You would have thought that the Houmas House would be in Houma, Louisiana, right? We had wanted to drive south today along the wetlands cultural scenic byway. Guess I should have looked at the address on the brochure to see where it actually was—north along the Mississippi River Road! But our destination was worth it.
Houmas House Plantation and Gardens
Here’s the background of the property that once had 250,000 acres of sugar cane, one of the largest plantations in the state. They also grew tobacco and some other items, but the most productive crop was sugar cane. These sugar barons developed the largest sugar producing business in the United States in its heyday.
First in the area were the Houmas Indians, then the Spanish and the French. Now one man owns The Houmas Plantation and has been restoring the house and the gardens for the past 15 years.
After visiting the plantation, Walt Disney bought many of theses steam engines and cars for Disneyland that opened up in the 1950s.
In the 1800s when Napoleon Bonaparte knew his time on the throne was coming to an end, he sent most of his family and his possessions to this part of Louisiana for safe keeping. Remember this information when we start walking through the house. Some of his descendants are still in this area.
the house
The glass bowl in the middle of the table is for locally grown caviar.
The small bowls with lids on the table are for catching and killing flies. A honey mixture pulls them in, and a small bit of arsenic kills them. Since windows were kept open most of the time, flies were a big problem.
Silverware had been Napoleon’s.
This mantle clock had belonged to Marie Antoinette.
This beautiful stitchery was made by the nuns at the Old Ursuline Convent in New Orleans. This is the same group of nuns that prayed for Andrew Jackson during the battle of New Orleans.
You’d think this molding would be wood, right? No, it’s plaster that’s held together with horsehair and deer hair. It was beautiful.
A hunting armoire. Clothes were kept inside, and rifles were stored at the end with the door open. The rifle that Jim is holding is actually a walking stick that can be a rifle in seconds.
When the new owner wanted to open his doors to visitors, he knew he needed a draw. So they staged a wedding for the two dogs in the picture. He arrived in a black carriage, and she in a white carriage. Her dress that was made by a French designer is on the model on the left.
More than 1500 “guests” attended and enjoyed the wedding and reception on the house grounds before touring the house.
This is the original child bouncy seat.
This bed could be taken apart in 15 minutes and reassembled on the wide porch just outside the bedroom to catch the outside breeze.
Two stories of porches surround the house on three sides to catch any breeze.
Carriages would drive through this walkway so guests could depart into the house easily.
Originally, the steps were on the outside for servants, and the guests could step directly on the entry to the house.
an outside kitchen
These lights were flashlights for the servants and guests. They could be removed from this chandelier and carried around to provide light. Ingenious.
This wide porch and light-colored walls welcome guests.
These aren’t stones since there aren’t stones in the area. They are slabs of cypress positioned differently from each other.
Two of these buildings are on either side of the house. They are bachelors’ quarters for young men to learn about “the vices of life.” This is a French concept I guess.
gardens
We thought these large, beautiful live oak trees were the best part of the gardens.
pigs do fly!
The brochure describes the gardens as opulent.
DDD friends, do you recognize the statue in the water?
These 4 turkeys walk around and show off their feathers.
Jim Blanchard was our tour guide and has the responsibility of restoring the house and the gardens. He’s done such work all over the area and in New Orleans. We were so glad we had him for our 1.5 hour tour!
We decided to have Sunday lunch in the dining room.
My lunch was on a reproduction of the Houmas china. This meal is Eggplant Belle Rose: crispy fried medallions of eggplant with jumbo-lump crab-meat in a saffron cream. It was so good.
Barney had more gumbo that was really different than he had enjoyed the past two days!
across the levy on the Mississippi River
This towboat was pushing 28 barges (4 across and 7 long) upstream against the current. You can see the power expended by the waves at the back of the towboat.
While we were driving home, we kept seeing oil refineries. Here are two of them; they are huge! Can’t image the power they take.
one refinery
and another refinery
We’re home for the night and just enjoyed another beignet from yesterday. Even after a day, they are still so good.
