Bayouside Attractions (2024)

Paddling across the still waters of the Bayou Teche, time slowed to a staggering halt. The cloud-draped sky blurred the late morning sun and made the stream below our kayak imperceptibly darker. Clusters of trees hugged the shoreline, cutting off the world beyond, and a great blue heron led us ever forward, alighting on tree branches and beckoning whenever we rested our arms to breathe in the clear, cool air.

My husband, Paul, and I had been traveling for the better part of an hour. We had left New Orleans early, making good time to reach Pack & Paddle in Lafayette. The outfitter offered a wide array of canoes and kayaks, enough outdoor gear to fit every adventuring need, and a staff intimately acquainted with Louisiana’s wilder side. After collecting critical tips for our journey and a sleek tandem kayak, we headed north to Leonville to embark upon the Bayou Teche Paddle Trail.

Stretching for one hundred and thirty-five miles from Port Barre to Berwick, the paddle trail spans the length of Bayou Teche, which—until the Mississippi River changed course a couple thousand years ago—was once the Father of Waters’ main route. During the eighteenth century, the Teche was a valuable transportation hub, and during the Civil War, two gunboat battles took place on this waterway. In the 1930s, levees built around the Atchafalaya River drastically reduced the flow of water to the Teche, and the bayou changed yet again into the quiet, winding river that exists today.

Since 2008, the Teche Ecology, Culture and History Education (TECHE) Project has worked to provide a healthier waterway for leisurely activities on the bayou, and in 2015, their efforts resulted in Bayou Teche’s addition to the National Water Trails System. Fourteen official launch sites and a detailed guide make for easy access to the Teche from numerous small towns just east of Lafayette. We kicked off our journey in the tiny hamlet of Leonville, popping into Champagne’s Marché for a few trip snacks before climbing in our kayak and steering south to Arnaudville.

At certain times during the year, the bayou teems with people, such as during the TECHE Project’s annual Shake Your Trail Feather festival in October. On this particular day, though, we were totally alone with nature during the nearly three-hour paddle south, an eerie sensation for us New Orleanians. For solid lengths of time, the only sound to be heard was the synchronized slap of our paddles skimming just beneath the water’s surface.

As the trees flanking the bayou gave way to sloped lawns with gazebos and fishing docks, our blue heron guide abandoned us for some wilder landscape. Passing Arnaudville’s main kayak dock, we continued on to the unofficial one at Bayou Teche Brewing, where we traded in our sea legs and climbed the hill for a late lunch. In minutes, we were sitting on the brewery’s outdoor patio, listening to a Cajun jam session while eating flatbread and garlic butter beignets paired with the highly-recommended Beetlejuice (brewed with beets!) and Harumph beers. It was the perfect pick-me-up before we hauled the kayak to our parked car and set off to explore Arnaudville.

At the NUNU Arts and Culture Collective, artists waited to entertain visitors with a showcase of their work. The volunteer-run gallery and marketplace features local artists’ work in a wide variety of mediums. We browsed the store and marveled at Janelle Hebert’s tiny hand-made birds and Anne Bulliard Crownover’s rope woven bowls. On Fuselier Street, across from an abandoned grand old home, we stepped into Tom’s Fiddle & Bow. Known across Acadiana for its restoration and sales of stringed instruments, the tiny shop comes to life the first Sunday of the month with its famous jam sessions.

From Arnaudville, we drove thirteen miles south past fields of sugarcane and sunflowers to Breaux Bridge—Crawfish Capital of the World. Our home for the night was The Cottage Downtown, a charming yellow Airbnb dating back to 1893. Superhost Ms. Loretta detailed her renovation efforts before leaving us alone with a stack of sinfully-delicious cookies from Hebert’s Supermarket. With a quaint front porch, a kitchen designed for entertaining, and two comfortable bedrooms, the historical cottage exuded Ms. Loretta’s careful restoration and decorating skills.

