It was an epic Louisiana Saturday night in downtown Lafayette with food, wine and music, not necessarily in that order.
The Louisiana Sunday afternoon that followed was a rather slow day with a little shopping and a lot of football.
Framing it all was a train trip across south Louisiana’s dense swamps and waving cane fields, small towns and huge bridges.
Here was the idea: years back, during a vacation in Europe, I came to appreciate how train travel can put you in the center of town; you step off the platform and into the action. Could I replicate something like that back home?
Amtrak’s Sunset Limited line connects New Orleans to Lafayette, and its timetable defined the trip’s parameters, presenting the potential for a 36-hour getaway.
Passenger rail travel, I was reminded, is a mix of comfort and quirkiness, residual formality from its glory age and a sense of backwater nonchalance compared to modern air travel. It’s roomy and scenic, and delays are endemic.
But then there we were, delivered to downtown Lafayette, in walking distance to everything we would experience.
There was a late lunch at Spoonbill restaurant, built in a vintage gas station, and then a walk to Wild Child, an epicurean oasis for wines and imported tinned seafood made into platters.
Dinner was at Vestal, for a taste of modern cuisine and a view of open fire grills. After, it was rootsy Louisiana music at two open-air patios just blocks apart, Hideway on Lee and the Blue Moon Saloon, where dancers set the decks swirling. It felt jovial, freewheeling and like culture being passed down and going strong.
Sunday on foot in downtown Lafayette was quiet, as expected, with boudin for brunch from Johnson’s Boucaniere, a few shops to browse and some football to watch, then it was back on the train headed home through the sunset.
That night, back in New Orleans I could still hear the sawing of violins from the night before and feel the heavy rocking of the train car, like lying down after a day on the water. It was a worthy Louisiana road trip all right, transferred to the rails.
