Lafayette: the Cajun heart of Louisiana

In the heart of rural Acadiana, Lafayette remains the undisputed cultural capital of the Cajun and Zydeco tradition of all of southern Louisiana.

A car is particularly helpful for moving between the city's neighborhoods.

The Vermilionville, a historically faithful reconstructed village, tells the daily life of Acadian settlers, Native Americans and Creoles of eighteenth-century Louisiana.

A few minutes away, the Freetown District comes alive with live zydeco music venues, a genre born from the fusion of ancient French Acadian traditions and African-American music.

Heading toward the historic center, you visit the Cathedral of Saint John, alongside a great centuries-old oak tree among the oldest and most imposing in all of Louisiana.

In the evening, local restaurants serve gumbo and jambalaya according to ancient Cajun recipes passed down through generations of local families.

The Acadians, forcibly deported by the British from Canada in the eighteenth century in an event known as the Great Upheaval, settled in the swampland region around Lafayette, giving rise to Cajun culture.

Zydeco music, born from the fusion of French-speaking Cajun and African American traditions, remains a living genre in Lafayette, played every week in numerous local venues.