Today was an especially exciting day for Ruth. She wanted so much to visit the plantations along the Great River Road between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Ten plantations are in close proximity but we only had time to visit two of them. Prior to the civil war, more than half of America’s millionaires lived between New Orleans and Natchez, their fortunes tied to the soil of the Mississippi river.

The first plantation we visited was the Laura Plantation, named after Laura Locoul (1861-1963), the last decendant of the Duparc family to own this Creole plantation. The building looks modest compared to some other plantations which is typical for Creole families who saw their plantation as a business.

Their main home was in New Orleans. Inside, the rooms are fairly modest. It was built by slaves who learned to be carpenters using only wooden nails and bricks they made themselves.

Some of the slave houses are still on the property. Plantation kitchens were always outside of the main building because they had a tendancy to burn down. We were also able to see the retirement home of Laura’s grandmother, Elisabeth Duparc, who was known for standing on the balcony and pointing out all the mistakes that were being made.

We had a fabulous tour with Ethan, a trained actor, who showed lots of knowledge and enthusiasm.

At the gift store we purchased the memoirs of Laura, a Creole cookbook and a small bottle of rum made from local sugarcane.

The second plantation we visited is called Oak Alley plantation. It is known for its quarter mile alley lined with 28 three hundred year old oak trees. We had a fabulous lunch at the restaurant on the premises.

The majestic mansion is worth seeing both from the outside as well as the inside.

We especially liked the self-guided exhibit on slavery at the Oak Alley plantation. The guided tour of the interior of the house definitely wasn’t as good as the Laura tour.

A short video on sugar production promising to show both historical and current methods of sugar processing turned out to be not much more than a promotional film by the sugar producers extolling the virtues of sugar and seemed to encourage visitors to eat more cupcakes with lots of sugar icing.

We left the historic sites of the plantations and continued West to New Iberia where we are camping the the KOC Campground.