta is by highway road, or route, and it is twined together with pock-marked dirt roads or sweet country lanes that pass pristine pecan orchards and infinite fields of crops that reach forever towards the horizon.

A Soul Place

Some say the Delta is a soul place —people feel a mythical connection to the perplexing landscape the first moment they cross the Yazoo River, as though they should have been there all along.

I have cruised north the direct ways, but prefer crisscrossing across the Magnolia State, weaving through byways, highways, direct paths, and out-of-the-way. From Baton Rouge, it’s a straight shot up The Blues Highway, U.S. 61. For three days, Marshall and I moseyed around the upper Delta, popping into small towns along backroads.

The first time I made the voyage to the Delta, I had never seen so much land before, the sky rivals Montana but no one believes this until they see it. I had never seen so much green in the heat of high July, everything looked like spring, it was so glad.

The Route

I always say that the 61 highway is exactly as long or as short as you need it to be. If you have something on your mind, you can pick any direction and drive, and it’ll last until you sort your troubles out, or sing them out. If you’re glad and happy, it runs quick and fast to carry you home with a smile on your face.

U.S. Highway 61 is the direct route to the Delta from Baton Rouge. Vicksburg is the gateway. Once you cross the Yazoo River, everything flattens. Historically speaking, the Delta once featured dense forests and swamps, with intermittent Native American mounds. By the 19th century, Americans cleared people and ancient cypress to make way for cotton, which reigned as king for over a century marked by enslavement, and then by sharecropping. Nitta Yuma on Highway 61 is a tactile reminder of this tenure. The town features the classic essentials of a small Delta town—a commissary, church, railroad station, post office, and a smattering of docks and corn cribs.

The old 61 highway was built out of farmland and wound meanderingly around towards the commissaries and farm stores of the landowners, gave them an incentive to sell the land to the highway men, and living near it I can feel the ghosts and sometimes go out running, driving, just to see it all. Once, driving home from visiting Memphis Minnie’s grave there in Walls, Mississippi—yes, up 61—I went back home on Old 61 and stopped clear in the middle of the highway and got a water out of my trunk, and there was no one to honk or slam on their brakes because there very rarely is anyone to meet you when you go to explore the Delta, to go find what is calling you, to fuss you about sharing the road.

The new 61 highway runs pretty well parallel to the old one in parts, but not always, it’s more practical, straightforward, some four lane and some two lane and all captivating, if you’ll just let it.

Roadside Cuisine

While plenty can be seen from and around Highway 61, it can stretch for miles without a store, bathroom, or restaurant. Speaking of food, it should be noted that this soul place ain’t for everyone. If you have dietary restrictions, pre-pack some groceries and plan meals. Vegetarian and gluten-free options are limited.

Puppies playing in front of a clean-washed-blue trailer, the parents in the sun, last time I was through here, I helped a turtle across the road, never mind that it was too late, the gas station empty and the sign said “Stop! Make sure your pants are pulled up before entering,” and “No Profanity,” and “Hot Lunch Hamburgers and Catfish,” and I went in with Charlotte because the signs were hand-painted and looked sweet. And I was looking at the shelves, which were sparse and dusty, and the clerk shouted, “Bare as a mothafucka huh? Waiting on the truck!” And I laughed because of course and waited for Charlotte to come out of the bathroom, picked up a water and an energy drink, joking with her about if she wanted a road beer or not, her exclaiming it’s way too early, and the clerk said, “no it ain’t!” And lifted his bud from behind the register, and we laughed because of course.

She got a breakfast sandwich, and a Leflore County maintenance department man came in, with his name on his clean dark blue jumper, and everyone smiling at each other, and he wanted to know if my hat was from the Crossroads Gin, then said, “Oh, no, it’s that musician.”

I never even seen a pickled ham hock in a jar before, floating there next to pickled eggs, pink. I asked the clerk for one, because I don’t want to knock a thing before I try it—last year I found out I really don’t like chicken livers after all—and the man in the jumper said, “Well you are a real country girl,” and the clerk said, “Are you sure? Do you see how expensive they are?” And they were 4.95 but for 4.95, I was glad to hear the hard labor man call me country,

The hock barely came out of the jar it was so big, and he put it in a wax paper bag, then a white paper bag, and we were back on the road towards Greenwood.

The pink long pickled skin sliding off and vinegary, the dog Wilbur wouldn’t touch it, the texture too much for me to handle, then the stink on my fingers, the meat the same, quickly giving up and Wilbur sitting as far away from it as possible, pressed against the door and letting me know I was directly responsible for the assault on his senses.

If pickled hocks are beyond your comfort zone, take the detour from 61 to Greenville. The original Doe’s Eat Place is worth the visit for readers who frequent the one in Baton Rouge. Started as a honky-tonk venue in 1941 by Dominick “Big Doe” Signa and his wife, Mamie, Doe’s has been integrated from its early days, when a local white doctor would come in for steaks between house calls, then word got around. It’s still housed in the original small, delightfully-ramshackle building, allowing you to acquaint yourself with the neighboring table. Though not as prosperous as it used to be, the old downtown stretch features interesting pockets of nightlife.

To the Crossroads

Captivated by each Delta town, the ones by the river, the old port cities, the lonesome and shuttered up ones that still hold tamale shacks, the ones way up the road that are in their revival, the ones in-between with fine dining, the ones that set up Christmas lights all along their creek, making the holidays seem real again, all of the small tucked away museums, all of the unexpected things.

North of Greenville, Highway 1 runs nearly parallel to the Mississippi River. The unincorporated community of Scott disappears as quickly as the road sign. Almost a century ago, the heavy spring rains and a swollen Mississippi River became too much for the levees in Mound Bayou, just west of Scott. When the levees failed here and across the river in Arkansas City, so began the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. Eventually, dark waters inundated over 27,000 square miles in seven states, killing hundreds of humans, livestock, and wildlife. This destruction led to the 1928 Flood Control Act, officially authorizing the U.S. Corps of Engineers to come up with solutions, built by men and mules from prisons and cotton plantations.

It’s from this cultural landscape that the roots of American music grew. Whether or not you listen to the blues or to country music, each has its own trail of historic markers through the Delta—guideposts worth following. The Country Music Trail is relatively new, but you can tip your hat and say “Hello Darlin’” to Conway Twitty’s marker in his hometown of Friar’s Point. I first stumbled upon the Mississippi Blues Trail in 2010 and immediately became intrigued with the navy-colored markers, often located in a downtown strip or near relics of a train station. It encouraged me to learn more about the music that grew out of this unfamiliar landscape.

Mississippi Fred McDowell singing, “That 61 highway is the longest road I know, she runs from New York City down the Gulf of Mexico.”

Genesis stories about the blues vary, the most famous of them meeting at the crossroads of Routes 49 and 61 where they say Robert Johnson sold his soul to become the most skillful of guitar players. But no one can deny the influence of Johnson’s idol Charley Patton, who lived, worked, and played music at Dockery Plantation, located on Highway 8 just outside of Cleveland. According to Google Maps, “the real crossroads” are located down a dirt road across from Dockery.

Looking at the map and all of the roads, we couldn’t even decide which way to go, looped around looking at the railroads and the crossroads and the enlightenment. Graveyards with targets and hand-carved graves, little homes, windows and all, circled x’s, wishes granted, crosses, blooming in heaven, old oaks, water come up, Wilbur out chasing into the woods and coming back, bridge is out.

We were down the road from Dockery, and I could almost see Robert Johnson walking down the dirt road beneath the stars with the lights of old plantation flickering behind him, Charley Patton echoing like the devil himself into the dark, Johnson scared, determined, fed-up.

Depending who you ask, the crossroads can also be found in Rosedale, Clarksdale, between some catfish farms in Belzoni, or across the river in Arkansas. The mysticism of the crossroads is almost as old as human civilization. In modern day Mississippi, it mostly goes back to Johnson’s musical prowess, his legacy, life, and death continuing to captivate scholars and blues fans alike. The narrative of the devil’s role in it all has since shifted; it arguably delegitimizes Johnson’s prodigal abilities and influence on American music. But still, good storytelling is good for tourism.

There is a stand of crosses there heading into Clarksdale, and they look to be painted fresh every year, but they stand slanted, leaning into the sunrise and away from the sunset, and that’s the thing about Clarksdale, it’s all at a tilt, a fun house if you just blink hard and try to have a good time. And if you go to Abe’s, you’ll find the crossroads, where old 61 and 49 meet, and there’s some blues guitars up there in the sky and it’s awful pretty. If you talk to anybody local, they have their own idea about where the “real” crossroads was, or if Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil in a graveyard, or by the river, or maybe he just learned from another bluesman, lost to history.

In Haitian Voudoun and its cousins, however, there is Papa Legba, Spirit of the Crossroads. He opens doors, if you do it the right way. And in Hoodoo or Rootwork practices, crossroads magic is common, because where any two roads meet, all of the energy that passes through is powerful. Imagine the energy of 61, imagine the energy of the River Road. Any crossroads will do. And if you stay in the Shack Up Inn, there’s one shack where someone scrawled “how many crossroads does someone have in life,” and that used to make me mad for some reason, like it was a trite way to talk about it, like it was a dumb thing to say, but the more I thought about it over the years, the more it became a question, the more I wanted my answer, and to me, well, we are always at a crossroads. We always get to choose where we are going, and at what velocity, and with what song. The Delta has been perpetually at a crossroads, of growth, of change, of moving forward, and of the dire opposite. It has been a deep spring, a strong river, of creativity—famous authors, musicians, actors, and painters all call the Delta home. To see it all by car is to catch some of the magic left behind by centuries dwelling in myth, love, pain. The fields themselves are always at a crossroads; planting, growth, harvest, rest. Always changing.

Great Care For Your Children

If you are expecting a new baby, plan 30 minutes to come by our office and meet our pediatricians before your baby arrives. That’s all it will take to ensure your child has great care from Day 1 – care you can count on at Lane Pediatrics!

From diagnosing and treating common childhood illnesses, to the sudden onset of viral or bacterial infections, flu, strep throat, ear infections, stomach aches and more, we have the expertise your child needs.

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Shola Tijani, MD Pediatrician

Board Certification: American Board of Pediatrics

Medical Education: St. George’s University School of Medicine

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Chana Heintz, MD Pediatrician

Board Eligible: American Board of Pediatrics

Medical Education: St. George’s University School of Medicine

Residency: University at Buffalo Jacob’s School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences

To Baptist Town

In Greenwood, Marshall and I looked for where Johnson died and inaugurated The 27 Club.

Sky-high crosses, gas stations, the sleeping winter land, down through clean old Greenwood, the bookstore, the heron mural, people out on the streets, the spotless glass windows of the Viking buildings, over the railroad track to Baptist Town.

I live outside of history most of the time, I never want to know too much, usually. Knowing only that Robert Johnson probably played most of the Delta, knowing only that most blues musicians probably did, knowing that the jukes of the past are beyond knowing, past being ghosts, only myth, all of the musicians that never made it, all of the day laborers and sharecroppers and lovers lost even to black and white photographs, gone.

So I didn’t know anything about Baptist Town, or where Robert Johnson lived or died outside of he got poisoned, and apparently, it was here, Baptist Town.

Instead, and much to our benefit, we met Sylvester Hoover, the proprietor of the Hoover Grocery, the Back in the Day Museum, and Delta Blues Legends Tours. You could smell something good frying somewhere, and there were some men with their dogs and the hood popped on a Ford truck, and paintings on the buildings, and a laundromat.

Robert Johnson bought his Prince Albert Tobacco here, painted by local artist Ricky Ferguson, and there’s B.B. King, and a running rabbit, and it was a good day to be standing under a blue sky and sun in January in the Delta, and Mr. Hoover came out from the laundromat to meet us.

The museum, in a shotgun house virtually left untouched since its construction, does not gloss over the hardscrabble of Black life on the storied land. Artifacts and Mr. Hoover’s knowledge reiterates human struggles from sharecropping to white supremacy, natural and man-made disasters, to the Civil Rights Movement. If you ask, Mr. Hoover will also take you on a tour of important historical sites in the area; this includes a visit to the nearby town of Money, where the brutal murder of fourteen-year-old Emmett Till has reverberated across the United States for almost seventy years.

And he tells us about the block, and there’s locals inside, and it seemed like we might could stay all day, and like maybe we should pay him for the free tour we already got, the shack museum he showed us, everyone leaving town that left their old things, to see how people used to live, the reason how come everyone had the blues, the light shining like heaven into the shack door, wooden floors, wooden ceiling.

“He used to write his songs on bags his tobacco came in, pinned them to the walls, saying ‘I wrote this one, and Susan wrote that one, and the Devil wrote this one over here, and I guess I’ll sing that tonight.’”

He said the blues is the same as the songs they sing on Sundays, and he lilts out sweetly, “My God loves me, he knows just what I need, my God is good to me,” then he smiles a little and says, “My girl loves me, she knows just what I need, she is good to me.”

Between Money and Greenwood, there is the Mount Zion Baptist Missionary Church cemetery where Robert Johnson is buried. His tombstone is a makeshift shrine for blues fans on their own pilgrimages. Most journeys in and around the Mississippi Delta should involve graveside visits, even if you don’t know those buried. Evident by the turn rows that encroached graves outside of Schlater, cemeteries remind that the Delta has always been sacred ground for its inhabitants, regardless of their earthly or economic planes. But there’s also life. So much life.

