Spend a Day in Louisiana’s Cajun Bayou

Just thirty-five miles south of “The City that Care Forgot,” the residents of Louisiana’s Cajun Bayou are a little wilder, a little more unrestrained, than their urban counterparts. Bayou Lafourche winds the length of the eponymous parish, and for those who live in the communities along its maze of coastal marshes, the bayou is a way of life. It carves out a landscape like no other, a genuine slice of Southeast Louisiana that’s “unapologetically Cajun.”

Since sightseeing is better begun on a full stomach, start your tour along the Cajun Bayou Food Trail. Armed with a special trail map and passport (available at the visitors center and participating restaurants), road-trippers can dine at any of the trail’s twenty eateries along the bayou and find a menu full of classic Cajun dishes. 

Or, if you prefer to see a place through the eyes of its earliest inhabitants, there are plenty of resources illustrating the way of life that shaped the parish and its people, from Houma Indians to Acadian settlers to nineteenth century sugar planters and beyond. There's even a Bayou Country Children's Museum for your curious little Cajuns; fun-filled exhibits transform children into camouflaged duck hunters, Mardi Gras royalty, or shrimp boat captains. At the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute, fledgling chefs become skilled ambassadors of Cajun and Creole cuisine. The institution is dedicated to preserving Louisiana’s rich (and delicious) culinary heritage, and visitors can drive through its campus at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux or make a reservation to dine at Bistro Ruth, the school's completely student-run restaurant. 

Your next stop is the village of Leeville, where both amateur and professional anglers come from all over to see what they can reel in at its fishing pier. After you score a scale-tipping specimen or two, end your tour all the way down the bayou at Port Fourchon’s forty-acre outdoor recreation area, where you can use the viewfinders to spot hundreds of avian species as they traverse the Mississippi Flyway. 

If the sun is sinking below the swaths of swampland but you’re not ready to say farewell to the bayou just yet, rest assured; with so much to do in Lafourche Parish, there's always another reason to come back for the day, or even stay awhile. Whether you’re a native of Louisiana or a first-time visitor, you’ll find that this corner of the Bayou State has a way of lingering in the mind’s eye long after you’re gone. Head to lacajunbayou.com to begin planning your next wonder-filled escape into Louisiana’s Cajun Bayou.