Blues, haints and bayous: snippets from the Deep South: Beautiful Natchitoches

We visited Natchitoches (pronounced NAK-a-tish) for one purpose: to see Clementine Hunter's art work. But more on that later, as Natchitoches itself, became a charming destination, and turned out to be one of our favourite stops enroute to date.

We are now in Louisiana. The earliest settlement, here, similar to Natchez, was French. The French built their trading fort near an Indian village. Later, after the United States government bought the great swathe of heartland called the Louisiana Purchase from the French in 1803, new settlers moved here, planting cotton. Natchitoches became a busy port. Even growers in Texas shipped their cotton overland to Natchitoches where it was shipped downstream to the New Orleans markets, then abroad.

When the Civil war broke out the Union army set fire to many buildings as they retreated from the enemy here. But the Confederates were not far behind. Close enough to extinguish the fires in town, saving much of the historic downtown. Again, as in Natchez, the balconies and architecture remains reminiscent of Europe. A little touch of France lives on in Natchitoches, as well.

And, again, as in Mississippi, the immaculately preserved buildings, the manicured garden frontages, the tidy streetscapes are focussed in the heart of the historic downtown, in the main. The back parts of town start to get typically shabby just a street or so back.

But what a downtown. Here, the river changed its course over time and today Natchitoches lies on an oxbow lake, a remnant of that earlier river. It is now called the Cane River Lake and offers a wonderful backdrop for photo shoots.

One of the oldest buildings in town is Kaffie-Frederick General Mercantile built by Prussian Jewish emigrants. Much has remained the same inside and out of this shop. There are still old slots of cabinetry and shelving displaying products you'd most oftentimes, these days, find in a museum.

Barely a block away, in contrast, is the super modern Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and the Northwest History Museum, a stunning architectural gem, minimalist and cube-like on the outside, but flowing and sinewy in the interior, simulating the river, just outside.

The cobbled streetscape has only recently been relaid. Old cobbles were found during the surface replanning phase. These were numbered, lifted, scraped off, and relaid, in order, all down the front of this part of town facing the lake, where they were originally placed.

The Cane River meanders on. We follow it downstream and stop frequently for photos. The river itself is slow, hazy, and dreamy this day.

Natchitoches is home, also, to a meat pie. But this is not an ordinary meat pie. It is deep fried. We tried it in one of the famous eating establishments in town. It truly tastes as terrible as it looks and none of us will be recommending it, ever. None of us understand why anyone would ever want to try one again, after the first time.

On the other hand, crawdaddies are in season. And that is a whole different tale. Seafood shops have dusted off their brilliant, colourful, seasonal banners, proclaiming the joy. And these are quite sensational. We have been back twice because the flavour is spicy Louisiana -- not one we can replicate easily at home.

There is a real technique to pulling off the heads and tails of these crawfish, too, which we are quickly mastering. And sucking the spicy juice from the pulled head in the doing. Louisiana is hooked on crawfish so we expect to find this dish enroute frequently. You pour it all out on to the plastic platter provided, and start snapping the heads and sucking, then easing the entire piece of crawfish from the tail. Then, pop! into the open, salivating mouth. Truly, a taste sensation, and one of the finest dishes any of us has ever eaten for flavour and succulence. Yum. Yum.