Louisiana is all about jazz music, diversified culture, Cajun and creole food, bayous and of course, the Mardi Gras celebration. It is also the homeland for American Blues. For anyone outside the state, Louisiana means New Orleans or Baton Rouge. That’s where all the fun begins. But well, there are some other places in the state too, that are as fun and jazzy as New Orleans is or as exotic as Baton Rouge is.
I learned about this tiny little town from my mother-in-law, who often goes there along with my father-in-law and has a lot of fun. She asked me to visit Nackatish if we plan to go to Louisiana. So on this labor day holiday, when we were planning to take a break from our hectic life in Texas, I started browsing the Maps. To my surprise, I didn’t find the town on Maps. I thought I was spelling it incorrectly. So I used voice command and the place that showed on the Maps definitely didn’t sound like Nackatish to me. It is spelled as Natchitoches but pronounced as Nack-e-tish or Nah-codish. Who would guess the spelling?
Founded in 1714, Nackatish or Natchitoches is known to be the oldest town of Louisiana. It is also the original French colony in Louisiana by the Red River, that they used for trade with Spanish-controlled Mexico. According to Wikipedia, as part of French Louisiana, the community was named after the Louisiana native Natchitoches people. If you visit this tiny European flavored town you will know why this over-300-years old town has been nicknamed as The Destination of Travelers since 1714.
Only 4 hours away from home aka Texas (227.71 mi or 366.47 km) going to Nackatish was fun. On the way we got to see the lush greens around us, saw a few bayous and witnessed a lot of rain. I love rain. So naturally, the rain and the greens made me feel like I was home. I got nostalgic.
After getting there, at around 7 PM, we took a stroll to the downtown area. It was rather empty for a Friday night. Most of the stores were closed. But we could hear the sound of zydeco songs playing somewhere near us. I was never familiar with this genre of music before that very day. I learned that Zydeco is a mixture of blues and country music that has creole and Cajun influence, as well as the influence from indigenous and Native American people. Instantly I became a fan of Zydeco. Apparently it turned out that the 40th Annual Original Southwest Louisiana Zydeco Festival was going on just a few miles away from where we were. That explained the quietness in the town and the music around us.
They say, if you are in Louisiana you ought to try the jambalaya, pie and the gumbo. So we helped ourselves find a rustic restaurant in the middle of downtown. Our appetizer was crawfish pie and for the main course, I ordered crawfish ettuffee. Delicious, it was.
We stayed in Nackatish for only 2 days. It was an impromptu trip, hence we didn’t do a lot of homework that we usually do before going to a new place. So we took it easy and did whatever we felt like doing. The good thing about it was we got to experience the true essence of the town and the bad thing about it was we missed to attend the Zydec
o festival. But we had had our share of fun and we loved it. Here is what we saw in Nackatish and what we ate:
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Mayeaux’s Steak & Seafood Restaurant is where we had our very first dinner in Nackatish. This fancy, trendy and upscale restaurant is located by the bank of Cane River Lake in downtown.
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Beau Jardin is actually a wedding chapel. We took a stroll there after we finished eating and we loved it. Didn’t have a chance to go back there during the day though. Hence we missed seeing the real beauty of the garden.
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Melrose Plantation was just about 20 minutes drive from our hotel. If you want to learn about the history of slavery way back when, you might want to pay a visit to one of these plantations. It’s worth spending half a day there, if you are around.
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In terms of food, Cane River Commissary was the best experience that we had in Nacatish. A little off the main road, this restaurant is more like a family restaurant, but they served us the best food we had in Nackatish.
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Our next stop was back to the downtown area where we saw the Kaffie-Frederick Incstore the previous night and couldn’t visit back then because it was closed.
If you do not know about them then let me tell you this over-100-year old metal store is a landmark of Nacatish. This is also the oldest business in the city. So old that even their cash register is also over 100 years old. The lady at the cash told me that the company bought their first cash register in 1910 and it’s been in use ever since. Don’t believe me? Check this out
https://youtu.be/f1_WGsengVs -
American Cemeteryis not a place where a lot of tourists go every day. But this is not just a cemetery, it is a historic archeological site that is supposedly one of the oldest cemeteries in Louisiana. Looking at the tombstones at the cemetery we could track graves of people as old as from the 1700s. It was pretty fascinating.
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After our lunch experience at Cane River Commissary, our dinner experience at Mama’s Oyster House was a disappointment. Well, it was probably because the city was too crowded with the visiting zydeco audiences. It must have been overwhelming for the servers to handle.
What we missed seeing in Nackatish were the Zydeco festival, Cane River Historical Park, Oakland Plantation, Prudhomme-Rouquier House and many more. If you have seen the American comedy movie Steel Magnolias by Julia Roberts, Dolly Parton and many more, you will know that the movie was shot in this very city. We missed visiting that house too.
Our short and impromptu tour at Nacatish was finally over. Before coming back home, we decided to take a detour to Shreveport for another short trip. Shreveport is the third most populated city of Louisiana. But let’s talk about Shreveport some other day. Today’s focus is on Natchitoches only. This small yet beautiful city has a lot to offer for someone who loves to explore new things. So, next time you plan a trip to Louisiana, try to keep a couple of days in your itinerary and pay a visit to this less explored city. Trust me, you won’t regret it.
