rows of live oaks lead from the Mississippi River to the house and then restart
on the other side of the property. It all looks very grand and the 40-minute tour
was very much in keeping with this. Emma described it as 'all very hooped
skirts and mint juleps'. Our guide was wearing the former as part of her period
costume, and the latter could be purchased on the veranda (including a
souvenir glass.... should think so too given the crippling price).
The rooms that we were shown in the house were beautifully appointed
and the tour was interesting, if a little hard to follow at times due to the heavy
southern accent of our guide.
Laura, the other plantation we visited, could not have been a more
different experience. Again the tour was good, but it was also much less
formal and told more of the stories about the family who had owned the land
than about the house itself. They even told us about the slaves (conspicuous
by their absence in the story of Oak Alley). Partly this was because they have
restored some of the slave quarters at Laura, but mainly because this is
where the Brer Rabbit stories were first heard and translated by an American -
they originated as Senegalese folktales. It was refreshing to visit two very
different places, and it felt better value for money too.
The Laura plantation is also obviously run on a different scale to Oak
Alley - there is no café, a smaller gift shop, and the house is still being
renovated. There was not a hooped skirt in sight. Our presenter, Troy
(seriously) had a cartoon type voice with a rising inflection in the middle of
each sentence, just a little irritating. However, he was friendly, interesting and
blatantly enthusiastic about the place, telling us extra information at the end
when the rest of our tour group had to rush off for their bus.
kiana
(Kiana)
#1