The Place
Lafayette, Louisiana just can’t help itself. It wears Spanish moss, dances to cajun music, speaks with gentle Cajun/French accents, and smells delicious. More about the delicious in another post. We are staying in the Acadiana Park
Campground, a campground so small that most of the locals haven’t heard of it. It is a municipal park and nature center with
an elderly, charming campground of about 40 sites. The center of the campground has enormous
live oak trees dripping with Spanish moss that look like they should be in a
movie.
The Adventure
Today we went to Vermilionville Living History and FolklifePark. It has many restored or recreated Cajun,
Creole and Native American buildings that tell the cultural history of
Lafayette (originally named Vermilion).
Each house has a different theme.
For example, in one house we found artifacts around spinning cotton,
weaving, and quilting along with a costumed interpreter spinning and telling
you about the textile work of the time. Fascinating
and wonderful.
We got an extra dividend, today they had a live zydeco band
playing in a performance hall and local people had come to Cajun dance (I think
they call it a two-step). The music is
fun and happy, and compels your toes to tap.
The dance style can be as simple or complicated as you want to make it. The upper body seems to remain very quiet,
while the feet do all the work. The most wonderful part was the happy expression on each dancers face as
they danced. You could tell this was
something they loved.
beautiful!
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