When you make a list of all the unique things Louisiana has to offer visitors, you quickly see the long-lasting influences of our French, Spanish and African ancestry. A past preserved today through our architecture, music, food —and through our celebration of life. It is not an accident that Louisiana lives by the phrase, "laissez les bon temps rouler." Let yourself get lost in the traditions passed down generation to generation! Come visit us during Mardi Gras when costumed riders parade and magnificent balls are thrown from Lake Charles to Houma and beyond.   Peek back across the centuries, as you walk under lavish ironwork and through the lush courtyard gardens of a meticulously-restored French Quarter hotel. Touch history with a stroll and a tour of a plantation where the ways of the past are recreated. Let nature's mysteries astound and amaze with a boat ride through a cypress studded bayou. Here, in Louisiana, magic, myth and lore come alive everyday.