Next Up, Thanksgiving.

With both a Thanksgiving dinner recommendation from our dear friends Beverley & Rainer Bosselmann and Michael’s very enthusiastic architectural viewing recommendation we headed out of New Orleans for Natchez, Mississippi.

On the way we stopped at Laura Plantation. This place had pretty much gone to rack and ruin when somebody with money (we don’t know who) bought the property because he loved the Compair Lapin and Compair Bouki (Disney’s Uncle Remus and Br’er Rabbit) stories which probably originated with the Senegalese slaves living here. It was his wife who convinced him to also pursue the plantations family story, which lead to the restoration. We had a fabulous and feisty tour guide named Rose, who enthusiastically told us all about this Creole Plantation run almost exclusively by women for 4 generations! Weak little southern belles they were not! A most amazing and interesting story. Put it on your list if in the area.. Footnote….Laura is one of 4 tour places along the River Rd…we’re gonna do the other more “typical” antebellum plantations another time.

Heading on down the road we had reserved a camp spot directly across the Mississippi River from Natchez and got checked in and settled down. Next day we headed in for our one o’clock turkey dinner at The Castle on the grounds of Dunleith an 1856 historical home, now operating as an inn. The dinner was good, the service not so much (waiter was new we think) and the walk around the grounds afterwards very nice and certainly needed after having eaten every bite!

Overlooking the Mississippi from high up a cliff, Natchez is full of wonderful old, old homes. We did the tour of Rosalie which was interesting (and we had the place/tour guide all to ourselves) but not wonderful. We mentally shook our heads as we were told, a servant did this, the servants did that, etc. The only reference to reality was when our guide said “..(can’t remember his name) left the family here and went west to Texas with two slaves probably to avoid the effects of the Emancipation Proclamation.” We wandered up and down streets pointing here and there….”look at that one”…”oh cool”…..lots of fun. We also went out to the beautiful and old Natchez City Cemetery and walked around over hill and dale. Put it on your must visit list too.