Louisiana is no different. We had heard that it was a quaint old town which still had a number of old houses, so we decided to give it a visit. Camilla said she would like to come along as well.
Washington has the strange characteristic of being a port almost 100 miles from the sea and its bayou is quite narrow (it's too small to call a river). It is now a small town with only a single stoplight. However it has a small museum, some very nice houses and a plantation house (Magnolia Ridge). We toured the museum and spoke to a couple of very nice guides. They told us quite a bit about cotton and rice growing.
We then understood the significance of Washington. It is the only high ground that is reachable by river on the west side of the Achafalaya Swamp area, and although the bayou is quite small it meant that it was the only way that people on the West Prairies could get their cotton and rice out and goods in, So until the arrival of the train in 1830's if was a very important port. Steam paddle boats would come in during the winter, when the bayou was at it's highest, and take away the goods.
We then toured the little town, looking at all of the very old houses. Most interesting of all was the Magnolia Ridge Plantation. It was very well preserved and had beautiful grounds, although we could not go into the the house as it is still a private dwelling place. However as we walked round we met a very nice couple who are the caretakers. They were very friendly and we stood and talked to them for about an hour.
We ended up with them giving us a big bag of Pecan Nuts to take back to the trailer (this is big Pecan country, and this is the time to gather them). We then went and ate at the very posh Washington Steamboat Warehouse, which is a converted steamboat warehouse in Washington. We had a very nice, if slightly pricey, meal, Sally had Srimp Betsy (like a soup), I had Crawfish Etouffe and Camila had seafood Surprise (a pasta with a creamy seafood sauce).
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