Southern Airports: Lafayette, Louisiana

Girard Park, Lafayette, LA

There’s a layer of fog kissing the ground at the Lafayette Airport, about two hours west of New Orleans, so unusual for late August. I contemplate that this may signal a delay in my flight to Atlanta, but again, it’s August in one of the hottest spots in the country right now.

Sure enough, the Delta plane reroutes to Houston and I have more than an hour to kill.

Lafayette has long been one of my favorite airports, mainly because its small size means easy access, free parking if you can get in and out in thirty minutes (and like a dollar if not) and a quick trip through security. Most of the time, my flights have been on time, but sometimes small airports pose interesting situations.

Take the time my flight from Atlanta experienced mechanical difficulties. We didn’t leave Georgia until late that night and arrived in Lafayette around 1 a.m. I’m not sure who was manning the booth at that hour but the folks inside the airport couldn’t get the breezeway to fit our flight and the tired folks inside my plane — including the pilot — were about to revolt after more than 30 minutes ticked by. I kept thinking, just open the exit doors and let us slide our tired butts down that blow-up thing.

New airport being built.

Then last year airlines scheduled more flights early in the morning from Lafayette, causing huge lines through security that resulted in many people missing flights. Right now it’s suggested that passengers get there at least 90 minutes before their flight if leaving early in the A.M.

Here’s the good news — a new airport is in the works, thanks to Lafayette residents passing a temporary sales tax to fund the expansion. But we’re looking at 2022 before that happens.

Breakfast at Acadiana Tap Room

Despite my delay on this foggy Tuesday morning, I still love my little airport. I arrive early to no lines at TSA — go figure — grab a coffee at the stand and make myself comfortable. Three TSA agents with little to do since the lines have disintegrated, gather near my seat and animatedly debate where to find the best boudin in Acadiana (for you non-Louisiana people, that’s a sausage filled with pork, rice and spices). Naturally, I listen closely and make notes.

When my plane gets delayed further, I head to the Acadiana Tap House, a bar-slash-café that straddles both sides of the security corridor. Here I’m able to watch the latest baseball games and listen to hot New Orleans jazz. Local beers are on tap here, namely Ragin Cajuns ale, Parish Brewing’s Canebreake and Abita. Since I’m a native of the Big Easy, I find myself nodding my head to “Basin Street Blues."

What: Lafayette Regional Airport

Where: Lafayette, Louisiana. Cajun Country. Two hours west of New Orleans.

What’s Good: Café offers gumbo and other regional favorites, plus local beers. Breakfast is pretty darn good. See photo above.

What’s Bad: Long lines through TSA in the early morning; it’s advised to get there 90 minutes early.

What’s Unique: Likely the only airport in the United States that gives announcements in French.

Wifi: Free, connected to the city's municipal fiber options. Pretty darn fast.

What’s Coming: A new terminal in 2022.

Artwork going down the drain in Lafayette

Dirk Guidry, a 2012 graduate of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in Lafayette, Louisiana, painted this EcoArt installation in front of the campus’ Edith Garland Dupré Library. The artwork is part of Lafayette Consolidated Government's efforts to educate about water runoff and the Vermilion River that runs through the city.

Guidry hails from "down the bayou" in Galliano, Louisiana. He received a bachelor of Fine Arts from ULL with a concentration in painting. He currently lives in Lafayette and paints portraits, landscapes and murals throughout Lafayette and Louisiana.

Want to see him create a mural in Lafayette? Click here.

And here he is creating "Acadiana Crawdad" during the city's May 2015 ArtWalk.

Weird, Wacky and Wild South is written by food and travel writer Chere Dastugue Coen. She is also the author of several non-fiction books, and novels under the pen name of Cherie Claire.

This is how we roll in South Louisiana

Carnival in South Louisiana and outlying regions such as the Mississippi Gulf Coast and Mobile is made up of many “krewes” that host Carnival balls and parades, all leading up to the big day of Mardi Gras, which this year (2018) is Tuesday, Feb. 13. For those watching this revelry on TV it might appear as decadent chaos but underneath the fun it’s highly organized and doesn't change too much from year to year.

