It will be a while before New Orleans recovers from Hurricane Katrina's visit, so for a different taste of Louisiana, keep going west past the Big Easy, past Baton Rouge, and head up into the Cajun prairie country of Saint Landry and Evangeline parishes.
Then ''laissez les bon temps rouler" -- let the good times roll.
Instead of the bayous many associate with Cajun culture, here you find lush grasslands suited for farming and grazing. Eunice calls itself ''Louisiana's Prairie Cajun Capital."
The word Cajun comes from the French who in 1604 settled what is now Nova Scotia and some of whom went on to settle in New Brunswick. They called it Acadia and were known as Acadians, then Cajuns. In 1713, the French sold Nova Scotia to England. Between 1755-63, the British rounded up and deported some 14,000 to 18,000 Acadians. Some were sent to England as prisoners of war; some to northern France; most to the American colonies, many eventually reaching Louisiana. Thousands died.
But the Cajuns' recent darkest days may have come in the last century when the United States almost did what the British could not: take away their culture.
''That was back when they wanted to make all of America into McDonalds," said Vincent Fontenot, a ranger assigned to the Prairie Acadian Cultural Center in Eunice, part of the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve.
''Every time we spoke a word in French, the teacher would bend our fingers over backward," said Dorothy Pitre, a hostess at the Cajun Music Hall of Fame and Museum. ''I didn't know what I was being punished for."
Many Cajuns Anglicized their names, stopped speaking French at home, and insisted their children speak English.
The culture appeared on the brink of extinction until the 1960s, when America discovered Acadiana. Cajun music was the rage. Cajun food swept the land. Louisiana passed a law promoting preservation of the French language.
Today, that cultural resurgence manifests itself in a strong sense of pride among prairie Cajuns, who welcome the opportunity to share with visitors their food, music, and lifestyle.
