Louisiana Trip

Today we got up and checked out. We had found a place for breakfast in St. Francisville, Birdman Books and Coffee, so headed up the road with the help of Garmin who took us to the door. This lovely cafe is in the centre of St. Francisville and we were seated by ten - porridge followed by eggs with bacon and coffee and OJ. We sat by shelves with beautifully carved birds, made by the father of the owner. We enjoyed our stay, but had to move on to see some of the Plantation Houses.



We stopped by the TIC and got some information from the lady, then drove down to Oakley House, where John Audubon spent several months as a tutor to the daughter of the owners. He spent the afternoons in the woods collecting birds to sketch and paint. His assistant painted the backgrounds, apparently. This red brick house had louvred verandas to encourage cooling breezes around the upper floors. They had a 'punka' over the dining table. This was a copy of those found in India. In the garden there were ducks, including Indian runners and geese with goslings and a turkey.



After Oakley we drove up the road to Rosedown Plantation with its oak allee. It has wide porches and high ceilinged rooms. Richly furnished this house was renovated by a Standard Oil heiress who spent 10 million dollars on it in the 1980s before it was handed over to the Government of Louisiana. After the house we looked around the extensive gardens and eventually reached the end of the oak allee and looked down the drive to the house. We had seen butterflies and birds all along the way, including swallowtails, lizards, woodpeckers, jays.




We left Rosedown and drove to Cottage Plantation where we are staying tonight. We were shown our room and given the low down on procedures for breakfast tomorrow. The room is amazing with a bed about five feet off the ground - they give us small stools to step up onto to get into bed. Then we left again and drove back to St. Francisville to make a walk through the historical area where we saw some interesting house styles from a couple of centuries ago.

We had pizza for tea before returning to Cottage Plantation for a stroll around the garden with a Labrador dog before retiring. In the gloom we spotted some deer, but so did the dog who went off chasing them. They got as far as the trees then stopped as the dog lost interest.

Birdman Books and Cafe
Oakley House
Rosedown Plantation
St Francisville
Cottage Plantation