There’s been some lonesome nights there in the Delta where I felt like I might just drive in the darkness forever on the lost highway, into another realm. Maybe I have.

This is only a glimpse. The best we recommend is to take your time, give it a chance, and talk to the folks you meet along the way. Most importantly, when they talk, listen. h

TEXAS

Over the Hills

BLUEBONNET COUNTRY IS WORTH THE TRIP, EVEN WITHOUT THE BLUEBONNETS

Story and photos by Alexandra Kennon

This story was supposed to be about bluebonnets.

For those who have not spent considerable time visiting or romanticizing rural Texas, bluebonnets are the small, wispy, purplish-blue-colored wildflowers that drape the state’s highway medians and cow pastures in regal robes of indigo each spring. The “Yellow Rose of Texas” may have been responsible for saving the Alamo, but it’s the bluebonnets that wildly contribute to the Hill Country’s natural beauty, and keep tourists and locals alike pulling cars over to snap photographs, year after year.

The bluebonnets were what brought us to Texas a couple of days before our friends’ wedding south of Austin, and kept us a couple of days after they exchanged vows.

But at the time of our excursion, the lingering impacts of an unseasonable drought rendered the bluebonnets all but non-existent. Spotting one or two drooping speciments on the roadside, I’d jump with excitement, eagerly alerting my Austin-raised partner Sam “There!” Each time, he would sigh: “Yeah, but it’s not the same. They’re normally everywhere this time of year. Seas of them.” We heard the sentiment again and again from locals, especially those invested in tourists like us who flock to these hills each spring.

Where we missed the bluebonnets, we found plenty of pit barbecue, country music history, unexpected natural wonders, chicken fried steak, local libations and colorful characters—making it a much more than worthwhile adventure.

Lone Star Court

The Hill Country is plenty worthwhile on its own accord, but admittedly, the close proximity to Austin is a major asset.

Though Lone Star Court, the boutique hotel where we were staying, is part of North Austin’s upscale shopping area The Domain, its design foreshadowed our more rural Hill Country experience to come. A Tiffany blue vintage Buick Roadmaster (or that’s my guess based on Googling, so don’t come for me, car people) with Texas plates and a sixties motel-style neon sign brandishing “Lone Star Court” greeted us out front. After we checked in inside the smartly cowhide-accented office, a fragrant waft of woodsmoke beckoned from a barbecue smoker on the sprawling covered courtyard: “Welcome to Texas”.

As if a remote southwest highway motel received a metropolitan education, the accommodations at Lone Star Court have each their own outdoor entrances over-

Top to bottom: Lone Star Court, a Hill Country-inspired boutique hotel in North Austin; Gruene’s historic Dance Hall; Chilaquiles at Caliche Coffee in downtown Fredericksburg.

Jacob’s Well Natural Area, just northwest of Wimberley, Texas

looking the courtyard, outfitted with a pair of rocking chairs and a ceiling fan. The retro motel atmosphere carried into our room, which greeted us with cold Lone Star beers in the vintage-style Smeg refrigerator (the same shade of blue as the Buick) and local salsa and snacks. A sliding barn door to the sleek, pristine bathroom and leather chair with the exposed-wood desk conjured a ranch house feel—the cloud-soft mattress and smooth, cool Egyptian cotton sheets reminded us we were in a luxury hotel in recently-reimagined North Austin.

Fredericksburg & Enchanted Rock

We started out early the next morning with the under two-hour drive to Fredericksburg. The further out we got, the subdivisions and shopping centers gave way to long stretches of pasture speckled with cows and cacti, occasionally broken up by ranch houses—longhorn-adorned iron gates protecting their long gravel driveways.

Then, rising up like a Western movie set, came the town of Fredericksburg. Though founded on land originally occupied by Comanche Native Americans, the town received its name, derived from Prince Frederick of Prussia, upon its founding by German settlers in 1846. Today, the downtown length of Main Street stretches flat and picturesque, lined with over 150 locally-owned shops, restaurants, and galleries in historic buildings bearing Texas and German flags.

After a stop by the tourism office, we met Sam’s cousin Gary, a local peach farmer, for breakfast at Caliche Coffee. We were impressed by the wide-ranging menu options that nodded to the Southwest and beyond— Sam went for the earthy red chile-sauced Chilaquiles; I had some kind of yogurt and granola parfait laced with a gingery, citrusy ribbon of fruit; and Gary generously let me snap a photo of his thick avocado toast, loaded with

colorful veggie garnishes and boiled egg. As we sipped our coffee on the sunny back deck, Gary told us about the many changes increased tourism has brought to Fredericksburg, and a few things that have stubbornly and gloriously remained the same (like the General Store). It wasn’t lost on me how my being there to write about my visit for a magazine, photographing his avocado toast, was fairly emblematic of the things that Gary cited were fueling this change; he was warm, friendly, and matter-of-factly hospitable regardless.

Next, we headed for Enchanted Rock. The massive, orangey pink granite dome’s name comes from the considerable lore associated with it—local Comanche, Apache, and Tonkawa tribes believed the rock possessed spiritual and magical powers. Legends range from the rock making Native people invisible to aid them in hiding from Anglo settlers, to the Tonkawa believing ghost fires light the top of the dome and reports of it creaking (which geologists believe is a result of the stone contracting at night after being heated by the sun during the day).

As is true of most Texas State Parks and Natural Areas, reservations at Enchanted Rock are highly recommended since the park closes when it reaches capacity. The park offers around eight and a half miles of hiking trails throughout—experienced hikers can opt to take the full 4.6 mile loop trail, and more leisurely sightseers can take the 0.1 mile Scenic View Trail or easy 0.3 mile Frontside Trail. With limited time and over-confident estimations of our hiking capabilities, we opted for the fairly challenging 0.8 mile Summit Trail, which takes visitors directly to the top of Enchanted Rock.

The incline was steep enough to be quite invigorating—at least at first—as we galumphed ahead, stopping every hundred yards or so to turn around and marvel at the increasingly-impressive view of the surrounding

Hill Country as we ascended. About a third of the way from the top, I had to stop to sit down on a rock. I don’t normally struggle with vertigo, but something about a hike that gradually steep (and my continuous turns to look back down and admire the view) had me a bit lightheaded. After a grounding little water break, we pressed forward to the top—and from the very peak of the mysterious not-quite-mountain, the lofty perspective of the vast, arid landscape around us was well worth the effort. The descent was a quick and pleasant reward for our efforts on the way up.

Feeling accomplished, we headed back into town to meet Gary and his partner Kaye for lunch at Hill & Vine. The “Texas table and wine hall” offers creatively-laid-back, locally-inspired-and-sourced dishes like chicken schnitzel with chimichurri and grilled lemon, a watermelon and green tomato salad with spiced pecans and herbed goat cheese, a Texas cheeseburger with local Wagyu and house-brined pickles, and pimento mac & cheese you can add pulled pork to. We all thoroughly enjoyed our entrées, and I was surprised that when I hesitated to order the Roadside Fried Pies—hand pies made with local peaches and spiced pecans—Gary intervened. He wanted to try them, too. Even having spent much of his life on a peach orchard, he still appreciated the deliciousness of the local bounty—particularly decadent wrapped in its crispy-thin pastry, Texas rum sauce, and local Clear River ice cream.

After lunch, we moseyed around Fredericksburg’s historic downtown area. We made our obligatory stop in the Marketplatz, the historic park at the center of town that surrounds the Vereins Kirche—an octagonal building that has been rebuilt on the site of Fredericksburg’s first church and school, that today houses a museum of Fredericksburg’s history.

Down the street, Rustlin’ Robs overwhelmed and

yards Estate Tasting Room, one of the more impressive, with its imposing stone facade and fifty-six acres of vineyards on an over-three-hundred-acre estate. While found ers Dr. Richard Becker and his wife Bunny were in France studying the Viognier grape (which they would be the first to commercially plant in Texas), they observed the abundance of lavender plants thriving in that dry and arid climate. In 1998, they enlisted their daughter and friends to assist in planting 10,000 lavender plants at their estate vineyard, which has grown to three acres and now includes poppies, bluebon nets, sunflowers, and zinnias. Becker even hosts an annual Lavender Festival, whose twenty-fourth edition will take place the weekend of April 15–16, 2023.

Down 290, Wildseed Farms also offers stunning wild floral displays, with bluebon nets and other wildflowers (when in season) stretching to the horizon, a Brew Bonnet Biergarten, and a cute associated gift shop (we bought a couple of shot glasses with lit tle bluebonnets painted on the side, to drown our sorrows over the drought).

Luckenbach, Willow City Loop & Llano

A full day exploring Fredericksburg under our belts (and still so much left on the table for next time), we headed southeast toward one of the more legendary destinations on our itinerary (in a landscape full of legends, jutting out of the desert like Enchanted Rock). In under twenty minutes, we arrived at Luckenbach: an autonomous zone where country music history and reverence thereof surpass all else on that beer-soaked acreage. It started as a trading post in 1849 that is said to have never broken a peace treaty with the Comanche Native Americans who utilized it alongside German set tlers. The small community grew to include a cotton gin, a blacksmith, and a school, and the population increased to nearly five hundred residents at its highest in 1904, before steeply declining over the course of the next several decades. In 1970, an adver tisement in a local paper touted “town — pop. 3 — for sale,” which earned the atten tion of rancher and Texas folklorist/writer Hondo Crouch, rancher Kathy Morgan, and actor Guich Koock, who together bought Luckenbach in 1970 for $30,000. In 1973, Jerry Jeff Walker recorded the groundbreaking country rock record lingua in the local Dancehall—that was three years before Waylon Jennings and Wil lie Nelson would launch Luckenbach to worldwide fame with the hit “Luckenbach Texas (Back to the Basics)”.

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With its dancehall and funky tree-branch-draped outdoor stages, Luckenbach continues to host regular live country acts for audiences who also enjoy sipping local beer and pursuing the kitschy items in the historic Post Office and General Store. We sat at a picnic table in the shade sipping Altstadt Pilsner watching the weeknight pickers’ circle guitarist play and crack jokes as the sun teased at setting.

Wanting to maximize our remaining daylight and take advantage of already being so far out, we impulsively decided to knock the Willow City Loop off of our itinerary that evening. Willow City Loop is a thirteen-mile meandering drive through some of the most scenic countryside in the Hill Country—the narrow ranch road brought us over creeks, past craggy rock formations, plenty of “loose cattle” signs and what they warn of, and other wildlife. Even though we were too early for the bluebonnets and other wildflowers that make Willow City Loop “the iconic Texas Hill Country scenic drive,” I was captivated by the ruggedly remote landscape.

And then, like a beautiful Texan beacon on that lonely ranch road (one perk of our random evening drive out of season was that we entirely avoided the traffic that can come with such a famous route), there was the road sign, matter-of-factly telling us that Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Q in Llano was less than twenty miles north. Having been raised by an Austin barbecue reviewer, Sam extolled the virtues of the legendary joint, and we took off. A young man lording over a vault-like pit holding links of sausage, massive pork chops, quarters of chicken, a sizable brisket, and racks of ribs greeted us. Sam pointed out the exact pork chop and sausage links we wanted and asked him to slice from the fattier side of the brisket. Then we took our tray inside to round up sides

of simple ham-hock flavored pinto beans, potato salad, and mac ‘n’ cheese. As we moaned through each smokey, fatty bite of simply-seasoned perfection dunked in thin, porky sauce, a dozen sets of mounted deer eyes upon us, we were reminded of the delicious rewards that often come with willingness to go a few extra miles for something truly special.

Blanco & Wimberley

The next day, departing from our Austin launchpad one last time, we grabbed migas for breakfast at one of Sam’s no-frills Tex-Mex favorites, Enchiladas Y Mas. Then, back into the Hill Country we went—this time with our sights set on Jacob’s Well Spring at the head of Cypress Creek, northwest of Wimberley. What makes Jacob’s Well notable is its impressive underwater cave that descends vertically for about thirty feet. The crystal clear water allows visitors to see pretty far down the well, which is a

From left to right: A view from the hike to the summit of Enchanted Rock in Fredericksburg; Shadowland Ranch’s restored 1956 airstream, near Wimberley ; Cypress Falls Swimming Hole in Wimberley; Giant artist-decorated cowboy boots and funky-fun shops fill downtown Wimberley; The view from the top of the dam at Canyon Lake.

popular natural swimming destination. Arriving after a short walk from the parking lot, we found a family enjoying the swimming hole and opted to sit on the walkway and stick our bare feet in the water, as icy cool and clean as its crystal blueness promised, contrasted by the midday sun beating against the back of our necks.

Next, we set our sights on Blanco State Park—only to be seduced along the way by a small red building with a rusty tin roof promising “Homemade Apple Pie”. Like out of a nostalgic dream, the Deutsch Apple Bakery displayed apple pastries of any and every variety, lovingly shaped by hand, beautifully rustic; piled high in the case alongside blackberry pie bars, some local delicacy called butter bars, lemon lavender cookies, and so much more. A kind-eyed older lady piled too many sweets to justify on a road trip into boxes for us, and asked about where we were from. “This might be my favorite bakery ever,” I said incoherently through bites of the thick and crumbly blackberry pie bar back in the car, an assessment I stand by as only slightly hyperbolic. Four days later, when we had returned home to New Orleans, I broke into a loaf of apple pecan bread and marveled anew at how it could still be so moist, so rich in buttery spice.

