There are a number of old plantations along the river north of New Orleans, and many of them are now tourist attractions. In 2001, we visited three different plantations; this time, we just visited one.
We started the day with a bus ride upriver to Destrahan Plantation (w):
...where we were greeted by our tour guide, Judy:
Given contemporary attitudes regarding American slavery, plantation tourism can be somewhat problematic. As I recall from the tours we took in 2001, little was said about slaves, and what was said was simply factual, with no judgement implied. It was a little different on this tour. The existence of slavery was discussed more prominently, and in more disapproving tones. Sort of "we recognize now how wrong this was, but this was the way it was."
One of the first things we saw on the tour was a reconstruction of a slave cabin:
Not a pleasant sight. But this was more chilling:
And as if that wasn't enough, here's a closeup:
Antoine Robert de Logny was the plantation's original owner. It was later bought by Jean Noel Destrehan, who married de Logny's daughter, and gave the plantation its name. Mr. Destrehan was instrumental in Louisiana becoming a state, and was one of the state's first two senators.
The tour took us through the various rooms of the house, and told us about its various occupants. Here's a picture of the drawing room:
At one point, we were "introduced" to Mr. Destrehan himself:
Further along, we met a woman who I originally thought was Mr Destrehan's wife, but turned out to be his daughter:
And then there was this person, of a considerably lower social position, but nevertheless an essential part of the household:
Before leaving the plantation, we heard a short presentation on the slave uprising of 1811 (w), which took place in the area. In January of 1811, anywhere from 100 to 500 slaves, armed mostly with hand tools, marched for two days and 20 miles from their plantations towards New Orleans, burning plantation houses and crops, and killing two men, along the way. They were stopped on January 10 by a militia, in a battle which resulted in 40 to 45 of the slaves being killed. Another 44 were tried and executed. Mr Destrehan was one of the judges.
After the plantation tour, our next stop was a swamp tour, with our guide, Rocky:
Here's an example of the scenery:
Rocky explained to us the difference between bayous and canals. Bayous are natural waterways, which wind all over the place. Canals are man made, and go in straight lines. In the picture above, you can tell that we were on a bayou, because of the curve in the distance. Actually, though, for most of the tour we were on canals, which I thought wasn't as authentic - when we took a swamp tour in 2001, it was all bayous. By way of comparison, here's a picture from the 2001 tour:
Anyway, canals or bayous, it was all swamp. And we saw lots of alligators:
Rocky passed around a baby alligator for us to look at:
...and then he passed around a somewhat older gator:
Another passenger holds the alligator, which is about two feet long.
Terry commented that the baby alligator didn't really feel like an alligator - more like a snake with feet.
In addition to the gators on the banks, we also saw several swimming around. Rocky would toss out marshmallows to them - apparently, gators don't see too well, and they think the marshmallows floating on the water are baby ducks. The gator will come gliding up to the marshmallow, with just its nostrils poking above the water; then, the jaws open up, and... SNAP!
At one point, Rocky got out of the boat and got up close to a gator to feed it some chicken wings (raw, not Buffalo). I didn't get a picture, but I got this one from another passenger. It's not a very good picture, but it shows how close the gator was:
An extreme close up view of the gator's head and open mouth.
When Rocky got back on the boat, I told him "You're a braver man than I am, sir!"
Alligators weren't the only wildlife we saw, by the way - we also saw two turtles and several birds.