I love Lafayette.

Last weekend, I was scheduled to preach at First Presbyterian in Lafayette. My good friend and general partner in crime and adventures around South Louisiana, Lindsey, noticed weeks ago that the date coincided with Lafayette's Festival International de Louisiane. I can talk more about my sermon another time, but oh man. I cannot recommend Festival International enough to all of you. I would come back to visit Louisiana just for this free music fest. Wow. So good.

We were very fortunate to receive some incredible hospitality from First Pres for the weekend. We were hosted by a very sweet couple whose children are grown and moved away, so Lindsey and I had very, very comfortable beds and a key and encouragement to come and go as we pleased. We were gifted with pins, which help support the festival, and drink tickets, as well as free parking at the church. So we wandered around the festival Friday evening, all day Saturday, and even ended up sticking around Sunday afternoon for more.

The music was amazing! The whole historic downtown of Lafayette, French street names and all, was closed to traffic and full of people who were excited to hear musicians, including Cajuns from the Gulf Coast, Acadians from eastern Canada, as well as bands from Haiti and French West Africa. Announcements were made in French as well as English. The downtown is full of neat little galleries and coffee shops in old buildings. It would have been nice to walk around even if not for the great music! Speaking of which--



Bernard Adamus, from Quebec


Sweet Crude, from New Orleans


Les Hay Babies, from New Brunswick

There were so many others we enjoyed too, and for the most part, we just sat and listened to whatever was in front of us. I cannot stop listening to songs that I don't understand. I wish more than ever that I spoke French!

One of the the things I really enjoyed over the weekend was thinking about my time in South Louisiana as well as my time in Eastern Canada. I find both incredibly charming. One of my favorite provinces in Canada is New Brunswick, after the experience of getting washed out from camping and spending a night in a little fishing town on the Bay of Fundy instead. (It's probably a seven way tie for first place, but whatever.) New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province in Canada, noticeable in signage and conversation. There are many sleepy little fishing towns down the bayou that remind me a lot of Alma and other places we ventured in that region. I like the shared history. Acadians in Canada and Cajuns in Louisiana kind of continued on the same trajectory, sticking to fishing and speaking French. I suspect the Cajuns use a little more spice in their food (thanks to heavy influences that create the cultural gumbo that is South Louisiana), and Louisiana focuses more on crawfish and shrimp while eastern Canada focuses on lobster. But still. Both places are full of charming, historied culture. I really like it.