When your retirement goal is to enjoy the best food the world has to offer, a trip to Louisiana’s Cajun Country is high on that list. And a trip during crawdad season is a must!
We spent two days in New Orleans’ French Quarter at the beginning of March taking in its ambience, discovering Beignettes, Alligator and Boiled Crawfish and taking in a couple of cooking classes. Speaking of cooking classes, I highly recommend the cooking class offered by New Orleans School of Cooking. If you are lucky enough to have Anne as your instructor, you’ll get a delightfully humorous history lesson on New Orleans and a greater understanding and appreciation of Cajun and Creole cooking.
We then headed northwest to Breaux Bridge to spend two nights. We had heard of a café there called Café Des Amis which was not to be missed. We didn’t… and it was one of the most delightful meals of our trip. You must try the bbq'd shrimp! On the other hand, The B&B we stayed at there, Bayou Cabins on Bayou Teche, should be missed. Not only were the cabins rustic as advertised and there was no breakfast, they were unkept and dirty. We spent the two days with the same thin towels, even thinner soap, and a yet thinner adjoining wall.
While in Breaux Bridge, we took a swamp tour on Martin Swamp with Butch of Cajun Country Swamp Tours. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it was much more enjoyable than I imagined. The fact that there were no biting mosquitoes or other bugs enhanced the enjoyment.
Our last three nights were spent at T’Freres House B&B in Lafayette with hosts Pat and Maugie Pastor, and son John. Now this is what a B&B should be! The room was pristine and roomy, the service was impeccable, the hospitality gracious and bountiful, and the breakfasts were creative and delicious. Maugie not only took responsibility for ensuring our nights were cozy and restful, she made sure that our trip to Cajun country lived up to our expectations by making recommendations and reservations where required for day trips and restaurants that suited our needs and expectations.
By the end of our trip, we had experienced PoBoys made with the best French bread on the planet stuffed with crawdads, shrimp, oysters and andouille sausage… gumbos and jambalayas equally as diverse, bread puddings and pralines that are now high on my list of favorite deserts… and crawdads fixed just about every way they can think of and all wonderful!
If good food and great hospitality is high on your list of priorities, take a trip to Louisiana’s Cajun Country. The only thing I would do differently is to stay the entire trip at T’Freres. Lafayette is centrally located to just about everything you want to do in Cajun country, and the delightful people at T’Freres will make sure you see and do and eat the best Cajun Country has to offer.
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