Experience the biodiversity of St. Landry Parish by touring our Visitor Center or by visiting our wildlife management areas and preservation sites.

We’re here to make your holiday holly, jolly, and bright with this list of gift giving ideas and holiday celebrations. Hopefully, this guide to giving handcrafted gifts will alleviate some of the shopping stress and instead inspire and generate some excitement. This list is not only perfect for gift giving, but for tourists looking for a unique souvenir to take home. We promise to provide you with some ideas that will make any trip to St. Landry Parish, Louisiana unique and memorable.

New SLP logo, designed by Megan Barra If you’re a returning user, you may have noticed our new look. As a Tourist Commission we call ourselves a DMO, a fancy acronym for “destination marketing organization,” but really, we are in the business of storytelling. We wanted a logo that could tell our tale, a place with a long history of cultivators, music makers, and a “gumbo” of ethnicities and cultural identities. So, we hired the right woman for the job, local artist, Megan Barra. Megan is an award-winning [...]

This authentic Cajun sweet dough pie recipe comes straight from the Sweet Dough Pie Capital of the World, Grand Coteau, Louisiana. Pastry chef, Nancy Brewer, was sweet enough to share her award-winning recipe and the secrets to a successful pie. Nancy is a trained chef and the owner of The Kitchen Shop in Grand Coteau. This beautiful town is noted for its magnificent trees that form alleys, groves, and gardens, but gains equal notoriety for this sweet treat. In fact, in the month of October, the whole town celebrates this culinary [...]

Lire en anglais Les traces du patrimoine français sont partout visibles dans la Paroisse St-Landry. Le guide touristique en français, les enseignes, journaux, et menus, les dictons de tous les jours, ainsi que nos noms de famille temoignent de ce passé et présent. Partout dans la paroisse, on entend fréquemment parler le français cadien et le français créole. Les programmes de radio tels que Bonjour Louisiane et Rendez-vous des Cajun sur KRVS et KBON sont émis en français. C’est en partie grâce aux efforts de la NUNU Arts & Culture Collective que le français louisianais connaît [...]

Lire en français The evidence of our French heritage is everywhere you look in St. Landry Parish. From our visitor guide en français, signs, newspapers, and menus to everyday phrases and our surnames, French culture and language are on full display here. Throughout the parish, it’s very common to still hear both Cajun and Creole French being spoken today. Radio stations like KRVS and KBON feature programs that are broadcast en français. Part of the effort to keep Louisiana French alive in the area is evident thanks to NUNU Arts & [...]

Holy Ghost Creole Festival in Opelousas, Louisiana Whether you're on small country roads or amongst the bustle of town, you can’t go anywhere in St. Landry Parish without seeing food. Travel along scenic byways and find soybean fields, rice bins, and a cascade of bright red crawfish traps bobbing on glistening ponds. Head into town and there’s no escaping the mass of specialty meat markets, boudin and cracklin stops, and eateries. So, what made this particular region of Southwest Louisiana a foodie’s paradise, populated with enough smokehouses and [...]

"St. Landry Parish, Louisiana is a place with Cajun spirit and Creole soul." Thumb through any St. Landry Parish phone book and you’ll see surnames that indicate a gumbo of ethnicities – French, Spanish, German, African, Irish, Native American and more, but many residents also celebrate their Cajun and Creole heritage. Cajuns are descendants of the Acadians, who were evicted from the region of Nova Scotia in the mid-1700s, after their continued refusal to swear allegiance to the British crown. Many of these Acadian exiles landed in south Louisiana, where [...]

March 11, 2018, nearly 500 music fans, locals, and Ardoin family members welcomed Amédé home. Bringing Amédé Home was a symbolic event honoring one of Louisiana’s most iconic musicians, Amédé Ardoin. The ceremony featured a candlelit Remembrance Vigil, a Bal du Dimanche après-midi (Sunday afternoon house dance), and the unveiling of the Amédé Ardoin Commemorative. “In the 1920s and ‘30s, Amédé crafted tunes that poured the foundation for Cajun music and zydeco… If you find a Cajun band that doesn’t know the Lacassine Special, make a citizen’s arrest. The only [...]

This tried and true recipe is one of our own. It calls for one of our favorite seasonings, local spice house, Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning, and comes with directions for making a homemade roux. Try it out, and let us know what you think! What is Gumbo? Gumbo is a dish that originated in southern Louisiana from the Louisiana Creole people during the 18th century. It typically consists primarily of a strongly-flavored stock, okra, meat or shellfish, a thickener, and seasoning vegetables, which can include celery, bell peppers, and onions. Gumbo is often categorized by the [...]