Blanco State Park covers a one-mile stretch of the Blanco River’s banks, where visitors enjoy swimming, picnicking, camping, and bountiful fishing with no license required. We watched as kids and their parents enjoyed walking along the top of a dam and exploring safe and shallow waters nearby, before departing for our lodging near Wimberley.

The restored 1956 Airstream that would be our home for the weekend emerged at the center of a private clearing in the woods—a hammock draped invitingly beside it. We used the provided

wagon to deliver bags from the car, and marveled at the Airstream’s restoration—with warm wooden interior details and ‘60s inspired white furnishings, party games, and a cocktail shaker in the window. A separate tin structure housed the bathroom, and a surrounding deck came equipped with a propane grill and hot tub.

The next day was our friends’ big wedding day, and Sam was in the groom’s party. So, while he hustled off to fulfill his groomsman duties of tie-tying and whiskey swigging, I was left to get better acquainted with the hammock and explore downtown Wimberley’s shops on my own. We’d done a bit of preliminary roaming as we drove the winding, tree-shaded country roads coming in the previous day, admiring the homes along the Blanco River and pointing out stray cattle and deer. While the scenery surrounding Fredericksburg and Johnson City was so striking in its open, desert landscape; Wimberley with its plentiful trees and

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swimming holes evoked a more whimsical, wooded feel.

I was eager to peruse the funky smattering of shops that seemed to split their allegiance between Western and hippy aesthetics; plenty chaotically incorporating both. Some carried cowboy boots and kitschy coffee mugs, some kept stock a bit more colorful (literally, in some cases—I bought a pair of bright orange socks printed with expletives for a friend). The next morning, I would drag Sam back to show him Los Olivos Market: a Texas wine, craft beer, and olive oil market that sold charcuterie boards and other bites, where I bought a bottle of Texas Hill Country Olive Co. olive oil infused with Harissa and another with white balsamic. Continually on a quest for the elusive bluebonnet, I also grabbed a couple of Texas-shaped wooden magnets with the purplish flowers printed on them at a print shop. “Yeah, that drought has been hard on ‘em this season,” the salesman sighed, wrapping my consolation prize in tissue paper. “You should really come back in a couple weeks.”

The next morning, after some more cloying, crumbling bites of Deutsch Apple delicacies on our deck, we headed to Cypress Falls Swimming Hole—a site we’d noticed advertised on a roadside sign a few days prior. We parked along the blueish green water and ambled up to the open bar/deck/boat rental operation that had clearly received the “funky-fun” memo Wimberley operates on. $8 gives visitors access to the deck and swimming hole all day, and only $10 gets you a canoe, paddle board, or tube rental. I asked the guy who handed us our paddles and helped carry our canoe to the water if we’d need life vests. “You’re overthinkin’ it,” he laughed at me. “It’s like, four feet deep.”

Comforted, we shoved out onto the sun-reflective water and paddled around leisurely for around an hour, stopping across the way to climb a big natural rock formation before returning the boat. We could have been quite happy sipping local beer and watching the boats and families splash about from a wicker chair on that deck the rest of the afternoon, but it was our last day in the area, and we had more ground to cover.

Suckers for Tex-Mex and particularly susceptible when in the land of it, we grabbed lunch at Durango’s in Wimberley—a bright orange building that called with its promise of “Homemade tortillas” painted on the window. We ordered a plate of huevos smothered in a green chile sauce next to spicy carne guisada, refried beans, hashbrowns, and bacon, and a cup of menudo in the naive hope that we would both forget our disdain for tripe long enough to enjoy the spicy red soup. We agreed that if we were to enjoy menudo, that would have been a good one.

While we were eating, Sam’s buddy Calvin invited us to join him and his dad at nearby Devil’s Backbone Tavern in Fischer. It’s named for The Devil’s Backbone, a limestone ridge in the area that’s known as a scenic-if-incredibly-haunted drive, beloved as a backdrop in Western films.

After pulling up to the legendary dive bar and honky tonk dancehall, we walked past the conglomeration of bikers and cowboys and their big slobbery dogs holding court at picnic tables out back. Inside, we were greeted by a dimly-lit world of Lone Star beer, the twang of country music, and allegedly the oldest shuffleboard in Texas (regulation length). Saloon-style vintage light fixtures crusted with dust, lit-up domestic beer signs, a skeleton in a cowboy hat, and hundreds of tattered dollar bills affixed to the ceiling completed the atmosphere. We grabbed glass bottled Lone Stars and moseyed into the dancehall portion, where we listened to the Michael O’Connor band play for a few songs, couples occasionally getting up to dance on this Sunday afternoon. “You didn’t pay nothin’, the least you can do is dance,” O’Connor prodded the crowd. When Calvin and his dad arrived, we joined them for a game of shuffleboard, feeling part of the singular local scene as we took our shots at knocking each other’s pucks off the long, sandy board, cursing between pulls of beer.

Only a quick drive away from Old Baldy, we tackled the short but vigorous hike up a set of stone stairs to the top of what some refer to as “Lookout Mountain”. We aren’t the most skilled hikers, but we do like a nice view—and sure enough, the added elevation from the top provided a beautiful panorama of the surrounding Hill Country, which was worth being a little winded by the two-hundred-twenty steep steps.

Still working to squeeze as much natural beauty as possible into our last day, we headed to Canyon Lake. A reservoir of the Guadalupe River constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1950s to provide flood control and water for communities south of the Canyon Dam, the massive blue body of water looks pretty out of place in the middle of this dry Texas countryside. That doesn’t stop it from being picturesque, lined with its sandy beaches dotted by sunbathing tourists. We walked along the top of the imposing dam, marveling at the blueness of the water and the rolling hills on the opposite shore.

Just as we felt our skin turning pink, we hopped in the car and started towards the last Hill Country town on our agenda, which made our list primarily for its legendary chicken fried steak and historic dance hall: Gruene. We passed historic buildings and an eclectic stretch of quirky shops overseen by a big old water tower bearing the town’s name. After making a sweep of the shops, we headed to Gristmill River Restaurant & Bar, where we sought the Hill Country delicacy rivaled only by barbecue: chicken fried steak.

Housed in the historic Gruene Cotton Gin with a back deck overlooking the Guadalupe River, the Gristmill building is worth seeing all on its own—but when our cheery waitress brought out the reason we’d come, I could tell from the shatter-crispy coating and thick, creamy and peppery gravy that Gristmill’s chicken fried steak had

been worth the wait. We finished every bite, the expertly-breaded-and-fried meat paired dreamily with the thick, homemade-tasting mashed potatoes and gravy. Afterwards, we passed the famous Gruene Hall—the oldest continually-operating dancehall in Texas, which has been hosting honky tonks since 1878, and takes pride in the fact it hasn’t changed a bit. Through the wooden boards of the old hall, country superstar Lyle Lovett’s guitar chords and deep, twangy voice floated out into the Texas night air. Though we hadn’t had the foresight to buy tickets to the sold-out show, just being in close enough proximity to hear him play such an iconic hall was a real thrill. As we drove away from the little town of Gruene that night, Sam played Lyle Lovett’s songs over the car speakers, and one in particular felt like the perfect note on which to end our trip rambling around the Hill Country:

“That’s right, you’re not from Texas But Texas wants you anyway.”

There is so much to see and do in the sprawling Texas Hill Country, that our experience barely scratches the surface. h

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Disclaimer: This trip was hosted in part by Lone Star Court and Visit Fredericksburg, though the opinions of the writer are entirely her own.

Note: Gary Marburger, Sam’s second cousin who owned the peach farm outside of Fredericksburg, sadly passed away a week after our visit. We are so grateful to him and his partner Kaye for their warm hospitality. In his obituary, next to a photo of him smiling wide holding a bowl of peaches and following his extensive local volunteer work, it notes that, “he found himself happiest among dear friends and his peach trees in the Texas Hill Country.”

Paddling across the still waters of the Bayou Teche, time slowed to a staggering halt. The clouddraped sky blurred the late morning sun and made the stream below our kayak imperceptibly darker. Clusters of trees hugged the shoreline, cutting off the world beyond, and a great blue heron led us ever forward, alighting on tree branches and beckoning whenever we rested our arms to breathe in the clear, cool air.

My husband, Paul, and I had been traveling for the better part of an hour. We had left New Orleans early, making good time to reach Pack & Paddle in Lafayette. The outfitter offered a wide

Bayouside Attractions

SMALL TOWN ACADIANA, BY BOAT

Story by Kristy Christiansen • Photos by Paul Christiansen

array of canoes and kayaks, enough outdoor gear to fit every adventuring need, and a staff intimately acquainted with Louisiana’s wilder side. After collecting critical tips for our journey and a sleek tandem kayak, we headed north to Leonville to embark upon the Bayou Teche Paddle Trail.

Stretching for one hundred and thirty-five miles from Port Barre to Berwick, the paddle trail spans the length of Bayou Teche, which—until the Mississippi River changed course a couple thousand years ago—was once the Father of Waters’ main route. During the eighteenth century, the Teche was a valuable transportation hub, and during the Civil

War, two gunboat battles took place on this waterway. In the 1930s, levees built around the Atchafalaya River drastically reduced the flow of water to the Teche, and the bayou changed yet again into the quiet, winding river that exists today.

Since 2008, the Teche Ecology, Culture and History Education (TECHE) Project has worked to provide a healthier waterway for leisurely activities on the bayou, and in 2015, their efforts resulted in Bayou Teche’s addition to the National Water Trails System. Fourteen official launch sites and a detailed guide make for easy access to the Teche from numerous small towns just east of Lafayette. We kicked off our journey in

the tiny hamlet of Leonville, popping into Champagne’s Marché for a few trip snacks before climbing in our kayak and steering south to Arnaudville.

At certain times during the year, the bayou teems with people, such as during the TECHE Project’s annual Shake Your Trail Feather festival in October. On this particular day, though, we were totally alone with nature during the nearly three-hour paddle south, an eerie sensation for us New Orleanians. For solid lengths of time, the only sound to be heard was the synchronized slap of our paddles skimming just beneath the water’s surface.

As the trees flanking the bayou gave

The Cottage Downtown, a Bayou-side BnB in Breaux Bridge.

way to sloped lawns with gazebos and fishing docks, our blue heron guide abandoned us for some wilder landscape. Passing Arnaudville’s main kayak dock, we continued on to the unofficial one at Bayou Teche Brewing, where we traded in our sea legs and climbed the hill for a late lunch. In minutes, we were sitting on the brewery’s outdoor patio, listening to a Cajun jam session while eating flatbread and garlic butter beignets paired with the highly-recommended Beetlejuice (brewed with beets!) and Harumph beers. It was the perfect pick-me-up before we hauled the kayak to our parked car and set off to explore Arnaudville.

At the NUNU Arts and Culture Collective, artists waited to entertain visitors with a showcase of their work. The volunteer-run gallery and marketplace features local artists’ work in a wide variety of mediums. We browsed the store and marveled at Janelle Hebert’s tiny hand-made birds and Anne Bulliard Crownover’s rope woven bowls. On Fuselier Street, across from an abandoned grand old home, we stepped into Tom’s Fiddle & Bow. Known across Acadiana for its restoration and sales of stringed instruments, the tiny shop comes to life the first Sunday of the month with its famous jam sessions.

From Arnaudville, we drove thirteen miles south past fields of sugarcane and sunflowers to Breaux Bridge—Crawfish Capital of the World. Our home for the night was The Cottage Downtown, a charming yellow Airbnb dating back to 1893. Superhost Ms. Loretta detailed her renovation efforts before leaving us alone with a stack of sinfully-delicious cookies from Hebert’s Supermarket. With a quaint front porch, a kitchen designed for entertaining, and two comfortable bedrooms, the historical cottage exuded Ms. Loretta’s careful restoration and decorating skills.

The home was within walking distance of downtown Breaux Bridge and a five-minute drive to Lake Martin, popular for its swamp tours on a picture-perfect lake dotted with Spanish moss-laden bald cypress trees. We caught the final golden rays of the setting sun reflected on the lake before returning to town and Café Sydnie Mae. While musician Dirk Powell livened up the crowd with his fiddle and banjo folk music, we scanned the menu, debating a repertoire of seafood delicacies. Our waitress, Lacie Hebert, simply shook her head ‘no,’ served us lemon drop martinis, and stated we must try the pork chops and Breaux Bread. Her recommendation was spot on, and as the chops melted in our mouths, Hebert pointed out the local who’s who of Breaux Bridge dining at the tables around us.

Jeffrey Broussard and the Creole Cowboys performing at the weekly Zydeco Brunch at Buck and Johnny’s in Breaux Bridge.

Day two of our adventure kicked off with the revered Zydeco Breakfast at Buck & Johnny’s. The restaurant’s managing partner Coatney Raymond sat us in a prime viewing location in the old brick building’s upstairs balcony while Jeffrey Broussard and the Creole Cowboys tuned up their instruments below. Raymond relayed the history of the Zydeco breakfast, explaining how the world-famous event originally started at a now-closed local landmark, Café des Amis. Paul and I were feasting on an oversized omelet stuffed with boudin when the band launched into an energetic waltz. A dozen couples, many dressed in boots and cowboy hats, took to the dance floor and set their tassels flying with their Cajun two-stepping.

