Thunderstruck

Discovering Eunice

By Steve Beard and Troy Meier

Entry 5. Saturday, October 16, 2004

Click photos to enlarge

We drove into Eunice, Louisiana, just barely in time to check into the L'Acadie Inn. You may be asking why we are in Eunice. Well, it happens to be considered the seat of modern Cajun music. The Cajun Music Hall of Fame and Museum is in the city, as is one of the music and culture's largest proponents and worldwide representatives: Marc Savoy & family. In order to get a real dose of Cajun culture and music we figured this would be good starting point.

We threw our stuff in the room, changed our clothes, and headed over to the historic Liberty Theater for the TV and radio broadcast of the Rendez Vous des Cajuns. This was kind of an interesting cross between the Grand Old Opry, Lawrence Welk's TV show, and something that you could imagine being broadcast by PBS. The crowd was definitely AARP. The coolest thing, aside from the music, was watching couples in their 70s dancing. That World War II generation knew how to boogie.

We headed to dinner at this in-the-middle-of-literally-nowhere restaurant called D.I.'s Cajun Restaurant. We both had alligator and catfish ( Troy had that etouffee, which means “smothered”). It was fabulous. The restaurant was super family friendly, had a great band, and was packed. It was fun to watch all the Cajun dancing going on, especially watching little girls dance with each other. You can tell this is a family tradition.

This section of Cajun country is very unique. Imagine Jeff Foxworthy wandering around Paris. They are kind of like French-speaking rednecks. Since I live in Kentucky, I say that with all due respect. Cajun music – accordion, guitar, fiddle, drums, bass -- is a bit like what early country would have been if Hank Williams would have spoken French.

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