Louisiana, United States — Towns & Travel Guide

What is Louisiana known for?

Louisiana's reputation rests on New Orleans. The city gave the world jazz, and each winter its streets fill for Mardi Gras. Food carries the name as far as the music does, from gumbo and jambalaya to crawfish pulled fresh from the Atchafalaya Basin.

West toward Lafayette lies Acadiana, the Cajun heartland, where French is still sung in dancehalls and the accordion drives the beat. Baton Rouge holds the capitol on the Mississippi River. This is the one American state that divides itself into parishes rather than counties.

Where is Louisiana?

Louisiana sits in the Deep South, at the bottom of the United States on the Gulf of Mexico. Texas lies to the west and Arkansas to the north, with the state of Mississippi across the river to the east. The Mississippi River draws that eastern line before swinging down through Baton Rouge and New Orleans. At its mouth the river breaks apart into a bird-foot delta that pushes far out into the Gulf.

Water rules here. Almost nowhere in the south of the state stands far above the tide. The interior stays low and flat.

Bayous thread the coastal plain in a slow, branching web, and the Atchafalaya Basin spreads the largest river swamp in the United States across the centre of the state. Lake Pontchartrain, an estuary rather than a true lake, opens north of New Orleans and carries one of the longest water crossings anywhere. The Red River comes down from the north-west past Shreveport to join the lowland network.

Only in the piney hills of Bienville Parish does the ground rise to Driskill Mountain, the state's high point, and even there it stays modest. The coast itself frays into marsh, barrier island, and open water, always shifting as the river gives up its silt to the Gulf.

What is Louisiana like?

Two cultures set the tone, and both trace back to France. Creole society grew up around the port at New Orleans, blending French, Spanish, African, and Caribbean lines into its own language, cooking, and Catholic calendar. The Cajuns are the descendants of Acadians driven out of eastern Canada, who settled the prairies and bayous of Acadiana in the south.

French still survives in both, spoken in kitchens and sung from dancehall stages as Louisiana French. Faith runs through it. The old French and Spanish colonial order left the state Catholic where much of the Deep South is not, and even the county-like divisions are called parishes.

Music is the state's loudest export. Jazz was born in New Orleans, and out in the country the accordion-driven sound of Cajun bands and Black Creole zydeco fills weekend halls. Mardi Gras crowns the calendar, from the masked parades of the French Quarter to the horseback runs of the rural prairie.

Food matters as much as any of it. Gumbo, jambalaya, boudin, and crawfish come out of the same French roots, thickened with the local trinity of onion, bell pepper, and celery. Festivals fill the year.

The table, the parade, and the dancehall are where the culture actually lives, not in any museum.

What is the history of Louisiana?

The name goes back to 1682, when the explorer La Salle reached the mouth of the Mississippi River and claimed its whole basin for King Louis XIV of France. New Orleans followed in 1718. France, then Spain, then France again held the colony before Napoleon sold it to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, doubling the young country overnight.

Statehood came in 1812. The French and Spanish centuries left their mark on the law, the faith, and the parish map, which is why Louisiana still runs on a civil code closer to Europe than to the rest of America.

What is the climate of Louisiana?

Louisiana runs hot and humid, a subtropical climate straight off the Gulf of Mexico. Summers are long. From June into September the air hangs heavy, and afternoon thunderstorms build almost daily over the coastal plain before breaking in short, hard downpours.

Winters stay mild, milder along the coast than up in the northern hills around Shreveport. Rain falls all year, and the state counts among the wettest in the country. Then comes the danger that shapes every coastal town: the hurricane season runs from summer into late autumn, and storms off the Gulf have redrawn the marsh more than once.

How do you get to Louisiana?

Most visitors fly into New Orleans. Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport handles the bulk of the state's air traffic and sits a short drive west of the city on Interstate 10. Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and Shreveport keep smaller airports for regional flights.

Overland, Interstate 10 runs the length of the south, tying New Orleans to Lafayette, Lake Charles, and Texas beyond. Trains still cross the state on the old routes. Once there, a car is the only real way to reach the bayou country and the small towns of Acadiana.