Since neither of us were coordinated enough to join in, we decided to instead walk off our calories through the town’s historic streets, browsing in local shops and visiting the “bridge” itself. Built in 1950 and famously decorated by a crawfish on an American flag, the contraption is the descendant of the town’s original namesake, a footbridge of rope and plank built by Acadian Firmin Breaux. In the Parc des Ponts de Pont Breaux, a sign tells the legend of a colossal snake that once terrorized the Chitimacha people. The tribe’s warriors fought a valiant battle, causing the snake to writhe across the ground until he was defeated. The channel he cut filled with water and became Bayou Teche. “Teche” is the Chitimacha word for snake.

Bidding farewell to Breaux Bridge, we drove nine miles south to Cecile Poché Memorial Park in the tiny hamlet of Parks. The town was preparing for a festival, so we skirted the tents and launched our tandem back into the Teche. Immediately we fell into our paddling routine, relishing in the quiet, tranquil ride downriver. The clouds had vanished, and the sun warmed our faces as we passed goats and horses grazing by the water’s edge. This leg of the journey was two and half hours to St. Martinville, and halfway down, we began to see billowing clouds of smoke rising before us. We feared a fire up ahead but eventually found its source to be a sugar mill emitting the distinct perfume of cooking cane.

In St. Martinville, we watched a tween pull up a spotted gar fish before shifting aside to give us room to disembark. We walked the bayou to the Evangeline Oak, an ancient tree with graceful outstretched arms. The historic sign announced that the tree

St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church in St. Martinville.

“marks the legendary meeting place of Emmeline Labiche and Louis Arceneaux, the counterparts of Evangeline and Gabriel,” from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1847 poem Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie

Continuing on, we peered in the windows of the African American Museum and Acadian Memorial and Museum. Sadly, time was not on our side to stop in for a visit. St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church, mother church of the Acadians, stood as a magnificent centerpiece in the main square. Laci Laperouse, Executive Director of St. Martin Parish Tourism, and her husband joined us for our final meal of the trip at the St. John Restaurant. Over alligator balls, crab cakes, and shrimp and grits, the couple regaled us with enchanting stories of their Acadiana lifestyle and left us with a wish list of more sites to see on our next visit.

They graciously offered to cart us back to our car in Parks, expertly maneuvering through the festival now in full swing. Returning to Lafayette, we again passed the sugar mill before the fields around us gave way to fast food restaurants clustered around the interstate. It was a jolt back to reality and instantly made us long for the magic of the small towns and the scenic escape offered along the Bayou Teche. h

techeproject.org

cajuncountry.org

bayoutechebrewing.com

nunuaccollective.homesteadcloud.com

tomsfiddleandbow.com

cafesydniemae.com

buckandjohnnys.com

thestjohnrestaurant.com

Disclaimer: This trip was hosted by St. Martin Parish Tourism, Pack and Paddle, Café Sydnie Mae, and The Downtown Cottage. The opinions of the writer are entirely her own.

Lake Martin is a must-stop on any outdoors-lover’s visit to Acadiana.

VISIT ST. FRANCISVILLE

St. Francisville –Spectacular in Spring

MULTIPLE PUBLICATIONS LIST ST. FRANCISVILLE AMONG AMERICA’S BEST TOWNS. SMALL WONDER!

America loves its small towns! Perhaps we have Norman Rockwell or Frank Capra to thank, but when many of us imagine the idyllic American lifestyle, a place with quiet streets, kids on bikes, bustling cafés and friendly waves feels comfortable, familiar, accessible: the kind of place we can’t help but see ourselves. If you’ve picked up a travel magazine or maybe flipped on HGTV lately you’re bound to notice: story after story celebrates the quaint, the quirky, the rustic and the off-the-beatentrack charms of tiny beachside villages, mountain hamlets and delta whistle-stops from sea to shining sea. Small wonder then, that when the editors of America’s travel media set out to capture readers’ imaginations with lists of the “Best Small Towns to Visit,” one little Louisiana town tucked into a bend of the Mississippi River keeps capturing their attention. And who can blame them? In springtime, when the wisteria is blooming and bands are playing in Parker Park and cyclists roll down shady lanes and kayaks and birdwatchers are out on the broad waters of Bayou Sara, St. Francisville is just too beautiful to pass up. Here’s what they’re saying.

In March Southern Living magazine featured St. Francisville on its list of The 50 Best Towns in the South 2023, a diverse collection of communities distinguished by their rich histories, distinctive cuisine, thriving cultural scenes, natural beauty; and sometimes, all of the above. St. Francisville clocked in at number 33, namechecked for its beautifully preserved architecture, movie-set streetscapes, the natural wonders of the Cat Island National Wildlife Refuge and Tunica Hills Wildlife Management Area, and the carefully curated selections on offer at fashion-forward boutiques including Sage Hill Gifts, District Mercantile, Deyo/Barlow, and Vintage Hive. Spectacular Afton Villa Gardens got a nod, as it should every spring. And of course community gathering hotspots like Birdman Coffee, Art and Music, The St. Francisville Inn’s Saint Restaurant and Bar, and the inimitable Magnolia Café all got editors’ attention. So did the town’s unmistakable “everyone-knows-your-mama energy” (and if you’ve ever spent a weekend here, you know exactly what that means). See the whole list at southernliving.com/southsbest/small-towns

As if that wasn’t enough, in January the travel/destination website Far & Wide selected St. Francisville for its “America’s Coolest Small Towns by State” list for 2023 (one town for each state). Right there between Grand Rivers, Kentucky (pop. 352), and Bar Harbor, Maine (5,535), the Far & Wide editors picked St. Francisville (pop. 1,579) for its moss-draped live oaks, easy-paced lifestyle, and spirited festivals including the Walker Percy Weekend literary festival, which returns June 2—3, 2023 to celebrate the acclaimed author and National Book Award-winner. https:// www.farandwide.com/s/best-small-town-by-state-81e39983579047d3

Speaking of spirited festivals, chalk a brand-new event onto St. Francisville’s busy spring calendar when the Azalea Polo Classic gallops into to the West Feliciana Sports Park on Sunday, April 16. An official polo match played between members of the New Orleans Polo Club, the Azalea Polo Classic promises spectators an exciting equestrian event and Hamptons-style garden party featuring cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, and live jazz. So, dust off your best hat and get ready to enjoy a couple of chukkas because all proceeds support the West Feliciana Historical Society & Museum. Tickets and sponsorships are expected to sell out quickly. westfelicianahistory.org/azaleapoloclassic.html

With historic architecture, leafy laneways, outdoor adventures on the water and off, great shopping and spirited events and festivals, spring in St. Francisville really shines. Come and get a taste; you’ll be glad you did.

The inaugural Azalea Polo Classic gallops into St. Francisville’s West Feliciana Sports Park on April 16

Cuisine

CULTURAL EXCHANGE

Sweet, Sweet Escape

FROM EAST TO WEST, 5 FRENCH BAKERIES IN LOUISIANA WORTH THE DRIVE

By

April Hamilton

Much is made of Louisiana’s French culinary influences, its locally owned restaurants, and the chefs who shape their communities. Inspired by the spirit of the road trip, we’ve shifted that enthusiasm to its sweetest center: Louisiana’s locally-owned French bakeries. From New Orleans to Lake Charles, here are five pastry hubs worth exiting I-10 for.

Croissant d’Or

New Orleans

You can tell that Croissant d’Or, on Ursulines between Royal and Chartres, has a solid pedigree: it’s in the former Angelo Brocato’s, and the main door still has tiles indicating the “ladies’ entrance.” Another good sign is the European-inflected handwriting on the menu boards—anyone who writes an f like that knows good pastry. With a large stained-glass window dominating the main room and detailed floral crown molding painted in Eastery pink, yellow, and spring green, the space is welcoming but still a little glamorous—“Is this what it’s like to be French?” As in all well-designed bakeries, the line to order forms alongside a glass case full of intriguing options. Don’t rush your decision: choosing is part of the pleasure. Fruit-topped tarts glossy with syrup, airy meringues, dramatically brittle Napoleons: all this could be yours.

On my last visit, I chose a ham and gruyere crepe with two fried eggs, a pistachio mousse, and, courtesy of my dieting boyfriend, the croissant that came with his ratatouille omelet. Dessert first: the outer chocolate coating of the pistachio mousse was dark and wonderfully shiny, shot with dark green veins. (You could sell it to children as a monster’s egg.) The interior mousse rested on a layer of cake, minimally sweetened to allow the chocolate to balance the sugar in the nutty foam. On to the crepe: perfectly cozy, cheese and ham in a buttery, spongy little bed, with a little extra nutmeg to make it even more of a treat. The ceded croissant, lightly toasted, was much more than the add-on its place in the menu implied. After mopping up the last of the egg and cheese, I got to enjoy a few bites of unadorned pastry—the perfect end to an excellent breakfast. croissantdorpatisserie.com

—Chris Turner Neal

La Petite Sophie Patisserie River Ridge

La Petite Sophie Patisserie is an unassuming place, the cheery pale yellow exterior paint only moderately improving the impact of its location in a squat, one-story brick strip mall out on Jefferson Highway in River Ridge. “A diamond necklace, wrapped in plain brown paper,” is the metaphor that springs to mind as I crunch into the end of a perfect classic croissant, paper-thin flakes of pastry falling down around me before I reach the buttery, pillowy-soft center.

Inside the glass-enclosed wooden display case beside the croissants gleamed rows of pain au chocolat, kouign amanns, sticky buns topped with pecan pieces and sticky-looking maple syrup salted caramel, morning buns whose pretty ridges were lined with cinnamon sugar atop orange-zesty croissant dough, ham and cheese croissants, and a densely-fudgy brownie counterpart, dusted with powdered sugar.

Chef Jeff Becnel doesn’t waste his time with frilly floral-iced petit fours or cream puffs—in keeping with the traditional patisserie, his offerings are European through-and-though, with a few wildcards thoughtfully thrown in to appease local palettes (like the Louisiana-style brioche king cakes they offer during Carnival, next to the

58 PISTACHIO MOUSSE, CROISSANTS, PINK COOKIES, RASPBERRY TARTS, AND KOUGN AMANN

Chris Turner-Neal, Alexandra Kennon, Sam Irwin, Jordan LaHaye Fontenot, and

Photo taken at Poupart’s, by Jordan LaHaye Fontenot

glistening traditional galette des rois—assuming they aren’t already sold out by the time you get there). According to their Facebook page, the day I went they had offered a blackberry bostock (some no-doubt delightful brioche concoction I’ve regrettably never encountered), but they had already been cleared out by the time I arrived shortly after nine in the morning. The offerings aren’t excessive, and they do not need to be—Becnel’s technical artistry with dough shines with each flaky, buttery bite.

His medium of choice wasn’t pastry until around eight years ago—before then, he attended the Culinary Institute of America in New York and spent twenty years building an impressive savory resume that included the kitchens of the French Laundry, Guy Savoy, and Commander’s Palace. Then, he began teaching himself to bake, selling his creations at local farmers markets. At the end of 2017 he opened the storefront on Jefferson Highway with an already-established eager following, and named the patisserie for his first daughter, Sophie.

La Petite Sophie’s baked goods can still be found at The German Coast and Gretna Farmers Markets every Saturday morning, and at the Old Metairie Farmers’ Market the afternoon of the first Tuesday of the month. And, of course, at their storefront at 9047 Jefferson Highway. lapetitesophie.com.

—Alexandra Kennon

Champagne’s Bakery

Breaux Bridge

Growing up in Breaux Bridge, I had the good fortune of walking past Champagne’s Bakery every day on my way to school. The visceral pleasure of consuming three pecan drop cookies and a half-pint of chocolate milk all for 25 cents was an earthly delight hard to match. If I had extra money, I splurged on one of Mr. Sidney Champagne’s splendid cream puffs.

The bakery building at the corner of Poydras and Bridge Street was a wondrous experience all on its own. Mr. Sidney displayed a photographic “wall of fame” featuring the brides and grooms he’d made wedding cakes for—a historic who’s who of Breaux Bridge. A fancier of show pigeons, he mounted dozens of blue ribbons won by his flock of well-groomed birds, kept in coops behind his home. And there was no need to have a red light flashing for hot French bread because Champagne’s always had hot French bread. And I haven’t even started on the pastries… chocolate éclairs, assorted cookies, ladyfingers, petit fours, brownies … his display cases were always full. Eventually Sidney passed the business down to his son, Sonny.

But that was then. Today, fourth generation owner owner, Paul Champagne (Sonny’s son) uses the 1888 historic building strictly to bake bread for his commercial customers. In 2015, he opened a satellite store with a drive-thru in

Photo taken at La Petite Sophie by Alexandra Kennon

Experience Experience

Evangeline Parish Evangeline Parish

Fun, Fairs, & Festivals

Boggy Bayou Festival - May

Mamou Cajun Music Festival - September

Le Grand Hoorah - September

Louisiana Cotton Festival - October

Le Tournoi de Ville Platte - October

Louisiana Swine Festival - November

www.evangelineparishtouristm.org

same language as he did. And wow, aren’t we all lucky he loved it here.

