[Click on each picture to enlarge. 'F 11' key makes it larger still]Madewood has become a very nice bed and breakfast place to stay. Located at Napoleonville, Louisiana (click here for map and driving directions), it is forty-five minutes from Baton Rouge and a little over an hour and a half from New Orleans.
Today's blog posting will be a tour of the grounds of the plantation. Tomorrow should be a tour of the mansion.
Above we see the plantation mansion. Our room was the master bedroom, the first two walkout windows upstairs on the right show where we stayed.
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The center piece of this lovely garden is a sugar kettle from the original sugar mill on the premises.
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This building was a nearby blacksmith's home that has been saved from demolition and is now restored.
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A slave home was also moved here from a nearby plantation. It is presently being used as a residence. Don't worry about that outhouse, it now has indoor plumbing and air conditioning.
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The family cemetery is at the back of the farm place. The most recent burial we could find was in 1948.
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We left Friday morning. Saturday there will be a big wedding here. Nuptials will be exchanged in the gazebo. Gazebos are a Southern fixture, we don't have ours yet.
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The brick path leads from the back porch to that nice little garden with the sugar kettle. You can see some of the out buildings in the background.
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We found this plantation home at the rear of the property, the first greeting coming, it tells us goodbye on leaving. The rainbarrel here is not being used, others still are.
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Sugar cane is the cash crop for the plantation's over 2000 acres of Mississippi River bottom land. The crops look good down here this year. [The rest of the state was not so fortunate.]
[Click here for Part II if you want to see the rest of Madewood]
Looks like a fascinating place!
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely place to stay! You sure know how to pick good places Jim!! It is beautiful with lovely grounds. Adi would have loved it too.
ReplyDeleteI love gazebos too! Very nice.
Looking forward to the next part!
This is a gorgeous mansion! The one we stayed at was Nottoway, a gorgeous house. We also visited & toured Oak Alley. The house was less outstanding there, but the grounds - and that alley of 300 year old live oaks, were amazing. I really need to post those photos.
ReplyDeleteVery neat that you have twin boys, too! Ours our fifteen now, just finishing ninth grade. They love sports, football, basketball, and baseball.. They go to a small school, where there aren't a lot of kids, so they're good teammates rather than rivals. One of them tends to be stronger with his left hand, or able to use both.
It's a very interesting relationship, twins, to observe from the close perch as parent.