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Live it up in LafayetteLouisiana’s Cajun capital revels in its past and presentBy Angela Fox
For more information on visiting Lafayette, go to www.lafayettetravel.com or call (800) 346-1958. Photos of Vermilionville house and artisan by Angela Fox. |
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Lafayette is the capital of Cajun
country -- that unofficial kingdom covering 22 parishes in southwest Louisiana.
Big city modern in many respects, small town quaint in others, it’s the kind of
place where you can stay out all night dancing to zydeco and watch the sun come
up over a lazy bayou; where you can wake up in a spacious room in a high-rise
hotel and dine out in an early 1800s inn; where you can watch artisans create
traditional crafts or wander through a suburban mall. Whatever your pleasure,
it’s a great place to “pass a good time,” to use a popular Cajun expression.
The best way to get a handle
on history here is to visit Vermilionville, a 23-acre Cajun/Creole folk life
park. Overlooking Bayou Vermilion, the park recreates life in the area between
1765 (when the French-speaking Acadians of Nova Scotia were forcibly expelled
from Canada by the British and found refuge in Louisiana) and 1890. Throughout
the village, which consists of 18 buildings, costumed interpreters demonstrate
crafts, music and everyday pursuits and skills of centuries past. During our
visit, for example, the blacksmith on duty explained to us that a Louisiana
smith of the era didn’t spend much time shoeing horses – the ground in the area
is so soft and moist that horseshoes weren’t needed. Instead, the Vermilionville
smith deftly demonstrated nail-making while we watched and then directed us to
the village cemetery to see an iron cross, decorated with delicate flowers, that
he had fashioned in his forge.
The most elaborate home in the village
originally belonged to a man named Broussard, a prosperous cattle farmer in the
area, and was moved to its present home in Vermilionville. Visitors can chat
with the costumed interpreter who portrays the homeowner or check on the gumbo
and yams being prepared in the kitchen house behind the main house. If you’re up
to the linguistic challenge, your chat can even transpire in the French the 18th
century farmer would have used --- since the interpreter at the Broussard house
during our visit was fluent in the language.
In another house, the arts of cotton
spinning, cloth weaving and quilting are showcased. The interpreter here made
the carding of cotton and the spinning of it into thread on her spinning wheel
look like art indeed. On a 170-year-old loom nearby, the thread was being woven
into a soft, nubby fabric that would be used to fashion authentic clothing for
Vermilionville residents today. One of our favorite stops was to watch a
craftsman construct a pirogue – the flat-bottomed cypress canoe still used today
on the area bayous. Daily cooking demonstrations also give insight into the
hearty cuisine enjoyed by locals then and now. You can sample such traditional
dishes as red beans and rice and gumbo at the village restaurant or pick up a
sweet treat at the bakery. The gift shop and art gallery are filled with Cajun
and Creole items (many made by resident artisans) so you can take a little bit
of Vermilionville home with you.
There are plenty of lodging options in
and around the city --- from budget hotels to antebellum bed-and-breakfasts. The
327-room Hilton Lafayette, however, is the area’s premier full-service hotel and
conference center. Fresh from a $5 million renovation, the Hilton overlooks the
Vermilion River on Pinhook Road. There’s a restaurant and a lounge/dance club on
site but the main attraction for many visiting in the sultry summer months is
the beautiful pool with a wide deck providing outstanding views of the river.
The Hilton offers a choice of kings or two doubles in its standard rooms, plus
conveniences like coffeemakers, hair dryers, cable TV and high-speed Internet
access. 
While Lafayette and the surrounding area is
best known for Cajun home cooking that emphasizes boiled crawfish, deep-fried
seafood and hearty gumbo there are also fine dining restaurants that offer more
sophisticated versions of regional cuisine. Our favorite place for an upscale
meal is Café Vermilionville, housed in a building that dates to before 1818 and
was Lafayette's first inn. Though it has been renovated and added onto over the
years, it still retains many original features. Since owner Ken Veron opened
Café Vermilionville in 1981, the restaurant has earned several awards including
Gold, Silver and Bronze Medals at the Acadiana Culinary Classics, three diamonds
from the AAA Auto Club and three stars from the Mobil Travel Guide. It earned
our personal top honor when we celebrated our wedding engagement with a
memorable meal there in December 1990.
My husband had proposed to me earlier that
day on the banks of the Bayou Teche under the fabled Evangeline Oak, just down
the road in the charming village of St. Martinville. What we dined on that
evening at Café Vermilionville is lost in romantic memories – but we knew it was
wonderful enough to return to the café again to celebrate our 14th wedding
anniversary in May 2005. On this evening we paid a bit more attention to the
food and can therefore highly recommend items like the turtle soup, rich with
Louisiana turtle meat simmered in veal stock and finished with dry sherry, the
velvety fresh cream of carrot soup, the Creole bronzed shrimp (whose
Oriental-style presentation was a work of culinary art) and the sumptuous
Bananas Foster cheesecake.