Where: Multiple cities in Acadiana, Louisiana
When: year-round
If you like: dining and drinks
Why you should go: You can smell the Best Stop Supermarket before you hit the parking lot of the low-slung red roadside building in the town of Scott. That’s the boudin cooking, sending up puffs of hot pork fat and pepper fragrance. The Best Stop is among the most recognizable purveyors along the Boudin Trail, one of hundreds of places to dig into this traditional food across Acadiana, a twenty-two-parish region settled by the Acadian French in the 1700s. The area has its own Mardi Gras traditions, people still speak the Cajun French language, and the foodways are legendary, including boudin—steamed sausage with a base of slow-cooked, crumbled pork mixed with Louisiana rice and infused with spices, peppers, and onions.
The trail isn’t one route but rather a collection of digital maps and websites, with tourism boards and armchair fans alike directing folks to butcher shops, gas stations, and even fine-dining restaurants. While Lafayette is Cajun Country’s largest city and Scott is the most famous town for boudin (it hosts the Boudin Festival every April), the trail winds through such charming small towns as New Iberia, Eunice, Washington, and Grand Coteau, too.
G&G tip: Thanks in part to boudin pilgrims, Cajun Country is experiencing something of a boutique hotel boom. The vibrant nine-room Hotel Klaus—recently opened on Washington’s Main Street in a circa-1870 building, with a craft cocktail bar and a swimming pool—and Grand Coteau’s Train Wreck Inn, which draws from whimsical Wes Anderson film sets and features four sleeper options (a yellow caboose, a blue train car, the depot, and an old ticket booth), join Maison Madeleine in Breaux Bridge, a French Creole cottage on dreamy Lake Martin that’s welcomed guests since 2005.
Jenny Adams is a full-time freelance writer and photographer, most often penning pieces on great meals, stiff drinks, and the interesting characters she meets along the way. She lives in New Orleans, with a black cat, a spotted pup, and a Kiwi-born husband. Right now, she’s working on a (never-ending) horror novel, set in the French Quarter.
