America's Prettiest Towns: Leauxcal Lundi

I'm going to refer to Forbes Magazine for this post. Basically, New Iberia is the best. Read on...

Shadows on the Teche: Leauxcal Lundi

A little Instagram.

     Last week I took you to Belle Ecorce Farms in St. Martinville. This week is an utterly shameless plug for a leauxcal place I hold near and dear to my heart. The Shadows on the Teche was built from 1831 to 1834 by David and Mary Weeks. After four generations of Weeks family ownership, William Weeks Hall bequeathed the plantation and all of the furnishings, documents, and clothing therein to the National Trust for Historic Preservation–– one day before his death in 1958. I have worked as a tour guide at this lovely Antebellum home and absolutely love to revel in the property's moss-laden oaks, winding paths, and rich history. 

     As you cross the hustle and bustle of Main Street New Iberia, your mind is in modern mode.  Everyone vies for the best spot to snap an Insta pic of this majestic plantation. The second you enter onto the property through a side-gate in the long white fence, the world slows to a more forgotten pace. Dragonflies float lazily from one azalea to the next. The bayou crawls toward the Gulf, not making a sound. You can almost picture yourself lounging on the wide front porch with hand fan and a glass of sweet tea watching the horse-drawn carriages clop past. Maybe without the smells and hoop-skirts of the early nineteenth century. 

     The Shadows on the Teche is so named because of the lovely web-like shadows cast to the ground by the live oak trees and myriad other flora and fauna in the garden. Teche is the name of the bayou that runs through New Iberia. The word teche is Chitimacha, our local Native American tribe, for "snake." Although the Shadows was a working plantation, sugar was not produced here but on another of the family's plantations on Weeks Island. The architecture is grand, neo-classical, and very sturdy. The home's interior is filled with items original to the Shadows' Antebellum era. Tours emphasize the Weeks family's personal lives, the role of women and children, the work done in and around the house, the production of sugar, and the house's role in the Civil War. You can even take a tour in French!

     It is amazing how many visitors we get to tiny New Iberia from around the world. Many stop by while visiting Avery Island, some are huge James Lee Burke fans, and others are from New Iberia and have lived here all their lives without seeing the plantation's interiors. No matter your relationship to this place, it is instantly magical and a wonderful way to see, smell, and sense what life in the Antebellum South may have been like. 

I spy at the Shadows: 

• Look for Mickey Mouse. He visited the house.
• The garden is home to statues, a rose garden, coy pond, and the family cemetery. One family    member's name is listed among the tombstones, but the body is not included. 
• A receipt from the 1850s is in the pantry. Scan the list for an item associated with America's westward expansion and the building of the continental railroad. It's something we don't eat too often today. 
• Two corner stones in the garden mark the location of one of the home's many outbuildings.  

A great back porch view of the house's second story beneath the arms of a towering and gnarly live oak.

      After visiting the house, you can stroll down Main Street and sample some of the local fare from: A Cake to Remember, Clementine's, Bojangle's (sushi, not biscuits), Victor's Cafeteria (if you're a James Lee Burke fan this is where Dave Robichaux eats), or Cafe des Amis  (related to Cafe des Amis in Breaux Bridge). They're all within walking distance of the museum, with Cafe des Amis being the farthest- about a mile. 

     Before visiting the Shadows, considering walking to the Bayou Teche Museum. You can park at the Shadows and walk down a block on the right side of Main Street to learn a little about New Iberia and this region's history and industry before going into more detail at the Shadows. 

After the Shadows, you can drive to Conrad Rice Mill–– America's oldest working mill. Mary Clara Conrad Weeks Moore, the Shadow's original owner, was not related to the Conrad rice family. If you're gluten free, the mill store has plenty of rice flour mixes for baking, cooking, and frying.  

Belle Ecorce Farms:Leauxcal Lundi

     We're geauxing leauxcal every Lundi/Monday!

Belle means beautiful and ecorce means bark, or rind. The goats seem to think the farm's bark is beautiful and tasty. Maybe that's what gives their cheese such great flavor?

     In lieu of a mot du jour Monday, I'm going to start some Leauxcal Lundi posting. Why their weird spelling of local? French names like Boudreau were changed to Boudreaux when Cajuns were asked to sign their names. Many were illiterate at the time, so x marked the spot. We use the spelling today in place of an "o" sound to let everyone know it's something Cajun/Louisiana related. So, there will be some French words and flavor thrown in to these posts because they're all about life in Southwest Louisiana: the amazing people, the food that makes you want to slap 'yo mama, and the interesting places you might find amid the cane and down the bayou.

