USA Guide
Louisiana
Swathed in the romance of pirates, voodoo, and Mardi Gras, Louisiana is undeniably special. Its history is barely on nodding terms with the view that America was the creation of the Pilgrim Fathers; its way of life is proudly set apart. This is the land of the rural, French-speaking Cajuns (descended from the Acadians, eighteenth-century French-Canadian refugees), who live in the prairies and swamps in the southwest of the state, and the Creoles of jazzy, sassy New Orleans. Louisiana's distinctive, spicy cuisine, festivals, and, above all, its music (jazz, R&B, Cajun, and its bluesy black counterpart, zydeco) draw from all these cultures and more. Oddly enough, northern Louisiana – Protestant Bible Belt country, where old plantation homes stand decaying in vast cottonfields – feels more "Southern" than the marshy bayous, shaded by ancient cypress trees and laced with wispy trails of Spanish moss, of the Catholic south.
Though Louisiana was not badly scarred physically by the Civil War, its economy was ravaged, and its social structures all but destroyed. The Reconstruction era, too, hit hard here, with the once great city of New Orleans suffering a period of unprecedented lawlessness and racial violence. In time, the economy, at least, recovered, benefiting from the key importance of the mighty Mississippi and the discovery of offshore oil in the 1950s – but during the twentieth century Louisiana came to rely heavily upon tourism, centered on New Orleans and Cajun country.
In August 2005, the double whammy of Hurricane Katrina, which swept in through the coastal wetlands, and the horrific after-effects of the levee breaks in New Orleans, seemed as if it might put an end to all that. Slowly but surely, however, recovery continues. Though no thinking person can visit southern Louisiana today without feeling a deep sense of loss, the state still has a huge amount to offer. Whether you're canoeing along a cypress-clogged bayou, dining on spicy, buttery crawfish in a crumbling Creole cottage, or dancing on a steamy starlit night to the best live music in the world, Louisiana remains unique – and a place that now, more than ever, needs your support.
Highlights
1 Swamp tours Watch out for alligators lurking in the ghostly, Spanish-moss-shaded bayous.
2 Napoleon House, New Orleans Steeped in old New Orleans elegance, this gorgeous family-owned bar has stayed the same for generations, complete with flickering gas lamps and a deeply romantic courtyard.
3 Vaughan's on a Thursday, New Orleans Kermit Ruffins on the trumpet, beans and rice on the stove, and riotously happy music fans tearing the roof off this tiny tumbledown neighbourhood bar.
4 Mardi Gras From the masking and dancing of New Orleans's urban spectacular, to Cajun country's pagan rituals, Louisiana's Fat Tuesday is unlike any other.
5 Laura Plantation By far the River Road's most intriguing and illuminating account of Creole plantation life.
6 Angola prisoner rodeo An unbelievable spectacle, with lifers slugging it out for guts and glory in this notorious maximum-security prison.
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