A true boulangerie, Francois Poupart’s bakery has held court off of Pinhook Road in Lafayette since 1967. Though his son Patrick now manages most of the operations, Francois is still around—carrying on a tradition of joie de vivre in the sweetest of senses. Before you even get to the pastry displays (and you will get to them), there is first the sensation of stepping through time and space—into the world of our French-speaking ancestors and their Old World traditions. Today, as Lafayette’s Francophone generations dwindle, those that remain find a special haven within Poupart’s, where most of the staff still speaks French.

At the shop’s center are the bread displays—each loaf made fresh every day by Patrick, the Master Baker—who has been kneading dough since he was old enough to climb down the stairs from the family’s apartment above the bakery. There’s brioche, there’s ciabatta, there’s sourdough. Dinner rolls and focaccia and poboy loaves. And, of course, traditional French bread.

When I went most recently, I was studying this bread selection when I heard a woman audibly gasp behind me as she gazed mesmerized at the pastry display. “Everything is just so beautiful,” she said. And it is. A kiwi has never looked so pretty as the ones nestled beside the strawberries and blueberries on a Poupart’s fruit tart. Chocolate drizzle has never gleamed quite so brightly as it does atop an artfully arranged slice of chocolate mousse. Comparatively, the French horns, dough wrapped around some undoubtedly delectable filling and sprinkled just so with powdered sugar, looked almost plain. I ordered one anyway, along with a slice of Tiramisu cake, of the Strawberry Delight, and a raspberry tart. It was hard to leave behind the cannolis, which seemed to be bursting from their shells—but the good news is, I live only ten minutes away.

Single bites of each hardly satisfied—the fresh raspberries biting against the cool sweetness of their cream pillow, finished by a satisfy-

Poupart’s Raspberry Tart;

Photo by Jordan LaHaye Fontenot

seemed such an international affair, has been here all along, so very close to home. The Bekery’s version exceeds any I’ve ever tasted. I’m counting the minutes until I return. facebook.com/thebekeryllc

—April Hamilton

Photo at The Bekery, by April Hamilton

Story by Nina Flournoy

Adead end seemed a good place to start in early 2020—the lost year. Life put on hold, I filled time returning to a familiar brick wall—the identity of my fourth great-grandmother on my father’s hPlanchard line. According to family lore, she was a French count ess who fled the palaces of Versailles during the French Revolution and traveled under an assumed name to America, settling among Acadians on Bayou Teche, not far from where my grandmother Bonnie May grew up. In the 1960s, an uncle circulated a mimeograph copy of the story. When I recently asked relatives, no one remembered the document, which had likely served as a coaster for bourbon highballs during family get-togethers. But they all recalled snippets of the story.

Few Planchards knew that “our countess” was also immortalized in George W. Cable’s Strange True Stories of Louisiana, published in 1888. Cable (1844 –1925), a distinguished writer who chronicled the lives of Creoles in his native New Or leans, is often required reading in Southern literature courses. I read some of his work in English class at LSU in the mid-‘70s, though not Strange True Stories 2003, I ran across a tattered copy in a French Quarter vintage bookstore during Jazz Fest weekend. Flipping pages, I came across a passage about a countess who fled the French Revolution and ended up in Louisiana.

Could this be her?

Breathless, I bought the book and shepherded it through the Quarter like it was uranium, vowing to discern if this was my relative and to track down what became of her.

In the book, Cable explains how the countess’s papers originally came from Sidonie de la Houssaye—a little-known writer from Franklin, Louisiana, my grandmother’s hometown. (My family is also related to the de la Houssayes.) When Cable acquired the sixty-eight-page, French-language document, he trans lated it, established its authenticity, and included it among other stories in his book.

It describes the life of Alix de Morainville, the child of French nobility, who grew up during the 1780s. She married a count and served in the court of Marie Antoinette, as did her mother. Her father and husband served King Louis XVI and were both beheaded during the French Revolution. Her mother died shortly after fleeing to England. So, disguised as a peasant, teenage Alix, escorted by the gardener’s son Joseph, fled aboard a ship bound for America. Traveling under the name Carpentier, they arrived at the port of New Orleans, where French agents hunted for escaped French noblesse, intent on returning them to Paris to face the guillotine. Unsafe in New Orleans, Alix and Joseph headed west, hoping to blend in with Acadian immigrants settled in more rural parts of the region.

Cable’s book traced the pair’s 1795 flatboat journey from New Orleans to St. Martinville with a few other families, including the Bossier sisters, who Alix be

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beginning in 1755, and the migration of many to South Louisiana.

I wandered beneath the ancient limbs toward the bayou, which was, after all, the one thing connecting Cable’s story to my family’s. The Teche begins in Port Barre, where it draws water from Bayou Courtableau before flowing southward to meet the Lower Atchafalaya River at Patterson. During the Acadian migration, the Teche was the exiles’ primary means of transportation to the Attakapas region.

Alone on the bank, I pictured Alix (Adelaide) some two hundred-plus years before, with mud on her embroidered silk shoes, wondering how she’d gone from the opulent gardens of Versailles to these remote, untamed backwoods. Just then a distant bell sounded from up the bayou. Leaning out, I saw a small boat heading my way, followed by another, and another. Within minutes a flotilla was passing before me.

As the bell called townspeople to gather, I was swiftly joined upon the Teche’s banks. Residents emerged from shops and restaurants, lining up on either side of me. For once, I arrived early enough to an event to get a ringside seat. Does it count if I didn’t plan it?

The boats, loaded with robed priests swinging incense from starboard to port, docked at a pier next to the Evangeline Oak. The lead boat supported a life-sized statue of the Virgin Mary. Tuxedoed Knights of Columbus in full regalia—cape, sash, sword, medallion, and plumed hat—arranged themselves next to a small platform upon which priests placed the statue. Women laid flowers at Mary’s feet, before six strapping men hoisted the platform onto their shoulders like pallbearers. Everyone followed the statue, processing down the street.

Despite descending from a staunch New Orleans Catholic family, I had never seen anything like this. I knew my devout grandmother would turn over in her

above-ground New Orleans grave if I didn’t participate in praising the Blessed Mother. So, I folded into the crowd, singing “Ave Maria” with the others. The parade merged onto Main Street, where white banners strung overhead pronounced the “Fête Dieu du Tech: St. Martinville celebrates 250 years of Acadian Ancestry.”

There it was. I had landed in the middle of a historic event, walking the same path my great-great-great grandparents and other relatives had walked. The very people I had come to research had hijacked my plans and cloaked me in their traditions.

Alix and Joseph didn’t immigrate to Louisiana due to Le Grand Derangement, but by settling in this area shortly after the Canadian exiles arrived, their bloodline merged with the Acadians, making this event as much a part of my family story as the French Revolution.

When the procession came to a stop at a small church, I crossed my forehead with holy water, raced to my car, and hustled to the library where the clerk corrected my pronunciation of Bayou Teche. “Te-shhhhh,” she said, leading me to an Acadian genealogy room stacked floorto-ceiling with fraying cloth-bound books, some locked in glass cases. Those by local genealogist Father Hebert listed Joseph Charpantier and his wife Marie Adelaide Tavanne beginning around 1797, living in Patterson on Charpantier Plantation, which remained in the family for several generations. They had one son, Charles Michel Charpantier. Charles Michel married Clarisse Verret, with whom he had twelve children. I traced the line to my grandmother, proving with finality that I was a direct descendant of Marie Adelaide Tavanne and Joseph Charpantier.

Yes, but was Marie Adelaide Cable’s Alix? Out of time, that question would have to wait.

Skirting the Bayou Teche, I continued along 31, picking up 182 in New Iberia, going through Jeanerette,

along the Old Spanish Trail, passing Charenton and Baldwin to Franklin, where my grandmother grew up.

Franklin’s turn-of-the-century townscape grew out of the prosperous sugarcane industry from the antebellum period, going back to 1800. On the neutral ground down the middle of historic Main Street, ornamental streetlamps with triple globes still bear "no hitching” signs from horse and buggy days. Grand columned, porched, and balconied homes, some in the National Register of Historic Places, anchor the area alongside structures in various stages of dilapidation.

Cable said Alix and Joseph built their plantation at the bend where Bayou Teche meets the lower Atchafalaya River. That matched one library document’s reference to “Charpantier’s Bend” near Patterson. I drove slowly, hoping to spot the bend. I didn’t.

What I saw were acres of tall sugarcane and enormous live oaks, a few classic plantation homes, some crumbling brick ruins, abandoned houses consumed by vines, and farm equipment squatting in fields. In Patterson, I passed bayou-front homes, scrap-metal yards, and a lively sign advertising “Captain Caviar’s Swamp Tours.”

At the cemetery behind oak-shaded St. Joseph’s Church in Patterson, I spotted the tall marble Charpantier mausoleum. I couldn’t find Joseph’s tomb or Mary Adelaide’s, but I figured the high grass hiding the bottom section had concealed their graves. Besides, I’d gotten what I came for—validation that Alix/Adelaide and Joseph Charpantier did in fact exist, did settle here in 1795, and were my ancestors. Although I was pretty sure that Cable’s countess was my relative, I still needed hard proof. And if she was, despite Cable’s flawed account, there was enough truth to the story to keep me interested in finding out who Adelaide and Joseph had been in France.

Rather than backtrack to I-10 towards Baton Rouge, I took rural backroads to St. Gabriel, traversing land where my ancestors’ names once meant something, and where I assume their descendants still live.

Driving through Berwick, I accidentally crossed the expansive I-90 bridge into Morgan City and I wound up on a sketchy road lined with strip joints, adult bookstores, no-tell motels, topless bars, and raunchy casinos.

So, this was the Morgan City that Louisiana guys talked about after working offshore summer jobs, and where oil roughnecks and blue-collar laborers let off steam between shifts. From the looks of it, that practice was still in full swing, as cars crowded the red-light district parking lots. And it wasn’t even noon!

Heading east, I plowed through deep green vegetation flanking curvy Highway 70, tracing the worm-like waterway where barges threaded the narrow canal. I eased up on the gas to take in the endless green fanning out in all directions like wallpaper, only to be pressed by semi-trucks appearing out of nowhere, riding my back bumper.

I passed signs for Grassy Lake, Avoca Island Cutoff, Attakapas Landing, and Belle River. My heart leaped upon seeing a sign for Lake Verret—the family name of Charles Michel’s wife. I felt I owed it to my Charpantier/ Verret relatives to stop and see the lake.

Catching flashes of water through the trees, a dinky sign caught my eye—Shell Beach Road (1016-1). What the hell. I pulled onto the narrow blacktop road, passing trailer homes, loose stray dogs, rusty cars, and dense scrappy trees. It wasn’t one of my best spontaneous decisions.

Further down the way, rustic fishing camps lined picturesque Lake Verret before the road narrowed and the shoulder became slush. Swamp water lapped the tar and ringed cypress trees, drooping with Spanish moss.

I slowed to a crawl. The stark eyes of a Blue Heron stared out from a cypress stump, and it seemed plausible that alligator eyes might also be trained on me. At a bend in the road, I hit the brakes, worried I might have to back out.

I left my sister a voicemail: “In case I never see you again, you’ll find my body near friggin’ Shell Beach Road on the edge of Lake Verret in the middle of a remote swamp near Pierre Part.”

Inching around the bend, I imagined Jean Lafitte’s pirate ancestors,

surrounding my car and driving off with my purse, charging outboard motors, whisky, and Orbis fishing rods on my credit cards.

The image dissolved as I completed the turn to find an upscale fishing camp with a three-car garage and a boat hitched to a shiny SUV. Relieved, I turned around in their driveway and headed back the way I came.

Page one from the manuscript Alix de Morainville wrote on the story of her life, dated August 22, 1795, excerpted from Cable's Strange True Stories of Louisiana ings, but life got in the way, and I put my research on hold. On and off, I’ve returned to my project. But it wasn’t until the COVID lockdown of 2020 that I gave it the time it warranted. That’s when my family history took a significant turn, uncovering my connection to key Louisiana figures—including relations to many of the names I passed from St. Martinville to St. Gabriel during my detour in 2015. Hell, I’m even related to Pierre Part.

A couple of hours later in St. Gabriel, I recounted my swamp detour to my Cajun brother-in-law Ronnie Breaux as he peeled boiled shrimp at the kitchen counter. “Yeah, sure, I know Shell Beach Road. That’s in Pierre Part. I’ve got buddies with fishing camps out there.” He noted it’s where part of the classic movie Tarzan of the Apes was filmed. I can definitely see why.

Back in Dallas, I attempted to follow up on my find-

As for Marie Adelaide Guerne de Tavanne, a.k.a. Alix de Morainville? My quest to track her and her story continues—from New Orleans, down along River Road to the Archives de National in Paris and through the backroads of Normandy. Stay tuned. h

Escapes

IN HOME SEEKER'S PARADISE // 74 A

TREASURE HUNTING

In the Rough

IN A CRATER IN MURFREESBORO, A CHANCE TO FIND A GIRL'S BEST FRIEND

By Chris Turner-Neal

Some ninety-odd million years ago, when your ancestors and mine were still scampering away from dinosaurs, a volcano in what would very, very eventually become southwest Arkansas erupted. On its way through the earth’s crust, the magma flow picked up some diamonds—casually, like Zsa Zsa Gabor—before bursting onto the landscape in a bright, fiery plume, again like Zsa Zsa Gabor. There the diamonds lay as the continents shifted. Meanwhile, monkeys started walking upright, using tools, and valuing shiny things they found.

