Culture in Plaquemine Louisiana

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. Our past is well-preserved in our architecture, music, food and lifestyles—which include our amazing festivals—and of course in our museums of history and fine arts.

It is not an accident that Louisiana clings to the phrase "Laissez les bons temps rouler," meaning "Let the good times roll". Let yourself get lost in the traditions passed down through generations. Come visit us during Mardi Gras when costumed riders parade and magnificent balls are thrown from New Orleans and Baton Rouge to Houma, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Shreveport and beyond. Peek back across the centuries, as you walk under lavish ironwork and through the lush courtyard gardens of a meticulous French Quarter hotel. Touch history with a tour of a plantation where the daily activities of the past are recreated. Let nature's mysteries inspire and awe you via a boat tour through a cypress studded bayou.

Here, in Louisiana, history and lore don't merely live in books on a shelf; they're reflected in our everyday lives.

The Mississippi River runs alongside Plaquemine, the parish seat of Iberville Parish. The city is rich in small-town charm, with old plantation homes that recall its founding in 1775. Plaquemine (whose name is a Native American word for "persimmon") is a former logging town that gained notoriety for an engineering marvel known as the Plaquemine Lock. The lock system allowed for transport of boats between the Mississippi River and the wild inland waterways of the Atchafalaya Basin, and it was designed by the same man who later became chief engineer for the Panama Canal.

Learn more about the city's importance to the state's rivers and bayous at Plaquemine Lock State Historic Site, and make sure you see other nearby attractions such as the Iberville Museum (housed in the former 1849 parish courthouse), the historic homes of Turnerville, Nottoway Plantation and Bayou Plaquemine Waterfront Park. Cyclists should take advantage of the 22-mile-long Plaquemine to Grosse Tete biking trail.