True Detective: It's Louisiana, baby!
True Detective comes under the motto “Man is the cruelest animal” and the series works almost like a gloomy as well as spiritual road trip in which each stop is a door to that human cruelty. The scene in which mysterious murders and disappearances take place is the same in which the detectives Martin Hart (Woody Harrelson) and Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) move in search of answers: rural southern Louisiana is the True Detective map, one that we try to trace as passive, but stunned, observers of the series. And what's in this Southern Louisiana from True Detective?
SUGAR FIELDS AND PLANTATIONS
It all starts with Dora Lange, or rather, her body, found in a sugar cane field outside of Erath, a place that Cohle defines as "somebody's memory of a town and the memory's fading". Erath is a small town in the vermilion parish . Parish detail is important, let's say, in a state where religion is a fundamental pillar of its inhabitants and itinerant churches and preachers, the daily bread (and where the counties are called parishes, without more).
Plactation Oak Alley
The place where Hart and Cohle meet Dora Lange, was filmed at the ** Oak Alley ** plantation, in Vacherie at St. James Parish , next to the Mississippi River, (plantation where Twelve Years a Slave and Django Unchained were also filmed), in its large fields, dotted with huge oak trees. Recognizable by its path of entwined branches oaks, in addition to enjoying the turn tour, you can stay in their cabins near the mansion.
But there are more plantations in southern Louisiana that are worth a visit (and a stay) to fully immerse yourself in the Cajun way of life. St Joseph Plantation , also in Vachery, maintains all the pre-war and Creole essence of its foundation and even the structures of the old rooms of the slaves.
In the ascension parish (in the same place where Dora Lane worked, in a brothel called The Ranch) is ** Houmas House **, a ranch built in 1803 and whose main mansion still lovingly keeps decorative pieces of the time in its 16 rooms. You can stay in the cottages arranged along its oak grove and wake up with a typical American breakfast.
Among the great fields of sugar cane
SWAMPS AND ROADS
the two detectives They cruise the Louisiana highways in Hart's Crown Vic, leaving swamps and factories on both sides of the asphalt. Rivers, lakes and large swamps are the natural landscapes of Louisiana in which the plot moves (and the corpses appear in the series, as in the case of the lake charles ) . But without a doubt, a visit to southern Louisiana means putting on the Swamp Hunters costume and giving yourself to the life of the alligator:
From the border with Texas to the border with Alabama, southern Louisiana is a cartography full of lakes, national parks and natural refuges. Starting from the western end, Sabine National Wildlife Refuge, Cameron Prairie, Lacassine National, White Lake Wetlands Conservation Area, Rockefeller State Wildlife Refuge and Game Reserve, Russel Sage Foundation-Marsh Island State Wildlife Refuge... And one of the jewels of the crown: ** the Atchafalaya Basin ,** the largest swamp in the United States. The cypresses and the marshes are the great protagonists of the landscape. A guided tour of the Black Channel (departing from the Welcome Center) or ** renting a houseboat ** through the Bayou area to sleep in the middle of the swamp, are some of the activities you can experience in the home to alligators and beavers.
If you want to experience a 100% True Detective adventure you will need to scroll to Bayou Gauche , where they filmed several scenes and many of the interrogations of relatives of the victims in houses of Des Allemands . What to do in Bayou Gauche? Feel like a true Crocodile Dundee traveling in a airboat marking the route of the alligators between the Salvador and Cataouatche lakes. And this area, gentlemen, is deep Louisiana.
Swamplands in New Orleans
DRIVE YOUR IMPALA
Be it the Crow Vic or Hart's Impala, the two detectives travel through Louisiana between large highways and muddy paths. If there is a major river in Louisiana, that's the mississippi . The road that runs through it to its delta is the Highway 23 (perhaps the protagonist in the intro scenes of the series?) and through her we arrive at this particular Finisterre of humidity and shifting lands. On one of its sides we left Pelican Island (place of residence of Rianne Olivier's grandfather, another of the unsolved murders in the series at the moment) a natural park known for the good practice of ornithology (especially for the bird that gives it its name, the brown pelican) . And at the end of the Highway, ** Pass a Loutre **, in the parish of Plaquemines, a destination loved by duck hunters (a la Duck Dynasty) and where to enjoy the houseboat and crabbing culture.
There is a road that appears in the series almost as a drag on the mood of the two protagonists, desolate, dirty, which is located in a flood control area. It's about the Bonnet Carré Spillway , in the lower Mississippi Valley in the parish of St Charles. Must be lived.
Bonnet Carré Spillway
EAT CRAB
Precisely of crabs goes the diet. Louisiana is very rich in crayfish and shrimp, which are part of the diet of its parishioners. In True Detective, Rianne's grandfather who lived on Pelican Island , was dedicated to crabbing and like him, we try to find those places where we can enjoy a real Cajun crab.
Between Lake Maurepas and Pontchartrain is Middendorf's , a Cajun restaurant in full celebration of its 80 years that continues to serve the best river produce and Mama Josie's recipes , its founder. How can you eat crab here? in sandwich , as you can also taste the oysters and, of course, gumbo style.
We're going a little further west, all the way to Lafayette , to give us a taste of the sea at ** Prejeans **, a restaurant founded in 1980 that prepares a sui generis 'sea and mountain', with a recipe for crab with artichoke.
If we go south, very close to swampy terrain and only a 17-minute drive from the Mandalay National Wildlife Refuge (famous for its colonies of American alligators and bald eagles), the place to have the best American seafood stew is ** Bayou Cane Seafood, in Houma.**
Juban's is the urban option, in Baton Rouge , a place defined as "small bites," but don't be fooled: no matter how small, sides like "barbecue butter" and cajun-spiced preparations will easily fill your craw.
Cajun Seafood Stew from Bayou Cane Seafood
BARBING WITH RUST AND MARTIN
We have done as much research as possible, emulating Rust and Martin, to find the bars they go to, where they talk, drink, investigate. We've only found one lead from a neighbor and admirer of our Louisiana duo: two local bars in norco , confirming that one is Club 99 .
But where would we go with them in this southern Louisiana? We propose three options where the Big Hug Mug is relegated to the background for a good lone star . In Norco itself is ** Spillway Bar ,** a typical American redoubt of night owls wanting to play a game of pool. If you want to indulge in country dancing, as Hart and Cohle with their partners manage to do in a quiet moment, Cadillac's Rock 'n' Country Saloon in Laplace, half an hour from Norco, is the place to whip out your cowboy hat.
Cohle and Hart and the bar
CHURCHES
Hart and Cohle's investigations lead them to search for The Yellow King , a "golden king" that Dora continually talked about with her acquaintances, and whom she met in a church, Friends of Christ Revival . Investigators get the address, supposedly located in Eunice, St. Landry Parish (but actually filmed in Bayou Gauche ) .
The Church of the Yellow King (in Bayou Gauche)
Not at all dilapidated and more majestic is the ** Basilica of St. Louis ,** an obligatory and inescapable step for this construction of 1789 located in the French Quarter of New Orleans . It is the oldest cathedral in North America and stands out for its three bell towers (it is the pride of the Catholics in the area since it was in this basilica where John Paul II made a stop on his way through Louisiana).
Across the Mississippi in eastern Louisiana we find the population of Thibodaux , which boasts of St. Joseph Catholic Church , a co-cathedral that joins the list of the American National Register of Historic Places. Its humble origin takes place in 1817 , when it was born as part of the Christian missions and it was not until two years later that a small wooden church was built. Today, a large brick building topped by a large rose window welcomes the town of Thibodaux.
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Basilica of St Louis