Breaux Bridge and Lake Martin (Wednesday 29 February)

As it was a Wednesday morning in Lafayette we intended to follow the advice in  the Lonely Planet Guide:

On Wednesday mornings stop by Dwyers for a breakfast biscuit and listen in as old Cajun codgers hold court in their local French Patois

Unfortunately we spent some time driving up and down Jefferson Boulevard and nearby streets to no avail - no Dwyers to be seen!  We eventually gave up and drove back to site for porridge. 

We thought we'd maybe spend some time in downtown Lafayette in the morning, but we couldn't find downtown Lafayettte either!  Well, that's not quite true, we did find it, but couldn't park anywhere in the RV.  Actually downtown Lafayette is very small although Lafayette itself is quite a sprawling town and has a very long street, Dauphin Street, running through the middle of it.  

Giving up on the sprawl of endless strip malls which is Lafayette, we decided to head on out to Breaux Bridge and spend some time there before thee swamp tour (at nearby Lake Martin).

Breaux Bridge is a lovely little town on the Bayou Teche with a small and friendly information center.   Taking the advice of woman in the information centre, we walked around the small town centre (a few arty shops and cafes) and then through St Bernard's cemetery (elevated tombs) and to the Park of the Bridges, alongside the Bayou Teche.  Here we saw the marble snake and plaque explaining the Native American legend of the Bayou Teche (Teche being a Native Americasn word for snake).  After this we stopped at the Café des Amis for coffee and Chocolate Paycan(sic) pie (Anna) and Bread Pudding with a delicious disgustingly Sweet White Chocolate Sauce (Paul). 

We then set off for Lake Martin and our swamp tour about 5 miles away.   At Lake Martin Jetty we were met by Shawn Guchereau of Cajun Swamp Tours (see link in last post) who works in the business with his father, 'Butch'. There were only four of us on the trip, the other two being Susie and Mike from California . 

While we were waiting on the jetty a noisy airboat set off. This was followed by a loud grumbling noise which came from a few feet away from where we were stood. Shawn said it was a 10ft 'gator which had been sleeping in the mud on the bottom and had been disturbed by the noise.  We didn't get to see it, though he said that he had seen it earlier.

We set off in the aluminium skiff, learning about the history of the lake which was originally an area of swamps and bayous which had been developed into a wildlife sanctuary.  Shawn was a great guide and had a lot of knowledge, both passed on from his father and from his own study and experience. (Interestingly, an American woman from somewhere out-of-state who had been on the earlier tour - just returned - said she wished us luck in understanding Shawn, as he was 'very Cajun'.  We had no problem understanding him at all!)

We saw quite few gators - of various sizes on the swamp tour, plus cormorants and other birds, as Shawn navigated us around the lake and through cypress swamps and down bayous, telling us about the development of the area and the different flora and fauna.  We took a lot of photographs (Anna) and video footage (Paul)

On Shawn's recommendation we went back to the Cafe des Amis in Breaux Bridge for an evening meal (very good crawfish etoufee), accompanied by a live zydeco band.


It was a fantastic day!  We returned to Lafayette and the Acadiana National Park to spend our second - and final - night there.