Lafayette

A short ride back to the south from Natchitoches is Lafayette - the Cajun Capital of America.

The time spent was only a brief couple of days, but it was enough to enable me get a taste (literally) for the Cajun country.

A short distance north of Lafayette is the Atchafalaya Basin largest contiguous bottomland hardwood forest in North America; I was tempted to make yet another swamp run, but having been to the Manchac and Honey Island swamps - I had seen enough.

Instead, I elected to seek out the Cajun Music at Pat's Fisherman's Wharf Restaurant & Atchafalaya Club.  It was a good decision; the music was pure Cajun and Zydeco (a folk music of Cajun music highlighted by the piano-accordion and rub-board or washboard).

It surprised me to see the age spread of the dancers who crowded onto the floor to two-step to the tunes.  There were probably more people over the age of forty than under and there were more than a couple who appeared to pushing their 80's.  On the other end of the spectrum there were of number of couples in their twenties.  The music was really  fantastic.

Even so, I wanted make sure that to get the full Cajun experience; and so, I left Pat's to journey to Randol's in down-town Lafayette.

The music was probably more pure Cajun than what was featured at Pat's, but, as such, it was less to my liking than the music from Pat's which had more of a Rock-a-Billy and R & B's sound.

What was unique to Randol's was the quaint way the girls were positioned on one side of the dance floor and the boys on the other.

When the music started though, the dance floor came alive with lots of spinning and twirling to up-beat musical pace.