New Orleans - Day Trips
Escape to Cajun country in Lafayette, learn about plantation life or see how the other side lives on the north shore of Lake Ponchartrain.
From Baton Rouge and New Orleans, carefully restored antebellum mansions border the Mississippi. Many are private dwellings while others, like Destrehan Plantation, the oldest in the lower Mississippi Valley, the opulent San Francisco Plantation, the French Creole-styled Laura Plantation and the wooded Oak Alley are open to the public. All are filled with period antiques and ghosts echoing the Old South.
On the other hand, cross the world's longest bridge, Lake Ponchartrain Causeway, for the Louisiana Northshore. It is a quiet community of 19th-century waterfront homes, swamps and numerous antique shops. Go northwest to Lafayette (190km) to learn about the Cajuns who migrated from Nova Scotia in Canada to the Mississippi Delta in the 18th century.
