Fat Tuesday

At last the big day arrived. Fat Tuesday, the final day of Mardi Gras, was a fun packed day. We were in place at 8 to watch the Eunice courir but decided to go catch a smaller group at Basile. They had already made one stop and a woman had hurt her leg when she fell out of a tree.

From there we followed along the backroads stopping at several homes where someone would release a chicken for their gumbo. What craziness!

They always gather and sing to the property owner, in French of course, and then after they catch the chicken they dance and beg for cinq sous or 5 cents. If you don't donate you might find your shoe gone.




Bands and food were everywhere so we drove over to Iota to eat jambalaya, alligator, and boudin for lunch at their Mardi Gras celebration. A band was playing and people dancing as is typical with plenty of food and some crafts on had. Leon had a couple of vegetarian corn dogs in his pocket. He must have been the only vegetarian in Louisiana.

We went back to Eunice, set our chairs out and listened to music while we watched the masses mingle and wait for the courir participants to parade through town. They arrived and threw beads to the crowd as they paraded down the streets. They were no longer allowed to ride standing on their horses and they complied.


I even decided to don a new hat for the festive occasion as did Leon.


Dinner at D I's, eight miles south of Basile was a treat. The restaurant began when D I Fruge cooked crawfish from his 40 acre crawfish farm in his barn. He expanded twice after that and people come from miles around to have a meal in the middle of nowhere. We were quite surprised when the Tee-Mamou mardi gras came in to entertain the crowd on the dance floor. There is some sort of tradition where they all get hit with the bull whip and wrestle with the capitaines before begging for money from the crowd. All in fun, of course. It was the perfect way to end a fantastic day and two magnificent weeks in Louisiana. We have enjoyed all of your comments. Thanks for taking the time to read our blog. Time to head back on Wednesday to the dead end. I think it will probably also be a fat Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. But I sure had some fine cajun food: jambalaya, boudin, alligator, crawfish, shrimp, gumbo, boudin balls, mache choux, beignets, catfish, crawfish etouffee, oyster poboy, and crawfish cakes.