But occasionally, Carnival fun arises organically, groups that come together to fill an open spot for a parade, for instance, or to create an event in a non-utilized part of town. Take the Krewe de Canailles, for instance, in Lafayette, Louisiana, a town that has a regular parade schedule on streets bounded by barricades for safety reasons. People in Lafayette hate these barricades because they screw up traffic the rest of the time. The Krewe de Canailles formed as a non-profit group made up of “sub-krewes” to parade along streets without barricades and to fill an empty spot on the Friday before Mardi Gras.

 

Lost Bayou Ramblers

The word in Cajun French means “mischievous, tricky, shrewd,” a perfect description for a group of about 200 people in mocking costumes walking through town, throwing beads and other craziness to onlookers. The krewe parades for the first time this year on Friday, Feb. 9, beginning at 7 p.m. at the downtown Lafayette archway. New Natives Brass Band leads the parade as it travels the length of downtown’s Jefferson Street, through the historic Freetown-Port Rico neighborhood and ends with a party — of course — at an event space called Warehouse 535 where the Lost Bayou Ramblers will perform, a band that just won a Grammy for “Best Regional Roots Album.”

Costumes are expected to be unique with tongue-in-cheek nods to local celebrities and the like with unusual but sustainable and handmade throws and wooden doubloons. Spectators are encouraged to bring flashlights, costumes and noisemakers to the parade route.

Want to learn more? Check out this local newscast featuring the krewe's organizers. 

Weird, Wacky and Wild South is written by travel and food writer Chere Dastugue Coen who loves a wild and unusual Mardi Gras parade.

Flying Violins, ladybugs and Cajun culture in hubcaps: the Robert Dafford murals of Lafayette, Louisiana

Flying Violins

Robert Dafford is a legend in Lafayette, Louisiana, a muralist who has traveled the world creating hundreds of pieces of public art in magnificent ways. Walk around downtown Lafayette and you’ll see his paintings everywhere.

Take the “Flying Violins.” I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Dafford for a DeSoto magazine feature (on Southern murals, coming up in October) and learned how he came to paint this mural I have walked past for years. In 1988, before the spring’s annual Festival International de Louisiane, in which musicians from all over the Francophone world — including Louisiana — visit Lafayette for several days of fun, Dafford was asked to paint a side of a downtown building. He chose to paint violins emerging from a swamp scene.

Till All That's Left is a Postcard

“I conceived it as a symbol of Cajun music leaving the swamps and flying out into the world,” Dafford said.

The mural represents the universality of music, an art form that pushes past the barriers of politics, language, and business, Dafford explained.

Other “Flying Violins” murals have been painted in sisters cities in France, Canada, Belgium and England, and several more are planned.

Other Dafford murals in Lafayette include:

 

Till All That's Left is a Postcard

“Til All That’s Left is a Postcard” -  Corner of Jefferson Street and Garfield in downtown Lafayette.

Dafford’s vibrant mural includes birds, dragonflies and other creatures escaping the Atchafalaya Basin from the encroachment of development. He painted this mural in the 1980s when people talked of developing Louisiana’s massive river drainage swamp that’s home to numerous wildlife.

Ex-Garage

“Ex-Garage” – Corner of Jefferson Street and E. Vermilion in downtown Lafayette.

This mural on the side of Jefferson Towers reflects what used to be in this spot, a parking garage. Dafford pays homage to those old cars but paints local chefs, musicians and other “Cajun characters” into the bumpers and hubcaps.

“Stereo Prairie” – 201 E. Congress St. 
This mural decorates the side of the Children’s Museum of Acadiana and includes other artists Herb Roe, Sherrie Bennet and Chris Confor.

The most recent Dafford mural to Lafayette graces City Hall (705 W. University), which used to be a Sears Department building. Like most of Dafford’s murals, the series of paintings tells the story of Lafayette’s origins and the people who called Acadiana home, including French, Spanish, African and Native Americans.

“We have international roots,” Dafford explained, adding that today’s city attracts and honors international partners. “Lafayette has always been and will always be international in its intentions, aims and goals.”

Want to know more? Check out “The Public Art of Robert Dafford,” written by and illustrated by Philip Gould, published by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press.

Cheré Coen is a food and travel writer who loves public art that tells a story.