Our Impressions

We have been to Lafayette many times. The first few times we would spend a couple of nights in Lafayette as we were traveling through to somewhere else. The last few times in Lafayette have been deliberate destination stops with us staying a week or two!!

When we are passing through Lafayette we always have to stop at the Mardi Gras Store so we can get our latest decorations! The other place that is a MUST is the Pousant Bakery where I get my stash of pickled olive mix to make muffalettas!!

In Lafayette, there is a great downtown, with thriving stores and restaurants. Lafayette is a great place to visit, we highly recommend it!

Attractions

Acadian Cultural Center. This is a National Park Service cultural center focusing on regional culture of the area. It is free!!

Cajun Country Swamp Tours. You might want to take note there are two swamp tours with very similar names that are located within a half mile of each other: Cajun Country Swamp Tour and Cajun Swamp Tour. It can be very confusing! We went on the Cajun Country Swamp Tour. This was a very fun tour that we would recommend! We saw lots of alligators, birds and turtles.

Cajun Food Tours. Marie, the owner, was very helpful. This was very fun, a highly recommend adventure! We had a chance to try a lot of different Cajun foods at 5 different stops. We went back to the Poupart Bakery on our own later!!! The French pastries and muffuletta were perfection! Thanks, Jay, for a great tour!

Parc Sans Souci. The Y Lafayette sign is one of downtown Lafayette’s most photographed landmarks. The 7’ tall letters are painted several times a year to promote awareness, community events or to express creativity.

Tabasco Factory Tour. This was an amazing destination, well worth the trip from Lafayette! You can see where the peppers are raised, the Tabasco is mixed, processed and then stored/aged for 3 years before being put up for sale! Tabasco and the factory have been in the same family in the same location for 5 generations. According to the signage on the self-guided tour, to this day a member (descendant) of the McIlhenny family personally tastes every batch for quality! After the tour and lunch, make sure you have plenty of time for a self-guided tour of the Jungle Gardens where you can see exotic plants and wildlife on Avery Island.

Vermilion Village, is a living history museum with restored 18th and 19th century homes. They even have a restaurant, open for lunch. Right down the street from the Acadian Cultural Center.

Food and Drink

Lafayette: Lagneaux Restaurant is a restaurant with an attached meat market and a separate bar and grill. The restaurant is a seafood buffet. Oh my! Lagneaux’s has a huge variety of seafood, from etouffee to fried shrimp to whole crabs! It seemed like a place locals go to eat.

Lafayette: Poupart Bakery has officially made it to our list of top four bakeries in the country! It is up there with Mike’s Pastry in Boston, Macri’s Bakery in Indiana and Wright’s Bakery in Rhode Island. It is an authentic French bakery with all of the traditional French pastries, but also offers muffuletta filling!! Oh my!!! We went back twice and bought 4 containers of the muffuletta filling!

Avery Island: 1868 Restaurant is located on the grounds of the Tabasco factory. They are open for lunch only, 7 days a week. Bring your credit or debit card; no cash is accepted. Dave and I had the shrimp Po’Boys. Excellent! A lot for your money! One of the fun parts of this restaurant is you can try all of the different varieties of Tabasco. Who knew my favorite Tabasco would be the Sweet and Spicy?

Duson: Cajun Claws Restaurant is a seafood restaurant just a couple miles from the Frog City Campground. Boiled seafood, fried seafood and of course crawfish etouffee! Dave had Alligator Bites. Yup, “tastes like chicken”, or at least the texture did! Live music on some nights.

Home Base: The Campground

For us, a campground is not our destination. Our RV is self-contained. Rarely do we use campground services or amenities. We are explorers, not campground reviewers!

We have stayed on various sites at Frog City RV Park in Lafayette (Duson). The park is clean and well-maintained. The staff, especially Priscilla was very accommodating! Relaxed atmosphere. Our long pull thru sites have been FHU (water-electric-sewer) on level gravel. Simple check in. Grass between all of the sites. There were a few trees scattered throughout the park. 30 and 50 amp service was available. You can hear I-10 traffic, but not horrible. Good Verizon cellphone coverage. We had an open southern sky for our satellite.

The last time we stayed in Lafayette we stayed at the Cajun Palms RV Resort in Breaux Bridge. It is a very nice, modern park with professional staff. All the sites have cement pads and the park has multiple pools and tons of activities. We don’t have anything bad to say about the park and highly recommend it if you are looking for the commercial resort experience. Next time we are in the area, we will probably stay at Frog City again. We prefer the more casual vibe.

Fun Facts

Did you know Lafayette has more restaurants per capita than any other American city?

They may be biased, but according to Lafayette Travel, Lafayette is known as the Happiest City in America and the Tastiest Town in the South! I might agree!

Though we missed it, the Festival International de Louisiane is held in the heart of Lafayette in April and has the distinction of being the largest festival of the arts and music within the United States. Over five days, this festival celebrates Creole, Cajun, and French heritage and includes live music, arts, crafts, street performances and more. Next time.

	Lafayette, LA
Population:	121,771
Founded:	1884
Average income:	$29,249
Average price of housing:	$237,000
Median age of the population:	36 years

Website: https://lafayettela.gov

Summary

Lafayette is a wonderful area to explore! I am sure we will be back again. There is much to see, and the food cannot be beaten!

Since beginning our full-time journey to discover the country, we have found something to appreciate in every city and town we have passed through. We hope you enjoy reading about them as much as we have enjoyed discovering them!

Your partners in travel,
Kathryn and Dave
RVing Nomads

It’s a lifestyle

Thank you so much for reading this blog. If you enjoyed the content, please check out my other blog at:
https://rvingnomads.com/blog/
https://relationshipsrelearned.com/my-blog/

To be notified of future posts, please enter your email address and click on the Subscribe button.

If you haven’t checked out our Special Places & Recommendations page, please do so. If you are in these areas, you may find these places as enjoyable and rewarding as we did!

No person, business or attraction has paid us for an endorsement. AI has not been used to create any of the content in this blog or website. All of the photos in this blog and website were taken by Dave or Kathryn Harrington.