In 1906, farmer John Huddleston found two “crystals”—and a short month later, had sold options on the land to a Little Rock business consortium. Despite an optimistic “diamond boom” in nearby Murfreesboro the next year and a prominent diamond shape on the state’s flag designed in 1912, exploration over the fol-

lowing decades proved that Huddleston had found that most unlikely of things: an unprofitable diamond mine. There were lots of diamonds on the land compared to most places in the world, but not compared to the most profitable diamond mines in places like South Africa. Additionally, erosion patterns had concentrated the diamonds on the top layers of the land—diamond density (and therefore profit) decreased the deeper you went.

But … still, there were diamonds. By the early 1950s the “Crater of Diamonds” had become a tourist attraction, drawing rockhounds, thrillseekers, and cheap grooms-to-be to root around in the soil to look for diamonds that had been missed by earlier efforts—or that had tumbled through the wide mesh of pre-war sieves. The state of Arkansas bought the site in 1971, and since then Crater of Diamonds State Park has welcomed optimists to try their hand at finding some sparklers.

Some real gems have indeed turned up at the park. Uncle Sam, the largest diamond ever found in the United States, popped up here in 1924, weighing in at a finger-straining forty carats. In 1990, Shirley Strawn pulled up Arkansas’s first “perfect” diamond, a one-in-a-billion example with no visible tints or flaws. The Amarillo Starlight, the Bleeding Heart, the Esperanza—the list of notable diamonds reads like train routes or country songs. Fortunately, I won’t have the pressure of thinking of a name for a diamond anytime soon. On a recent road trip through Arkansas, my boyfriend and I hit the crater and were woefully unprepared, though we did have a great time.

Ten dollars gets you all-day access to the crater; you can also take away a certain amount of sifted gravel to pore over from the comfort of wherever you keep your gravel in your own home. You can rent trowels and

sieves—the place you do this is directly under the gift shop and entry area, and so we didn’t notice it until we were dusty and ready to go look for chicken fried steak on the way to our next stop.

When we went, there was a good mix of casual diggers and kitted-out enthusiasts; the most intense gem hunters have lockers to store equipment. One lonely tree, apparently planted to create shade, stands in the middle of the mine; the field is regularly plowed to bring new potentially diamond-bearing material to the surface. We went to Canary Hill (“hill” is an extremely strong word), a section of the park that throws out the occasional amethyst.

“Is this purple or brown?” They were brown, all of them, but we convinced ourselves that a couple of them might be purple. Frankie found a tiny crystal, brown like some of the diamonds at the park are, and gave it the poor man’s diamond test: seeing if it scratched other rocks. It did. I knew of another easy test:

“Don’t put that in your mouth.”

I ignored him. The little brown rectangle didn’t feel cool on my tongue.

“I think it’s just a piece of beer bottle.”

“Stop putting things you find in your mouth.”

We found a solid handful of pretty rocks, but nothing else worth tasting. After a silly couple of hours digging in the loose, fine soil and asking each other if what we found was “a plain rock” or not, we cooled off with a turn around an adjacent shady nature trail—it’s only about a mile around and well worth spending some time among trees. If you find anything you think is worth identifying, there’s an “identifier” on site—a park ranger whose job is to break the news that you haven’t found anything valuable or unusual. Presumably they get to give good news too, but not while we were there—it was, in fact, a piece of beer bottle I put in my mouth. h arkansasstateparks.com/parks/crater-diamonds-state-park

If You Go:

The site is exposed, so hats, sunscreen, or even a portable shade tent are important. Nearby Murfreesboro has several hotels; we stayed at the pretty, cozy, and affordable Queen of Diamonds Inn, steps from the town square and five minutes (if that) from the Crater of Diamonds. Southern Dine had excellent steak and a wide variety of flavors of homemade hand pie, including one with apricot that I would buy by the gross. One shared breakfast plate from The Crusted Loaf fueled two stocky adult men through a morning of diamond exploration—and it was good, too. It’s worth noting that Crater of Diamonds State Park is much larger than the crater itself and offers trails, camping, and fishing in the Little Missouri River.

By Jordan LaHaye Fontenot

“Get comfortable, make yourself totally at home, like you’re in your own house,” invited the woman standing behind the breakfast bar, as she cleaned out a coffee mug.

“She really means it,” another woman walking out the door called back at us, a pastry in hand.

It was about 7:45 in the morning at the Inn on Whitworth, in the heart of Brookhaven’s downtown district. My husband Julien and I had just emerged from our suite in the far corner of the building—a cozy oasis with a sitting area, false fireplace, high ceilings, and possibly the biggest bathtub I’d ever seen. Details like local artwork and candles (and a lighter), plus the full slate of streaming options, added to the aura of “escape”.

The boutique hotel, which officially took up residence inside the circa-1895 Cohn Brothers Mercantile Store in 2011, uses its history to its benefit: the heart pine floorboards, taken from the old ceiling beams, shine warmly; the skylight at the center of the lobby fills the space with sun, placing especial focus on a centipede-like, fibrous, hanging sculpture by local artist Ed Williford. Right outside our bedroom, we stop to examine the

massive door of the store’s original walkin vault. Against these tributes to its past, the hotel gleams with a polished modern style, accented by original artwork by another local artist—who is also responsible for the stunning interior design—local Brookhaven doctor, Kim Sessums. We hadn’t originally intended to eat breakfast at the hotel, but started to rearrange those plans as early as our arrival the previous afternoon—when we’d stepped inside and found a glazed lemon pound cake and snickerdoodles awaiting on the bar, along with a fridge fully stocked with waters and sodas. “Let’s just check out the spread before we decide,” we’d agreed, our mouths full of rich, lemony fluff.

The woman, whose name we learned later is Sylvia, was now smiling behind a tableau of homemade quiche, fresh fruit, sausage, raisin toast, blueberry muffins, and yogurt with all of its tastiest accoutrements. A selection of teas and hot coffee called, as well as a pitcher of fresh orange juice.

As we tucked in, Sylvia told us that she grew up in the kind of house where people would just stop on by anytime, and that she’s been feeding “anyone and everyone who comes in” for as long as she can remember. This is her retirement gig, she beamed. She walks on over every

morning from her apartment at the old Hotel Inez across the railroad, the first brick building built in Brookhaven, back in 1865. Once a popular stopover for railway travelers, that hotel has now been renovated into apartments—though the lobby is still styled in the old way of such fashionable places: tiny-tiled floors and antique furniture, huge gold framed artwork, and a glass office for the hotel manager. She whispered the doorcode to us, and suggested we poke our heads inside as we went about exploring the town.

We’d done a little exploring already, starting out at Magnolia Blues BBQ around the corner the previous evening. Just in time for happy hour, we’d settled in front of the empty stage—a rare occurrence, we learned from some of the locals. Usually, the place is characterized by its almost nightly slate of local and traveling live music performances. Rustic but spacious, with neon beer logos and an arrangement of vintage-style signs on the wall shouting messages the likes of “Free Beer! Tomorrow,” “I like pig butts and I cannot lie,” and “Sin … a little bit”—the place felt like Mississippi at its homiest, a group of locals laughing at the bar and some game or another on the big screens. Taking heed, we sipped on discounted Woodford Reserve and placed an order for the very first thing

on the menu: BBQ Nachos. We still had about an hour and a half until our dinner reservation, anyway. When the massive plate came out, it was heavy with pulled pork debris perfectly embedded in caramelized onions, candied jalapeños, and drenched in a milky white queso. Welcome to Brookhaven.

Settled across the Homochitto National Forest from Natchez, and just south of Jackson on I-55 along the Bogue Chitto River, “Ole Brook” is only a two-and-ahalf-hour drive from our home in Lafayette, but its rolling hills and dales, broken up by longleaf pine forests, offer an altogether different vision of the South.

Originally occupied by the Choctaw Nation, the first Native tribe to be removed and sent West by the European settlers developing the new country of America, the Brookhaven territory became part of the United States in 1805 and was officially founded by Samuel Jayne in 1818 as a trading post and post office. Over the course of the 19th century, the city grew into a major railroad town, one of the stops along the Great Northern Railroad Company’s journey from New Orleans to Jackson, Tennessee. The railroad heralded the city’s evolution into a timber town, a cotton town, and a college town. Remnants of these industries remain today—family farms

still operate on the outskirts, as do a handful of sawmills. And travelers making their way from New Orleans to Chicago, vice versa, or anywhere in between will likely pass right through Ole Brook.

Stepping onto the twilight-lit streets of the city’s downtown district—which has blossomed with various revitalization projects over the last decade—Julien and I kept our gaze upward, studying the fascinating collection of historic warehouses and office buildings, a continuous string of lights connecting one to the next. At the center of everything was the iconic electric Brookhaven sign, announcing the town’s slogan, “A HOME SEEKERS PARADISE”. The name, according to old newspaper articles, was the result of a contest held by local merchants back in 1915. For the prize-winning submission, Brookhaven resident Milton Cohen was awarded $5. The electric sign was created some months later, and officially illuminated on the very same night that the Liberty Bell made a visit to Brookhaven, passing on the train on its way back to Philadelphia after a stint at the San Fransisco World’s Fair. The community was all about the streets that night, admiring the new sign, then turning around to observe the Bell. The original “Home Seekers” sign would ultimately be repurposed for scrap metal during World War

II, then reconstructed and assembled years later.

On this evening, almost everything was closed, but it was clear that most of the buildings were gainfully occupied by various retail businesses. We came across half a dozen barber shops alone. Sylvia would later tell us that most of the business owners actually live in apartments above their businesses, creating a closeknit merchants’ community in Brookhaven’s downtown district.

For dinner, we stepped into Betty’s Eat Shop, one of the few truly upscale eateries in a town simmering with delicious barbecue and innovative graband-go outlets. Open since 2016, Matt Fitzsimmon’s Italian-influenced Southern dining experience is sleek, with an open-kitchen concept centered by a wood-burning brick fireplace. Sitting deep in a booth, we placed drink orders—another whiskey for him, martini for me. Julien ordered the Shrimp Risotto, which offered a salty and mouth-watering combination of sausage, shrimp, mushrooms, and onions. Per our waitress’s recommendation, I passed on the spaghetti and went for the lemon pepper half chicken—and was not disappointed. With a tart lemony savoriness perfectly distributed into every bite, the chicken was expertly prepared and well-paired

with creamy mashed potatoes. We boxed up our leftovers and headed out for a night cap at Georgia Blue just down the street, where Jackson singer/songwriter Aaron Coker sat on a stool and sang the blues.

The next day, after our hearty breakfast at the Inn, we set out to explore South Jackson Street—Brookhaven’s “Olde Towne” historic district. We’d peeked at it the day before, stopping before our check-in at the Inn to explore Brookhaven’s famed Butterfield Mansion a few streets over. The Greek Revival showstopper was once the largest private residence in town, built by lumber baron Charles Butterfield for his wife Vivienne in 1911. Thanks to a life-saving renovation by Jeff and Stacie Cross in 2017, the iconic building lives on as a wedding and events venue. Stepping inside, just beyond its epic columns, a staircase styled after an ocean liner draws the eye—inviting phantoms of parties-past to fill the empty entertaining space, with its inlaid mahogany floors and marble Italianate statues. After the Butterfields, Dr. Harry Hannon resided here for years—a man described as an “Indian Doctor” or “psychic surgeon” who would move his patients into the mansion with him for treatment. The next-to-last owner was David Lovell, a Brookhaven designer and

artist who oversaw considerable renovations and hosted many of the town’s weddings and parties during his fifty years at the mansion, which he then called Edgewood.

Setting out down the sidewalk on South Jackson Street, coffee in hand, we entered the Brookhaven stretch known colloquially as the “Most Victorian Street in Mississippi”. Populated by one majestic historic home after another— mostly built between the years 1861 and 1934—the Olde Towne neighborhood was purportedly designed to imitate New Orleans’s Garden District. The houses all have names, usually serving as architectural memorials to their original owners—the John B. Perkins House, the Mills House, the Nalty-Rushing House. Four of these homes were built by Brookhaven lumber baron Captain A. E. Moreton—documented as the area’s “first industrialist”—for himself and his children. At the end of the street is the famed Hardy House on Natchez Avenue; a standout even in this neighborhood, the 1877 mansion was built by Captain Jack C. Hardy, who was once one of Mississippi’s wealthiest men. We leisurely made our way back to the car, admiring the grandeur and artistry of homes articulating Victorian style, Queen Anne Style, Adams Style, Italianate Style—

Image courtesy of Visit Brookhaven

their beauty enhanced by the flush height of azalea season.

Our next stop was just outside of the town proper, in the rural area occupied mostly by sloping cattle fields, big skies, and dozens of Baptist churches. Tucked discreetly in between all of this is something revolutionary, a barely discernible disruption in the pattern: a couple dozen acres of tea plants, visible from East Lincoln Road. Timmy Gibson, who found-

ed the Great Mississippi Tea Company with his partner Jason McDonald back in 2011, met us near the nursery, and told us his story.

Set to inherit McDonald’s family’s timber farm, but with little interest in timber or the regional alternative—cattle—the couple set out to find another way to use the property. On a trip to South Carolina, by chance they visited the Charleston Tea Plantation, and

learned that the tea plant is actually in the same family as the camellia—a plant that loves Mississippi as much as Missisippi loves it. They got home, ordered a couple tea plants, and put them in the ground. Then, they waited. “Our thought was that if any of them survived, then maybe we had something here.”