     If you like goat cheese, Belle Ecorce Farms is a great stop on the way to see St. Martinville's main square and famous Evangeline Oak. The Tres Belle Chevre is what you want. St. Martinville is a 15 minute drive from New Iberia about a 30 minute commute from Lafayette. The town itself was one of the first established in the Attakapas District, an area laid aside by then French Louisiana for cattle, and the final stopping point for almost 200 Acadian refugees deported from Nova Scotia.

     St. Martinville's downtown has some French quarter-type architecture all surrounding the main square, it's jewel being the local Catholic church. The St. Martin de Tours church has a beautiful Lourdes-esque grotto and some of the prettiest Christmas lights. Behind the church, you can visit the oak tree where Longfellow's Evangeline purportedly landed and waited for word from her love. On the same street the Acadian Memorial and African American Museum, awaiting any visitors interested in learning more about the area's Cajun and Creole heritage.

     Back to the goat cheese, though. If you're driving to the farm, keep your eyes wide-open all the time because the road is easy to miss. I've taken poor Mike on many an adventure that led to wrong turns, dead ends, and sites that were closed for a multitude of reasons. I thought our visit to Belle Ecorce might be the same after a few wrong turns, but I spotted one goat and then almost 200. We found the pot of cheese gold at the end of the rainbow.

     This place doesn't just have goats. There are miniature horses, birds galore, and even a few hairless cats. Mike is standing in front of the farm's main house in the picture below, but the delicious goodness is in a little room next to the aviary. Watch out for the roosters!

     We went for the Tuscan Party Disc and some kind of chevre with strawberry/raspberry. You can almost eat the second one like yogurt, it's so creamy. The chevre would be great on pancakes with fresh raspberries and strawberries sliced over it. The Tuscan Party Disc spread onto a crostini with roasted peppers on top is scrumptious. If you're gluten free, nestle the cheese in an endive leaf, sprinkle with paprika, and enjoy! 

     If nobody's home, don't worry. You can still buy your cheese, just leave your money in the honor box. It's so ESA and so Davidson. I love it! Geaux leauxcal and make a trip out to the farm. If you feel like staying a little closer to home, or trying the cheese at a restaurant, Jolie's Bistro and Pour in Lafayette feature the Tres Belle Chevre on their menus. You could even pair the cheese with some Vouvray and imagine yourself in the Loire Valley, just with a Cajun flair.  

     WesMar Farms, near Alexandria, is another local goat cheesemonger. I haven't visited the farm yet, but you can find them at the Market at the Horse Farm in Lafayette every Saturday. Just in case you can't get enough goat. 

LSAT Livin' and Yoga

This may seem a little extreme, but after a few months of studying I feel like it could be a good strategy.

     

     Have you ever taken the LSAT? Considering it? I'm in the throes of battle with logical reasoning, and I'm only beginning to gain the upper hand. My best piece of advice for the moment is this– it applies to life in general, as well- give yourself plenty of time. I decided to take the test in October after taking a pre-June test prep-class and quickly realizing how much I had to learn and practice. Law schools like to have you thinking like a lawyer before you even step foot on campus. They like you to think logically, that is. Thinking in a logical manner is surprisingly difficult. Being under the pressure of a 35 minute time limit does not help. So, lesson learned, all you need is time. 

     My strategies for conquering the LSAT have shifted recently, and it's about time for a new post. 4 months into studying, I give you my suggestions:

• Become a yoga instructor. Learn to meditate and control your mind. Use the breathing techniques to ease standardized-test anxiety. Ok, maybe just taking a few yoga classes will do. But really, become a yoga instructor. I'll go more into detail on that later...
• Drink more tea. Drink less wine. Maybe it's just me, but does coffee seem to make you more tired and less able to concentrate from time to time? I know it's sad, but wine does the same thing.
• Walk more. Bring your mom along. Talk to her about the most common flaw found on the LSAT. She'll love it.
• Take on studying in small doses. 2 to 3 hours is about all I can handle if I'm not actually sitting down for a Prep Test.
• Buy the PowerScore books. Read them. Use them as pillows and hope that some of their wisdom will seep in through your ear. Read them again when you wake up, just in case osmosis didn't work.
• Take one day off a week to just chill.
• Check out these sites: 
• http://blueprintprep.com/lsatblog/  
• http://lsatblog.blogspot.com/
• http://7sage.com/
• http://thegirlsguidetolawschool.com/
• http://www.lsac.org/
• Rock the LSAT! At least, I hope that's what happens come October 5th.