Gail Grenier Sweet

Bayou Teche

Joe explained that Bayou Teche was the route the Cajuns took when they traveled from New Orleans to what became known as Acadiana.  The English had expelled them from their home in Acadia, Nova Scotia in the 1700s when they refused to pledge allegiance to England and her church.  Many of them wound up in New Orleans, where the fancy French folk wanted nothing to do with the Acadian (“Cajun”) country bumpkins. 

“The sides of the Mississippi have their own currents,” Joe said, “so the Cajuns traveled up the Mississippi river along its edges, against the main current of the river, and into the Bayou Teche.”  The bayou looks like a big brown river itself.

Anna Sweet photo

The actual bridge at Breaux Bridge, decorated with a crawfish.

Cajun Adventure, Post-Hurricane Rita
(continued)

Sunday: Breaux Bridge and Whisky River Landing

We slept well that night and rose late on Sunday.  After a little prayer meeting, Anna and I took off for Breaux Bridge.  Anna had the idea of doing some gift shopping in the funky stores we had seen there with Joe the day before.  Unfortunately, most of them were closed --  because it was Sunday, I thought (another difference from the North!).  We enjoyed another lunch at Café des Amis and explored a couple of church cemeteries along the Bayou Teche. 

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Cemetery along Bayou Teche.	Cemetery along Bayou Teche.

Anna had never seen the aboveground cemeteries when we visited New Orleans years ago, so these gravesites were a revelation to her.  Some of the caskets were tipped over from the water surge of Hurricane Rita.  Though not as grand as the ones in New Orleans, these cemeteries are similar in their resemblance to villages of little white tomb-houses.  Joe had explained that the water table is only about two feet below the ground’s surface – thus the need for aboveground burial.  The bayou was brown, still and calm that sunny Sunday.  Live oaks stretched their twisted limbs out in incredible horizontalness.  Birds sang.  No one walked about.  It was hard to imagine the place alive with hurricane howls and a 30-mile surge of ocean water.

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Gail and Bayou Teche.	Live Oak along Bayou Teche

 

gail grenier sweet photo	photo by anna sweet
Bayou Teche.	Cypress knees along Bayou Teche

All writing unless otherwise noted is ©Gail Grenier Sweet. All Rights Reserved. Permission to reprint must be granted by the author.
All photos unless otherwise noted are ©Gail Grenier Sweet. All Rights Reserved. Permission to reprint must be granted by the photographer.