10-8-2011 - Oak Alley Plantation

This morning I slept in, for a long time, finally getting up at 11am. Actually I woke up at 8.30, with every intention of getting up. I actually got up and realised I'd kicked off the quilt in the night. Dragging it back up, I got that comfy feeling that you only ever get when you're supposed to get up. You know, the one where you can hear it's raining outside and you know you have to go to school. Fell straight back asleep. I did have a late night though, I got completely hooked on reading the Da Vinci Code and just had to finish it. It's been a long time since I've been so absorbed in a book that I can't sleep, it was good to feel that again.


After I'd got up and breakfasted, and tea-ed (still loving having real British tea) we set off to Oak Alley, the other side of Thibodaux. You can really see the French influence around here. Oak Alley is an old plantation that has been preserved to the best of the foundations ability. The grounds were massive and the mansion spectacular, but the most amazing thing about Oak Alley was this view.

28 live oak trees line the path up to the mansion from the road. The oaks were there long before the mansion or before it was a plantation. The trees were planted in the 1700s by a settler who had a small house in the grounds, they reach from the current mansion to the Mississippi river. 


For the first time since I've been in America, I was glad to be 18, because it meant my ticket was just $7.50 rather than $18. The grounds were beautiful and the tour was interesting, but I'm not sure I'd have been happy to have paid $18 for it... $7.50 is fine though. All the employees were dressed in 18th century clothes and the dresses the girls wore were just beautiful. The house inside was gorgeous too, but you're not allowed to take photos inside. In 1839, a wealthy Creole sugar planter by the name of Jacques Telesphore Roman built the mansion for his young wife who loved the social life of the city, but he wanted a plantation. To keep her happy, he built this mansion so she could hold dinner parties and social events. Sadly, there was only one piece of furniture that was original to the house, a babies crib. The other furniture was beautiful of course, just not original. 

After the trip to there, Gwen took me to Books-a-Million so I could restock my mini library. Dad, I'm posting some books home that I've read. I bought Angel's and Demons to prequel the Da Vinci Code, then a book by the Rough Guide people on popular conspiracy theories and finally An Introduction to the Communist Manifesto. Not that I need an introduction, after studying Marxism last year (dialectics, proletariat, bourgeois, historical determinism - blah blah) but it's a nice little book, which I think would be a welcome addition to my bookshelf. I also got another book, a story, for just a dollar - bargain. Scary books are also stocked at this store, this was one of many of the same subject.

I came home to eat some spaghetti then spent a lot of time doing yoga, I've really got into it. So now I'm going to chill out and start on my new books!