A little over a decade later, after conquering a steep learning curve with intentionality and plenty of trial and er-

ror, the Great Mississippi Tea Company today produces hundreds of pounds of black, green, oolong, and even yellow tea per year. They are the only tea farm in Mississippi and one of the pioneers in the emerging tea industry in North America. During our tour, Gibson thoughtfully walked us through the process of seeding, planting, and harvesting—explaining with an educator’s skill how the different varieties of tea actually all come from this same plant, but are harvested in different combinations of the shrub’s topmost leaves and buds: two leaves and a bud makes green tea, three leaves and a bud for black tea, and for oolong you harvest as many as six leaves and a bud. Such particularities required hand harvesting in the beginning, though now the Great Mississippi Tea Company has partnered with Williames Tea Company in Australia to field test a revolutionary Selective Tea Harvester.

Gibson then directed us to drive across the street to the processing plant, or “The Tea Shack”—a tiny, brightly-painted building across from his and McDonald’s home that is one of the only USDA-certified tea processing plants in the country. This is where the tea leaves are dried, spinned, rolled, oxidized, steamed, and set to undergo various other intricate processes—conducted using a combination of specialized tea-making equipment from China and mock-ups fashioned by McDonald and Gibson.

Our tour ended in a backroom in the

The Mississippi School of the Arts serves creatively-inclined high school students through advanced programs in visual arts, music, theatre, and literature. Before MSA occupied the campus in 2003, the property was home to an evening school for World War II veterans, a Civil War Confederate hospital, and—in 1858—Whitworth College, a four-year Methodist school for women. Many of the college’s original historic buildings still populate the campus, designating it as a Mississippi Landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places. Image courtesy of Visit Brookhaven.

couple’s home, accompanied by two of their half-dozen rescue dogs, where we got the chance to peruse the Great Mississippi Tea Company’s extensive line of products. These include everything from their version of Earl Grey (“Colonel Grey”) and chai (“Clairee’s Chai” named after one of the pups) to things like Cold Grilled Southern Peach Tea and Mississippi Mud Tea. There were the culinary teas, accompanied by a cookbook. There were tea soaps, tea t-shirts, and tea candles—as well as a selection of honey products from the pollinators farmed onsite. We left with a Delta 8-infused Sleepy oolong and a package of Mississippi Sunshine Yellow Tea—one of the rarest teas in the world, which Gibson explained tastes totally different for each person who sips it, the subtly sweet flavors informed by each individual’s particular histories and memories.

Upon our return downtown, we headed straight to a destination at the top of most Brookhaven itineraries: Janie’s Pastry Shop. The charming vintage-style bakery has been a staple in Ole Brook since 1939. Inside, visitors are intoxicated by the sugary perfume wafting throughout the tiny space, decked out in 1950s-style Coca-Cola branded tables and stools, the walls chock full of posters and memorabilia, including a display of dozens of Clabber Girl Baking Powder cans that look older than me. The display

case shone with luscious cream-stuffed and sugar-sprinkled donuts, eclairs, and cake; a rainbow of macarons; and a whole case of cookies cheaper than the glass bottles of Coca-Cola in their fridge. We bought a dozen, plus each a cream-cheese drizzled pastry, before making our way to the recently-opened Wild Fox Coffee Shop down the street, which is housed in a charming renovated historic home that doubles as the Dog Ear Bookstore. We took a load off in the large sunroom, which was sparsely but tastefully outfitted in mid-century modern seating and centered by a crystal chandelier. On one wall was a clock built entirely of books, and on the others various “fox”-themed artwork. The menu offered a selection of artisan coffees from Mississippi-based coffee company Thunderhead. I opted for “The Fantastic Fox”—an iced maple, brown sugar, and cinnamon concoction, while Julien sipped on the electric pink “Red Fox”—a Lotus Energy Drink made special with notes of strawberry, pomegranate, and red raspberry.

We then set out to explore the daytime downtown landscape—which includes some thirty-plus locally-owned retail shops. We popped our heads into The Well-Dressed Man—with its line of specialty menswear; then Castles, a massive floorspace with a vast range of high-end women’s brands I’d never heard of before; and into J. Allan’s Furniture—where we

The Inn on Whitworth is one of the best examples of downtown Brookhaven's recent revitalization. Image courtesy of Visit Brookhaven.

ogled the leather sectional at the store’s center. My biggest find, though, came from St. Andrew’s Thrift Store, just down the sidewalk from the Inez, where I scored a set of green depression glass canisters for under $10.

Before heading to lunch, we embarked on a stroll through the Mississippi School of the Artsgrams in visual arts, music, theatre, and literature. Before MSA occupied the campus in 2003, the property was previously home to an evening school for World War II veterans, a Civil War Confederate hospital, and—in 1858—Whitworth College, a four-year Methodist school for women. Many of the college’s original historic buildings still populate the campus, designating it as a Mississippi Landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places. There’s the 1883 Johnson Institute, which once housed the college’s library, the 1913 Elizabeth Cottage where Whitworth President Dr. Inman William Cooper resided; and the old dormitories, built in 1920 and called Enochs Hall—which is now used by MSA for classrooms, workshops, a black Janie's

Pastry Shop is a Brookhaven landmark, having been around since 1939. Photo by Jordan LaHaye Fontenot.

Brookhaven's South Jackson Street is home to more nineteenth century homes than almost any other street in Mississippi. Photo by Jordan LaHaye Fontenot.

box theater, and an exhibition/gathering space.

We concluded our time in Brookhaven by stepping outside the sparkle of downtown to further investigate some of the mom-and-pop-looking restaurants we’d seen driving around the day before. We landed on soul food at Mama Ruby’s, whose owners Jeff and Veletta Newton opened up just days before the COVID-19 shutdown in 2020. Two years later, they’re still going strong—serving up a bounty of home-style indulgence at their lunch buffet. I eyed the pan labeled “junk pot,” overflowing with giant shrimp and sausage. The man in front of me in line ordered a weighty plate of gumbo, jambalaya, and bread pudding to boot. I opted for the fried catfish special, and Julien went the way of the hamburger advertised on their front window. Served in a Styrofoam box, this is no frills, dang good food, a fitting farewell to this special little town—a “Home Seeker’s Paradise”. h

visitbrookhavenms.com • innonwhitworth.com

• magnoliabluesbbq.com • facebook.com/bettyseatshop

• georgiablue.net • greatmsteacompany.com

• dogearbooksms.com • facebook.com/mamarubysrestaurant

Disclaimer: This trip was hosted in part by the Inn on Whitworth and Visit Brookhaven, though the opinions of the writer are entirely her own.

Left: The Great Mississippi Tea Company's processing headquarters, or "Tea Shack". Photo by Jordan LaHaye Fontenot. Right: The historic Brookhaven Little Theatre downtown. Image courtesy of Visit Brookhaven.

Meet Me Outside the Stadium

3 COLLEGE TOWNS WORTH VISITING OUTSIDE OF FOOTBALL SEASON

Though the expression “college town” is a common one, it is surprisingly difficult to find a definition among traditional references. The Urban Dictionary provides what we already know: “A college town is any city that’s population is predominantly students attending a four-year college or university.”

By that definition, Baton Rouge—even with Louisiana’s largest university—would be crossed off a “college town” list, as would New Orleans. If LSU, Southern University, Tulane, Loyola, or the University of New Orleans didn’t exist—Louisiana’s two largest cities, with thriving ports and world commerce, would still be functional.

This is perhaps less the case with smaller cities across the South that are famously associated with SEC conference schools and, at first blush, little else. Would these places be ghost-towns without major NCAA athletics, generously-appointed stadiums, and rows of fraternity and sorority mansions? Likely, like Baton Rouge, they’ve got something else to offer.

A visit to a thriving college town outside football season, even in summer when campuses are near deserted, can offer an enlivened experience. Absent the crowds and a pre-ordained football weekend agenda, serendipity awaits.

Here are three SEC college towns worth a visit, with or without the pennant-waving.

Oxford, Mississippi

The red-clay hills surrounding Oxford, Mississippi are too high and too far east of the Mississippi Delta to be considered part of that storied region. Nonetheless, the city is as genteel and typically Southern as any running down from Memphis to Vicksburg. Its citizens are friendly and eager to tell you about their town, whether you’re visiting its University of Mississippi campus or not.

Situated within a gently-curved ellipse, the Lafayette County Courthouse presides over a lively downtown. Pristine streets and inviting storefronts seem ready for Hallmark Channel filming crews.

Where to shop

A few blocks north and south of the courthouse are dozens of outlets for fashion, gifts, and sweets—plus a classic department store and art galleries.

Women’s fashion collections line up on the east side of Lamar, south of the courthouse: Indigo’s Clothing & Accessories, Lulu’s Shoes and Accessories, Frock Oxford, and Miss Behavin. Further along, Hemline Oxford, a franchise from the French Quarter, offers breezy, upscale apparel and accessories.

Founded in 1839, Neilson’s is Mississippi’s oldest department store and has the brass plaque to prove it. Within its modest 15,000 square feet, there is plenty for women, men, children, and gift-givers to peruse. The men’s department suits locals and visitors in country squire style: seersucker and bow-ties in summer, tweeds and cords for fall and winter. Male students turn here for their traditional navy fraternity pledge jackets, accented with gold buttons.

Where to eat

Uptown New Orleans native John Currence has a cluster of eateries, from the breakfast diner to upscale bistro: City Grocery, Bouré, Snackbar, and the original Big Bad Breakfast, a format duplicated elsewhere in the South. My first Oxford dinner was City Grocery’s blistered okra appetizer, preceding an excellent plate of shrimp and grits. The best spot there is a seat on an upholstered banquette, where you might strike up a conversation to your left or right with friendly locals.

At Big Bad Breakfast, I had the Breakfast Crumble—a deconstructed Eggs Benedict with buttermilk biscuits and local stone-ground grits subbing for the English muffin. Tabasco and brown sugar-infused bacon stand in for the Canadian slice.

Ajax Diner has comfort foods with authentic sides. Consistently rated “Oxford’s Best Plate Lunch,” management claims to have served 300 million but-

Story and photos by Ted Talley

Top left: The Graduate Hotel in Oxford has all the trappings of a University town, but is also located at one of the best corners downtown. Top right: William Faulkner's house at Rowan Oak is a local historic high point in Oxford. Bottom: Find rare first editions by Southern writers at Square Books.

ter beans. Pass on the poboys; stick with meatloaf, chicken and dumplings, pot roast, or catfish.

Where to stay

The 136-room Graduate Hotel is at the north end of the old commercial district. Room décor includes variations of Ole Miss blue and red. Unique key cards are notable Ole Miss grad student IDs; mine were Cooper Manning and his mother Olivia.

The Chancellor’s House, a member of the upscale Oliver Hospitality group, offers 38 rooms and elevated casual dining inside and out. Dining or sipping a cocktail outdoors on the patio terrace offers a view of Oxford’s strategic “four corners” of Lamar Blvd. and University Ave.

Directly on the campus, the Inn at Ole Miss is mere steps from the eleven-acre Grove, the SEC’s most famous tailgating grounds.

Where to explore

Operated as a museum by the University of Mississippi, William Faulkner’s Rowan Oak is a Greek Revival home set on twenty-nine forested acres. Explore the house and the grounds for a five-dollar cash-only admission. Whether you care for Faulkner’s writing or not, simply imagine the author composing his tales here with characters derived from family and acquaintances of Oxford and beyond.

In town, Square Books is headquarters for all that is Southern writing, plus everything else expected of a two-level bookstore in a historic former drug store building: No better souvenir than a signed first edition from John Grisham, David Rae Morris, or Julie Hines Mabus.

The Diner in Norman was twice featured on the Food Network (in 2009 as part of Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives show and in 2015 as part of Ty Pennington’s American Diner Revival renovation show). Pictured is the "Eggarito".

Elizabethan Gallery

680 Jefferson Highway, BR, LA 70806 • 225-924-6437 • Elizabethangallery.com

Norman, Oklahoma

On a road map, Norman appears as any other Oklahoma City suburb inserting itself into the gerrymandered-like metro layout. But a visit to the home of the University of Oklahoma, set to join the SEC in 2025, verifies: Norman is a free-standing college town with appropriate bona fides.

Situated in central Oklahoma “where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain” per the Broadway tune, Norman’s flat terrain is offset by a Mayberry-like downtown and stately campus structures dubbed “Cherokee Collegiate Gothic” by Frank Lloyd Wright. Beyond its role as the state’s major college town, Norman is a community that loves arts—both visual and performing—as well as athletics, since it is not only the home to the OU Sooners and NFL Cincinnati Bengals coach Zac Taylor and Seattle player Jordan Evans, but also that of actor James Garner and singer Vince Gill.

Where to shop

Tribes Gallery is the largest gallery of its kind in the state offering Native American, Western, and Oklahoman art, pottery, turquoise and silver jewelry, and textiles. The Walker Arts District covers Main Street from Flood Avenue to Ponca Avenue and holds a variety of stores selling antiques, apparel, and eats. My nose found the sweet treats at Apple Tree Chocolate, a four-time winner of the Annual Norman Chocolate Festival.

Indigenous women-owned Green Feather Book Company is Norman’s oldest bookstore, circa 1972—offering books, cards, gifts, and educational toys.

