Touring Lovely Lafayette, LA

We headed into Lafayette LA for lunch and guess where we ended up? Yes, we ended up at Borden's Ice Cream Shoppe for lunch. We had ice cream sundaes for lunch just because we could. The Borden's Ice Cream Shoppe is the last Borden's in the world.

Carolyn ordered the Goldbrick Sundae and she really liked it. Although Goldbrick is a popular famous candy, I had never heard of it. It is chocolate and pecans. They melt the candy to make the topping.

Mary Jane and I ordered the chocolate nut sundae. It was hot fudge with walnuts. The walnuts were not just sprinkled on top.....they are in a maple sauce and were liberally poured on the sundae. It was delicious.

The Borden's Ice Cream Shoppe was owned and managed by the Levy for generations. When Flora Levy died in 1981, she willed much of her property including the land and the ice cream business to the University of Louisiana Lafayette foundation. The foundation ran it for many years. In 2009, the foundation sold property and the business to Red Lerille.  He remodeled it while keeping the same nostalgic look. His daughter Kackie manages the ice cream icon these days.

You will find lots of great items on the menu including the Gold Brick Sundae and the Chocolate Nut Sundae. Some day I ill get back there and I think I will order the Gold Brick Sundae just to make sure it is really as good as Carolyn said it was.

Once we got lunch out of the way, we decided to tour downtown Lafayette. The weather was less than great so we did our tour in the car.

There are lots of interesting buildings downtown and the Christmas decorations that were still up were really nice. It's a great downtown.

This house is already prepared for Mardi Gras. Those are strings of beads covering the whole fence.

Carolyn pointed out several very popular restaurants.

The whole downtown area is laid out really nicely. Next time we will have to do a walking tour.

They have some beautiful murals on the buildings.

In addition to some nice Christmas decorations, the lamp posts were sporting some other interesting decorations depending upon the location.

Some areas really reminded me of the New Orlean French Quarter.

This is one of the public buildings....kind of looks like a jail.

This former gas station is now a unique restaurant.

This building with the interesting observation post on the top is a museum.

I think this building with the unique head statues is the courthouse.

 

Next up was the Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist.

It is a beautiful building.

The cathedral even has a cemetery on it's extensive property.

I look forward to seeing more of downtown Lafayette in the future.

An Acadian Village Tour

Another one of the tours we took while at the rally was of an Acadian Village which is owned and operated by the Lafayette Association for Retarded Citizens. It was nice to know that the modest fee we were charged was going to a good cause.

Our tour got a little out of order because we were behind a group of high school students who had a guide going through a lesson in every area so we skipped ahead after listening to several sessions and then came back to the beginning later.

Furniture in one of the houses including a wide variety of wheelchairs from the time.

A hospital practice.

A very skinny bed.

 

Washing machine.....glad we've made improvements.

 Popular food on posters in one cottage.

Cottages were small and rooms multiple use.

Beds did not look too comfy.

A baby baby bed and a tub that you sit in. Can't imagine how difficult it would be to get out of when done.

This is the only heat in the house.

Look at all the mattresses piled on this bed.

The women and girls slept in the first floor but here you can see a staircase to the attic where the men and boys slept.

The cottages were decorated for Christmas.

This was in the entrance to the church.

Simple but beautiful.

 Weaving looms on display.

 

Interesting outside display.

Blacksmith shop

Christmas decorations didn't necessarily reflect the same time.

Education of the Acadians.

Schoolroom.

Christmas displays sometimes seemed very out of place.

Hmmmmm.

 

How to build an Acadian house.

These items were in the store.

It was an interesting tour.

 Needless to say, we had to try out many area restaurants. Cajun food is very spicy.....don't believe them if they tell you it isn't but it is very popular. One of the places we went was The Little Big Cup in Arnaudville. There are small towns all over the area and they all have very popular restaurants.

Most of the group went for the Cajun buffet but Mary Jane and I opted to try the Praline Chicken and Waffles. I always thought waffles and chicken was a weird combination but this is one of the best meals (in our can't eat spicy view) we had. It was wonderful and more than enough for two meals. Thought at the time we should have shared but was really glad we didn't when I had the second half for breakfast the next morning.

I had to save this bread pudding recipe for Jimmie. Bread pudding is big down here.

We ate inside due to the wind but they had a nice patio outside. Part of it was on a dock.