Maison Madeleine on Lake Martin

Imagine gathering beneath swinging Spanish moss at the height of spring bird migration—a fine cocktail in hand as Audubon Louisiana biologists take you on a walk or boat ride through Lake Martin, one of the state’s most spectacular nesting grounds for visiting waterbirds. Next comes a multi-course dinner, inspired by bird life, from chefs Cody and Samantha Carroll of Hot Tails Restaurant, Sac-a-Lait, and Food Network’s Cajun Aces. That’s the experience guests at “Fly Away Home,” our March 25 Supper Club at Maison Madeleine will have. If you want to be a part of it—and you surely do—act fast, because tickets are disappearing over the horizon. The good news is we plan to put the same amount of relentless enthusiasm for regional culture into our April and May dinners. Tickets for the spring series, presented by Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation, and Tourism, can be found at BonTempsTix.com. More details on the March 25 dinner here.

Our Location: Maison Madeleine on Lake Martin

Roughly equidistant from Lafayette and Breaux Bridge, Lake Martin, formerly known as Lake la Pointe, was historically seasonal. Each fall and winter, the low-lying area would fill with rainwater and overflow from the nearby Vermilion River and Bayou Teche, gradually draining through spring to become essentially dry (by Louisiana standards) in summer. This slow-draining soil made the area unattractive to farmers, who preferred lighter, better-draining soil nearby. In the early 1950s, a project spearheaded by local property owners constructed a five-mile levee around the lake and adjacent forested areas to create a year-round lake. The area within the levee was opened to public recreation as the St. Martin-Lafayette Fish and Game Preserve.

By the late 1980s, the resulting complex of permanently flooded cypress-tupelo swamp and open water had made the area an attractive nesting area for birds, including the little blue heron; white ibis; the vividly pink roseate spoonbill, billed as the “Cajun flamingo;” a variety of egrets; and many more. Ecologists posit that at least part of the appeal of the area to birds is the fact that Lake Martin maintains a healthy population of alligators, which dissuade the raccoons, possums, mink, and other predators and nest-raiders who might disturb the nesting birds.

Much of the area surrounding the lake is managed as the Cypress Island Preserve by the Nature Conservancy, which maintains a visitor’s center and performs conservation activities on-site. The Nature Conservancy aids researchers, monitors bird populations, and maintains a schedule of water replacement designed to mitigate some unsavory effects of the site’s popularity. Bird waste is rich in nitrogen and phosphorus, and when these nutrients build up in a body or water, algae can “bloom” or grow uncontrolledly, causing a number of adverse affects for other marine life. A structure emplaced by the organization pulls a few feet of water out of the lake when needed (yearly at first, every two to three years now); that water is replaced by rainfall or, in dry years, water pumped in from a nearby canal. 

Maison Madeleine, the venue for the Supper Club, has operated as a bed and breakfast since 2005. The main house, a historic French Creole-style construction dating from about 1840, was moved to its present site on the shore of Lake Martin in 1997 before being painstakingly restored and authentically furnished to its antebellum glory. The house is one of fewer than fifty surviving such buildings in Acadiana, and is proudly listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Highly rated by travel guides and the site of an episode of Anthony Bourdain’s acclaimed television series No Reservations, the property is a true Louisiana treasure.  

Tickets for our March 25 Supper Club here. And learn more baout the programming we've got in store—including fine Cajun music and bird walks along Lake Martin—here.

This article originally appeared in our March 2018 issue. Subscribe to our print magazine today.