New Orleans, Plantations

It was hard to decide which plantations we wanted to visit.
Two were out, west of the city, on the River Road. So we decided to tour them. The drive out offered fabulous views of the river (which, during "drought" is still high!)


as well as the farmlands.

Laura Plantation was the first one we visited


It was a sugar plantation built in 1805. Based on 5000 pages of documents in the National Archives in France, and a memoir written by Laura Locoul, the great granddaughter of the original land grant recipient, French naval veteran of the American Revolution, Guilaume Duparc. The tour tells the history of 4 generations of women who lived and worked the plantation, handing it down through the women of the family.




The tour also included outside garden, with Pirique Tobacco, a rare type, only grown in southern Louisianna,


slave quarters


and several other out buildings


After lunch at a seafood market/restaurant (again, very good cajun food!), we continued on the River Road to the Oak Alley Plantation, the "Grande Dame of the Great River Road"



It was named for the 800 foot, double row, of 28 evenly spaced live oak trees, planted by an unknown settler at least a hundred years prior to the house being built in 1837-1839. Jacques Telesphore Roman, a wealthy Creole sugar cane planter, tried to lure his new wife away from New Orleans by building this spectacular mansion. She still spent most of her time in the city. After he died, she did move back and ran the plantation




Although it was ravaged by the Civil War, it was later restored and sold in 1866. In 1920s it fell into disrepair again,and it was acquired by Andrew and Josephine Stewart. After both died, it was placed into the hands of a nonprofit organization, which opened it to the public. No inside pictures were allowed.

We took an alternative route back, taking the Pontchartrain Causeway, the longest (23.83 miles) bridge over water in the country. It is second longest over water in the world with the first being Qigdao Haiwan Bridge in China (26.4 miles) being the longest. It is seventh longest in the world. Poor Barbara... she was driving and she was kind of afraid at first, but by the time we got to the end she was comfortable!

As we arrived, I took this picture of the Northshore. It was very pretty, and the town seemed to be a newer area.

There has been a lot of variety in this vacation! Except the "Hot and Humid" weather!