The home was within walking distance of downtown Breaux Bridge and a five-minute drive to Lake Martin, popular for its swamp tours on a picture-perfect lake dotted with Spanish moss-laden bald cypress trees. We caught the final golden rays of the setting sun reflected on the lake before returning to town and Café Sydnie Mae. While musician Dirk Powell livened up the crowd with his fiddle and banjo folk music, we scanned the menu, debating a repertoire of seafood delicacies. Our waitress, Lacie Hebert, simply shook her head ‘no,’ served us lemon drop martinis, and stated we must try the pork chops and Breaux Bread. Her recommendation was spot on, and as the chops melted in our mouths, Hebert pointed out the local who’s who of Breaux Bridge dining at the tables around us.

Day two of our adventure kicked off with the revered Zydeco Breakfast at Buck & Johnny’s. The restaurant’s managing partner Coatney Raymond sat us in a prime viewing location in the old brick building’s upstairs balcony while Jeffrey Broussard and the Creole Cowboys tuned up their instruments below. Raymond relayed the history of the Zydeco breakfast, explaining how the world-famous event originally started at a now-closed local landmark, Café des Amis. Paul and I were feasting on an oversized omelet stuffed with boudin when the band launched into an energetic waltz. A dozen couples, many dressed in boots and cowboy hats, took to the dance floor and set their tassels flying with their Cajun two-stepping.

Since neither of us were coordinated enough to join in, we decided to instead walk off our calories through the town’s historic streets, browsing in local shops and visiting the “bridge” itself. Built in 1950 and famously decorated by a crawfish on an American flag, the contraption is the descendant of the town’s original namesake, a footbridge of rope and plank built by Acadian Firmin Breaux. In the Parc des Ponts de Pont Breaux, a sign tells the legend of a colossal snake that once terrorized the Chitimacha people. The tribe’s warriors fought a valiant battle, causing the snake to writhe across the ground until he was defeated. The channel he cut filled with water and became Bayou Teche. “Teche” is the Chitimacha word for snake.

Bidding farewell to Breaux Bridge, we drove nine miles south to Cecile Poché Memorial Park in the tiny hamlet of Parks. The town was preparing for a festival, so we skirted the tents and launched our tandem back into the Teche. Immediately we fell into our paddling routine, relishing in the quiet, tranquil ride downriver. The clouds had vanished, and the sun warmed our faces as we passed goats and horses grazing by the water’s edge. This leg of the journey was two and half hours to St. Martinville, and halfway down, we began to see billowing clouds of smoke rising before us. We feared a fire up ahead but eventually found its source to be a sugar mill emitting the distinct perfume of cooking cane.

In St. Martinville, we watched a tween pull up a spotted gar fish before shifting aside to give us room to disembark. We walked the bayou to the Evangeline Oak, an ancient tree with graceful outstretched arms. The historic sign announced that the tree “marks the legendary meeting place of Emmeline Labiche and Louis Arceneaux, the counterparts of Evangeline and Gabriel,” from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1847 poem Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie.

Continuing on, we peered in the windows of the African American Museum and Acadian Memorial and Museum. Sadly, time was not on our side to stop in for a visit. St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church, mother church of the Acadians, stood as a magnificent centerpiece in the main square. Laci Laperouse, Executive Director of St. Martin Parish Tourism, and her husband joined us for our final meal of the trip at the St. John Restaurant. Over alligator balls, crab cakes, and shrimp and grits, the couple regaled us with enchanting stories of their Acadiana lifestyle and left us with a wish list of more sites to see on our next visit.

They graciously offered to cart us back to our car in Parks, expertly maneuvering through the festival now in full swing. Returning to Lafayette, we again passed the sugar mill before the fields around us gave way to fast food restaurants clustered around the interstate. It was a jolt back to reality and instantly made us long for the magic of the small towns and the scenic escape offered along the Bayou Teche.

Disclaimer: This trip was hosted by St. Martin Parish Tourism, Pack and Paddle, Café Sydnie Mae, and The Downtown Cottage. The opinions of the writer are entirely her own.