Going to Grand Coteau

I didn't want to go to Grand Coteau. I didn't want to go make groceries, two toddlers in tow. It's too hard to get out of the Prairie des Femmes... but going into that historic and haunted town always gives its small rewards. It was a beautiful day, for starters, late May... next to the truck there was a big black moccasin in the bamboo. He jumped and went back into the leaves. On the road, a painted bunting flew across our path and landed on LaGranges' cattle gate at the roundup. At the front of the road the new neighbors were cooking in their carport on a Lil' Smokey. I stopped and asked it I could  take a picture of their tailgate: 

In Frozard, Chat-Tigre's brother's house was chillin as always...

Coming through the sloping highway into Grand Coteau, you undulate through all of the ranch lands until you climb the coteau into town. There, I saw three creole men on horseback: 

The third was in blue with a wide black cowboy hat. He waved.

In town, I stopped first at the Blue House Store, which, sadly, is going out of business. I has a pleasant conversation in French and English with the owner, Madame Patrice. I was looking for a new good journal, cause times are tight and long gone are the days of a Moleskine every two months... I have been using those cheap black and white marble tablets. Because of the closing, things were on sale at the Blue House, so I got myself a large Antoine de Saint-Exupéry journal, and also a smaller one with a clasp and a Blue Madonna on the front. I was even able to buy some Pacifica rose and amber soaps. Once, someone gave me one of those same soaps and I cut it into five slivers so that it would last. Now I got five bars!

At the gro, I also got good stuff, including a chicken stuffed with crawfish dressing, Evangeline Maid bread, green beans, coco pebbles, and pina colada mix. I even ran into the former poet laureate of Louisiana, Darrell Bourque whose new book, Megan's Guitar I am enjoying very much. He and his grandson Will were shopping for yams.  I was so proud of my son Ambrose, he responded in French when the poet said hello. I complimented Monsieur Bourque on the creative subject of the book, which expands the history of Acadian chief Beausoleil Broussard and also the Acadians' voyages to and settlement in Louisiana. A former teacher like myself, I could tell how pleased he was with the finished product. I told him how much I enjoyed hearing about his creative process when I saw him speak last week at his book opening. He told me: If you would have told me all those years ago that I would have written a book like that, I would never have believed it. 

And I believed it!