Introduction to Natchitoches, LA

Tiny NATCHITOCHES (pronounced "Nakitish"), in the sleepy cottonfields of the Cane River, is the oldest European settlement in Louisiana, having begun life as a French trading post in 1714. A Catholic oasis in a Protestant desert, it was swiftly fortified when its Spanish and Native American customers started to combine aggression with commerce.

With its lovingly restored Creole architecture, Natchitoches's exquisite Front Street, on the river, bears a passing resemblance to New Orleans' French Quarter, with its lacy iron balconies, spiral staircases and cobbled courtyards complemented by friendly, old-style stores. The 1717 Church of the Immaculate Conception, at Second and Church streets, has many of its original French features, including glass chandeliers and a hand-carved font. Fleur de lis on the nearby Walk of Honor commemorate celebrities with local connections, such as John Wayne, Clementine Hunter, and the cast of the movie Steel Magnolias, which was set and filmed here in 1988. Fort St Jean Baptiste, at Moreau and Mill streets (daily 9am–5pm; $2), is a five-acre reconstruction of the town's 1716 fort, with rough wooden and adobe buildings, enclosed by a tall wooden fence.

The quirky Bayou Folk Museum in novelist Kate Chopin's old home in CLOUTIERVILLE (Mon–Sat 10am–5pm, Sun 1–5pm; $5), is filled with all manner of oddities of local interest, along with exhibits relating to Chopin herself, whose nineteenth-century novel The Awakening, about a married woman's desire for independence, shocked the nation.

Information by Rough Guides

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