Trip to NOLA 9

Our last full day with D&S started with more delicious homemade pancakes, then we were off to the Renaissance Fair on the North side of the lake. This involved our crossing the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway with its twin spans and crossing places. At 38.42km it is classed as the longest Causeway in the world. On the way across we looked out for birds and spotted several cormorants, sea gulls and one pelican. It wasn't the best of days, with showers, sometimes quite heavy as drove to the showground at Hammond. The theme for this weekend is the Festival of Fools.

As we arrived it was a bit drizzly, but we hoped it would go off, and headed for the ticket booths. We were soon walking through the entrance and stepping back in time, where 75% of the people were dressed up to look like renaissance folk. Some of them looked a bit chilly, too and we decided that a warm cup of something would be perfect. The local hostelry served us coffees and no sooner had we sat down under an umbrella than it started pelting down with rain. We were lucky to have the brolly and stayed there drinking our coffee until it eased off again. So we set off to explore all the wonderful stalls - some selling hand crafted goods, others food and many selling dressing-up costumes. We dodged the rain by diving into the tents, and we aimed at hearing the bagpipe performance at the Rampant Haggis as well as the falconry display and the jousting. But the rain was relentless and eventually we saw the birds of prey under their shelter before opting for a chicken on a stick to revive us. Everything is sold on a stick at the festival - including cheesecake. Oh, yes, the steak is actually sold on a stake.

Luckily, we were eating our chicken, when we heard that they had decided to have a jousting match as the rain had more or less stopped, so we went over to the stands and sat at the back. Our man, Sir William was going to fight the other stand's man, Sir Owen ( I think or it could have been Gawain). There was much cheering and jeering as the joust got underway and it was evident that our guy was going to win by any means possible, so we cheered loudly and watched the hilarious antics of the protagonists. Soon it was all over and Sir William won, albeit by foul means. What fun.
We walked back round the opposite side of the lake, avoiding a hot stone massage, some siege machine shys and arrived back where we started having had a great time. Back to the car and S drove us home. Dinner was booked at a lovely restaurant on Magazine St. called Martinique Bistro. We had a table inside and we were delighted with our delicious food and wine: Jermann, Red Angel on the Moonlight Pinot Noir, Venezia Giula, 2007 to go with some duck, pork and some scallops. The scallop eater was lucky that we had some prosecco as an aperitif with our starters, which went well with them.

So that was that - the end of our wonderful time with D&S. We have to rise pretty early for D to drive us to Louis Armstrong Airport for our flight to Newark and then home.


Lake Pontchartrain Causeway