Fine-tune your aura at Sandalwood & Sage with its assortment of books, teas, tarot, resins, candles, oils, rocks, and crystals.

Performing and Visual Arts

In addition to the university-wide range of music and drama performances, a unique community venue is the historic Sooner Theatre, opened as one of the region’s first “talking movie” houses in 1929. It was built in the Spanish Gothic style and presented films and vaudeville shows. When it was set for demolition in the mid-1970s, a concerned group of citizens joined together to save it. Beyond concerts and plays, the theatre has also served as a classroom for young students participating in its educational programs.

On the evening of every second Friday of the month, the Norman Art Walk is a collaboration between artists, art organizations, and businesses in the Walker Arts District. As the District has grown, so has the popular event with additional galleries and live music venues opening their doors—spurring a sort of artistic renaissance in Downtown Norman. Parallel to this is the growth of the annual Norman Music Festival, which began in 2008, and will take place this year from April 27–April 29.

Left : Norman Oklahoma's University of Oklahoma is worth the stroll, if only to see the unique Cherokee Gothic architecture. Right: The world's largest Apatosauras, on display at the Sam Noble Museum.

Where to eat

Scratch Kitchen and Cocktails is serious about its name: every possible culinary component is house-made. I enjoyed fried ravioli stuffed with shredded braised short rib from the state’s notable NoName Ranch while I perused a cocktail menu offering familiar classics like the Vieux Carré, Old Fashioned, and Sazerac.

The Diner, just down the way, was twice featured on the Food Network (in 2009 as part of Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives show and in 2015 as part of Ty Pennington’s American Diner Revival renovation show). I chose the “Eggaritto” and famous chili.

Where to stay

New, unique, and opened just last fall, the NOUN Hotel is part boutique/part city slicker hotel with views of the stadium and the historic Campus Corner student entertainment district.

The dining and libations confirm this place is more than just a pretty view. In the Supper Club bistro, lunch was Mister Crispy ham and gruyere on brioche, a tasty detour from a Reuben or grilled cheese, with house kettle chips and grilled broccolini. For a late dinner at the lobby bar, I enjoyed bucatini pasta in a warm leek and butternut squash purée.

Upstairs the indoor/outdoor ONE Bar has multiple sports screens, fire pits, and an overlook of the campus.

Museums

The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma has a permanent collection numbering some 20,000 pieces, including Native American and American Southwest artifacts from close to home. But European, Asian, 20th century American paintings and sculpture are also fully represented. The Weitzenhoffer Collection of French Impressionists is in a wood-paneled parlor and library. Surrounded by Mrs. Weitzenhoffer’s 18th century decorative arts and period furniture, you feel as a guest in her home.

The university’s expansive Sam Noble Museum focuses on natural history, from ancient times to present day. Start in the Orientation Gallery, and then follow a color-coded pathway segueing from one epoch to the next. Specimens range from the gigantic to the tiniest origins of life. Stand below the world’s largest Apatosaurus (like a Brontosaurus but much bigger), then take a ride in the museum’s glass elevator (called a “dinovator”) to view it face to face.

On Main Street, by the railroad tracks, be sure to stop by the prominent statue of Norman native son and award-winning actor James Garner. This is also the meeting place for the Downtown Norman Ghost Tour, which offers equal part history and spooky lore—telling of the barber who died nearly a century ago but still trims hair, a notorious gangster buried by his hideout, and monsters of a nearby lake.

Right: Campus Corner, featuring the iconic Sooner Theatre sign, defines the retail/entertainment district at the main gate of the university.

Fayetteville, Arkansas

With its distinctive Second Empire style “Old Main” classroom building as anchor and other Collegiate Gothic structures set between the Boston Mountains and Ozark foothills, the University of Arkansas stands proud in its college town: campus and city skylines peek up at opposite ends of a shared entertainment district.

Fayetteville is known as the “Track Capital of the World” because of the legendary reputation of the University of Arkansas track and field programs. Situated at the southern end of the Northwest Arkansas market—NWA per locals—it also connects north to the “Mountain Biking Capital of the World” (Bentonville) through an extensive biking trail system. With nearby hiking, camping, hunting, and fishing, there’s never a lack of outdoor recreation, not to mention visual and performing arts. A discriminating clientele supports an excellent food scene.

Where to shop

Dickson Street Bookshop has been an institution since 1978, with an inventory estimated at 100,000 titles. Buy, sell, and trade books new and used, including some out-of-print.

The Fayetteville Farmers’ Market, the oldest in Arkansas, features seventy vendors offering local produce, plants and handmade crafts. It operates Tuesdays, May to September and Saturdays, April to November around the downtown square. Home game Saturdays are particularly colorful with Ozarks fall foliage, brightly colored squash, gourds and pumpkins, and red-and-white clad Razorback alumni in full array.

Performing Arts Walton Arts Center

The 1,200-seat Walton Arts Center, a year-round venue of Broadway tour shows, classical music, jazz, and more, opened in 1992 and is a catalyst for the ensuing evolution of its Dickson Street neighborhood from dingy college pub crawl to vibrant entertainment district. The sister, open-air Walmart AMP is in nearby Rogers and a separate professional repertory company, TheatreSquared, sits one block off Dickson.

In Fayetteville, George's Majestic Lounge is Arkansas’ oldest live music venue—founded as a restaurant, bar, and general store in 1927.

The Old Main building, the University of Arkansas's first building on campus, where Bill Clinton taught law.

George’s Majestic Lounge

Across the parking lot from the Walton Arts Center is George’s Majestic, Arkansas’s oldest live music venue—founded as a restaurant, bar, and general store in 1927. Icons of blues, country, and rock have appeared here; the likes of Leon Russell, Little River Band, Old Crow Medicine Show, Eddie Money, and Dierks Bentley, to name a few. Inside are two large bricked rooms each with a stage, a bookcase filled with dozens of University of Arkansas yearbooks above the main bar, and the owner’s instrument collection featuring guitars signed by the Rolling Stones, Santana, Marshall Tucker, Elton John, and The Eagles—plus a Charlie Daniels fiddle.

Where to eat

Cheers at the Old Post Office on the square offers a-step-above-pub fare in a building worth the stop. Dine in the 1911 post office with wiring once installed by the Thomas Edison Company. Ask to see the original fuse box.

Doe’s Eat Place on Dickson, spawn of the original Greenville, Mississippi purveyor of massive steaks, reminds us that now-urbane Northwest Arkansas is still Southern.

Bordinos Restaurant and Wine Bar, a long-time Dickson St. favorite, appropriately offers wild boar and pasta Northern Italian style in Razorback land of Northern Arkansas, among a score of gourmet dishes and impressive wines.

Mockingbird Kitchen is always busy serving up “chef-inspired modern Ozark cuisine” for lunch, brunch, and dinner from a non-descript strip center diner you wouldn’t suspect was owned by a Hyde Park, New York Culinary Institute alum and a teaching chef at Northwest Arkansas’s large community college, Chef Chrissy Sanderson, until you ate there. Hamburgers, salads, and duck tacos, yes. But also, interesting twists like the fried buffalo cauliflower appetizer and a blackened catfish take on shrimp and grits.

Where to stay

The Graduate is a repurposed, totally renovated 70s-era Hilton decorated to the hilt with all things Razorback. The default football weekend headquarters, it’s a perfect footing year-round mere steps from the square. Rooms to the east view cross-topped Mount Sequoyah and to the west, the campus and spectacular sunsets.

Or, stay on campus at The Inn at Carnal Hall, a historic former women’s dormitory-turned-luxurious boutique hotel. Sit in a rocker and sip a cocktail on the wraparound porch overlooking the Old Main lawn. Dining is superb at Ella’s Table. Example: a seafood vol-au-vent of Gulf oysters, blue crab, and Arkansas farm-raised shrimp.

Museums

Sure, you can visit the expansive Clinton presidential library in Little Rock, but in Fayetteville there’s Bill and Hillary’s first home from when he taught law at the university, the Clinton House Museum. A one-bedroom brick Tudor-revival, its living room is where the couple was married.

The Arkansas Air and Military Museum is south of town at Fayetteville’s Executive Airport. See close-up 20th Century military and civilian aircraft, vehicles, weapons, and memorabilia in hangars adjacent to the airstrip.

Thirty minutes north is Bentonville’s Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the “nation’s most important new art museum in a generation” per NBC News, with art, stunning architecture, and nature in one place. h

Disclaimer: This trip was hosted in part by Visit Norman, though the opinions of the writer are entirely his own.

Oxford, Mississippi

visitoxfordms.com

• ajaxdiner.com

• rowanoak.com

• citygroceryonline.com

• chancellorshouse.com

• squarebooks.com

Norman, Oklahoma

visitnorman.com

• bigbadbreakfast.com

• theinnatolemiss.com

upcoming events

• sandalwood-and-sage.com

• greenfeatherbooks.com

• 2ndfridaynorman.com

• tribes131.com

• soonertheatre.org

• thedinerofnorman.com

• eatatscratch.com/norman

• samnoblemuseum.ou.edu

Fayetteville, Arkansas

experiencefayetteville.com

• dicksonstreetbooks.com

• nounhotel.com

• ou.edu/fjjma

• fayettevillefarmersmarket.org

• waltonartscenter.org

• georgesmajesticlounge.com

• doeseatplace.com

• mockingbirdkitchen.com

• cheersopo.com

• innatcarnallhall.com

• graduatehotels.com

• clintonhousemuseum.org

• arkansasairandmilitary.com

• crystalbridges.org

Directory of Merchants

3 LIVE MUSIC STAGES, FOOD, ART & MAKERS, KIDS ZONE AND MORE FREE FUN!

BFF passes with private viewing, indoor bathrooms, food and open bar still available!

PERSPECTIVES: IMAGES OF OUR STATE

You Had to Be There

WYATT WATERS’ WATERCOLOR ROAD TRIP THROUGH THE AMERICAN SOUTH

By Jordan LaHaye Fontenot

As watercolorist Wyatt Waters was reaching the end of his great Southern sojourn back in 2022, he found himself as South has South goes, painting palm trees in the Florida Keys.

These tropical beauties were so different from the lush, lace-leaved trees of the more quintessentially “Southern” places Waters was used to. When he returned to his home in Clinton, Mississippi some weeks later, he sat down before a loblolly, paintbrush in hand, and he looked at it anew.

“Travel, it changes me more than anything. It’s not something you can anticipate. When you get home, you find that you’re a different person. You’re looking at things differently, and for me, that means painting things differently.”

For his new book, The Watercolor Road: Painting and Writing through the American South, Waters approached his work as he always has: working on location, and attempting to capture the character of a place. He’s done this all over the world—when he set out for his book, he had just returned from a year spent in France, during which he created an impressive three hundred paintings.

But this time, his intentions were more specific: he wanted to better make sense of the places within the place he’d come from. He wanted to paint “The South”. “I wanted to pursue a more regional idea of what it means to be Southern,” he explained. “Painting is always how I’ve related to things … It’s a way to make some sense of them. You do this painting, and it does

make sense, not in a logical way, but it puts it into a place where you can feel it and say something about it.”

Over the course of the years 2020 to 2022, Waters and his wife Kristi set out on a series of two-to-five-week trips from their home base of Clinton, where Waters’s gallery is. Traveling in their sixteen-foot Casita camper, they covered over 50,000-miles of the American South, capturing facets of it all the way: the stained glass of a church in Mississippi, a bridge over the Honey Island Swamp (which you’ll find on our cover), McClard’s BBQ in Hot Springs, mist settling over the farms of rural North Carolina.

“When you get there, that’s what makes the difference,” he said. In the second of the book’s twenty-one essays, Waters describes some people’s perplexity at watching him paint out in the snow, in temperatures so cold he has to use vodka to keep his paints from freezing. This degree of commitment stems from that firm gospel of “being there”.

“I believe now, more than ever, in the digital age where everything is given to you second- or third-hand, and can so easily be manipulated—there’s something very important about using brushes, pencils, and paper, and canvas. And being in front of your subjects firsthand, putting your boots to the ground, meeting people. I really believe that’s important.”

His subjects present themselves in two ways, Waters explained. They are either chosen, often through research conducted by Kristi (his itinerary planner and the book’s editor), or they are chanced upon. “It was

my job to, in between point A and point B, say ‘Oh hey, let’s stop and do that,’ and suddenly you’re painting this twenty-foot fiberglass cowgirl wearing a bikini,” he laughed. “You can’t anticipate those things, they just appear.”

Whenever he arrives on a site, Waters begins by simply walking around, exploring a little, seeking out idiosyncrasies and stories told by the passerby. “Those experiences, those stories, they somehow flavor the painting. I don’t really … I do this every day and I don’t even understand how that works. But it does work.”

After two years of traveling, what Waters ended up with were over one hundred expressions of over one hundred moments in over one hundred places. What he discovered, he said, was that there were so very many ways to be Southern—as many as the different varieties of barbecue. “And the best one is always whichever you are eating at that moment.”

Alongside these portraits of place, The Watercolor Road also includes Waters’s reflections on his own artistic practice, and how it is so inextricably entwined with the world he occupies. “That’s what it’s all about,” he said. “Life.” h

You can see more of Waters’s work in his gallery in Clinton and online at wyattwaters.com, where you can also purchase a copy of The Watercolor Road: Painting and Writing through the American South.

Wyatt Waters. “Down to the Bayou to Pray” Pierre Part, Louisiana.