Natchitoches Louisiana

When we were looking over information about the Shreveport area last night, we came across a notation that said that Natchitoches LA is the oldest permanent settlement in the Louisiana Purchase. It was established in 1714 by the French. The information sounded interesting ,so this morning we were off to explore the area.

This area is settled by the French so most of the names of places and architectural influences are French. Our first task was to learn to pronounce the name of the town! We consulted the locals and it is pronounced " Nak-a-dish". Go figure.

The first building at the settlement was Fort St. Jean Baptiste. The French established this fort on the Red River to prevent the Spanish occupying the Texas province from advancing into Louisiana as well as to trade with them. The state has reconstructed the original fort and established it as a museum. The original drawings of the fort are still in existence so the fort is a true replica.

This is an example of the oven used to bake the soldiers bread. It is made from bousillage(boo-se-age), a mixture of Spanish Moss, mud and animal hair. A fire was built in the oven to get it really hot ( a 4 hour preheat!), the fire was extinguished and the loaves of bread put in the oven. 45 minutes later-bread.

The fort is unusual in it's double wall construction. The humid climate of Louisiana made wood rot very easily so by making the walls double thickness, if one timber fell the one behind it was still standing.
Our tour guide gave us lots of information about how the soldiers lived and worked at the fort. It was really interesting to hear all about the fort. The museum just opened recently and was actually scheduled to be dedicated today. We thought we picked a good day to be in Natchitoches.

We asked the museum staff where we could grab lunch. The unanimous verdict was we had to try Lasyones so we could sample a Cajun Meat Pie. That sounded good and then we saw that the traffic has dramatically increased to the bumper-to-bumper level. Apparently Northwest Louisiana State University (also in town) had graduation today! And it seemed they were all done and going to lunch! This restaurant was pretty busy but we did get in and try the local specialty. We found it pretty tasty. Lasyones has been written up in Gourmet and other food magazines.

One more interesting fact about Natchitoches other than their French history--- The movie "Steel Magnolias" was written by a local, set in Natchitoches and filmed entirely in the town. We saw many of the buildings used in the movie. We now want to get a copy of the movie and watch it again.

The area around Natchitoches is also home to a number of Creole plantations. The National Park service is in the process of restoring Oakland Plantation. Oakland Plantation is the most complete Creole plantation still in existence in the South. 17 of it original buildings remain. During the Civil War, there was significant activity in this area and Oakland Plantation is the only one in the area not burned to the ground by Federal troops. The Creole plantations ( generally west of the Mississippi) are a very different type of architecture than the Gone-With-the- Wind Antebellum type plantations. The Park Service hopes to have this one open and furnished soon.

As usual, we did not allow enough time to explore this area. The downtown buildings appeared quite charming . There is Civil War Battle site that we did not have time to see. So-- this area is now on our list of places to re-visit.