Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks

You Just Might Live in Louisiana...

• if someone in a Lowe's store offers you assistance and they don't work there.
• if you've worn shorts and a parka at the same time.
• if you've had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number.
• if you measure distance in hours.
• if you install security lights in your house and garage, but leave both unlocked.
• if you carry jumper cables in your car for your wife to use.
• if you find 60 degrees "a little chilly".
• if you actually relate to and understand these jokes, you definitely live in Louisiana.

Jeff Foxworthy certainly must have lived in Louisiana at one time or other (or his writers did) because every one of these is true.

Only in Louisiana...

Do you take a field trip to the edge of a rice field...

and watch a crawfish farmer harvesting (Mommy thinks she'd like this job)...

these cute little fellows...

and actually get to hop aboard a crawfish boat...

with your friends...

then on to a crawfish warehouse...

where you get to watch the crawfish take a carnival ride...

and slide back down again....

and smile about it.

Only in Louisiana are these little fellows considered playmates...

and consider this an appropriate item to bring for show-and-tell at school...

and play in a muddy ditch during school time...

and have crawfish fights...

Are crawfish fights legal?

Then to the alligator farm where you get to hold baby alligators...(my girls look a little gator-struck, don't they?)

And, while you're enjoying your first picnic of spring,...

visitors from the pond...

like this ol' PawPaw Nutria...

and this little wooly bear...

come looking for food at the Cajun Cottage.

Thank you for joining us on our field trip.  :)

Acadian Cultural Day

Free Admission at Vermilionville for Acadian Culture Day

LAFAYETTE --- Vermilionville will celebrate this area's rich Cajun heritage for Acadian Culture Day, set for Sunday, August 12 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Vermilionville, 300 Fisher Road.

Admission is free on this day, which promotes Cajun history, language, music, food, and dance. The program is designed to allow guests to "two-step" back in time and experience almost every aspect of Cajun culture from 1765 to present.   

Jesse Legé & The Southern Ramblers will play Cajun music in the morning and Jason Frey & Lagniappe will play in the afternoon. In between the two performances Carol and Gerald Trahan will lead the crowd in Cajun dance lessons. An authentic Cajun buffet of smothered steak, corn macque choux, smothered okra, white beans and sausage, cornbread and peach cobbler will be available for purchase from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.   

In association with Louisiana Folk Roots, Vermilionville's historic village will abound with hands-on activities to help provide guests of all ages with a better understanding of the lives led by Cajun settlers. Children will be able to make rag dolls, bamboo fishing poles and jewelry that they can take home (nominal fee). Visitors can participate in quilting, write with quill & ink pens, play old-time games and ride on a hand-drawn ferry. Additionally, artisans will give demonstrations and cultural advocates will give presentations on local topics. The artisans for this day will be funded in part by a grant from the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Office of Cultural Development, Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism in cooperation with the Louisiana State Arts Council as administered by the Acadiana Arts Council.

Since language is an integral part of the Cajun experience, Cajun French speakers " both fluent and those still learning " will have plenty of opportunities to speak the language on Acadian Culture Day. In morning, there will be French lessons and songs sung in French, and in the afternoon guests can participate in French-only conversations at the Table Français set up in the glassed-in back porch of Vermilionville's restaurant.   

             Admission to this event is free. For more information, call 337-233-4077 or visit www.vermilionville.org

Take a virtual tour here.