We drove off in bright sunshine to visit some sugar plantation homes and have a nosey around (thanks Jo and Chris!). When we got on the highway the bright sunshine had turned into the worst rain storm with the roads nearly flooded but with Rich's heroic driving (Clare's words!) we made it in one piece just as the sun reappeared.
First there was the Laura plantation and then the Oak Alley one - both had similar stories, the Creole families moved over from France and grew sugar with the help of slaves.
It is interesting how French the plantations are (and how many French want to come and visit). The Creole people here seemed to shuttle backwards and forwards between New Orleans and Paris...goodness knows how long that took them as we were told the journey from New Orleans, which took us an hour, would have taken them the best part of a week by carriage!
Many of the women did not really seem to like living on the plantations and missed the "high society" of New Orleans. The families had so much wealth that the houses on the plantations were not built to show off their money but rather to lure the women out of the city!
Lunatic slaves were available for $10,000 in today's money. Rich thought this sounded quite reasonable and asked if he could buy 3 and form a motorbike gang called the Lunatics, but apparently they weren't available in the gift shop.
This photo shows the actual description of some of the slaves, translated from the original French ledger kept by the Creole plantation owners. Note the disparaging remarks - in particular that Patience had "no redeeming qualities"! Whilst some of the slaves chose to stay on the plantation even once freed, it was quite apparent that they all (and especially the field slaves - the lowest in the hierarchy) were trapped in a society that both needed and at the same time feared the slave. The bravery of the slaves who fought for the Unionists to free themselves and their families (and the heavy physical price they paid) was both depressing and moving at the same time.
Then it was time to start prepping for our night at the basketball - thanks Gem and Patrick!
As usual it started with brightly coloured drinks...so big Rich could hide his entire head behind them...
But even though Rich's drink was huge, when Clare's turned up it was nearly twice the size!!
Then, again as usual Rich got quite involved in the game - he got on the stadium's big screen, started a Mexican wave and according to him gave the Pelicans the impetus to nearly overturn a 20 point lead. At this point Clare worked out that non-alcoholic beer was free and so was substituting his drinks to try and prevent him getting too raucous. It didn't work and he was particularly sad with the end score with the Pelicans narrowly losing.
At one point Rich left our seats to go sit in the VIP area and yell profanities at the the other team - Paul Allen (co-founder of Microsoft) who owns the opposition team (the Trail Blazers) wasn't too happy with Rich's behaviour and left the game - Rich took this as a sign to yell louder.
All in all a great night, making lots of new "friends", some of whom seemed to like us.
