Lafayette

Lafayette is the center of the Cajun culture in Louisiana and the US. Lafayette has a strong tourism industry because of the Cajun and Creole cultures of the surrounding region. The cuisine of the region, Cajun cuisine, is one of the most famous regional cuisines in the US.

It was founded as Vermilionville in 1821 by a French-speaking Acadian named Jean Mouton. In 1884, it was renamed for General Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, a French military hero who fought with and significantly aided the American Army during the American Revolutionary War. It is the fourth largest city in the state, a 2007 census estimate put the metropolitan area’s population at 256,494.

Cultural Places of Interest:

• Acadiana Center for the Arts
• Acadian Village is a reconstructed Cajun bayou community (of moved and reassembled authentic buildings) and has a representative collection of Cajun furnishings. Website
• Alexandre Mouton House Museum was home to Louisiana’s first Democratic governor, Alexandre Mouton, who once lived in this antebellum town house. It is now a museum and contains a collection of antiques, historical documents, and old Mardi Gras costumes.
• Blue Moon Saloon and Guesthouse
• Borden’s Ice Cream, the last Borden’s Ice Cream location in the country.
• Cajundome, home to the Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns basketball teams, serves as a convention space.
• Cajun Field also nicknamed “the Swamp” is home to the Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns football team.
• Children’s Museum of Acadiana
• Cité des Arts
• Cypress Lake is located at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
• Downtown Lafayette the heart of culture in Lafayette.
• Girard Park
• Grant Street Dancehall
• Heymann Center A performing arts center.
• Jean Lafitte National Park Acadian Cultural Center
• Jefferson Street Market has 65 shops under one roof, offering everything from fine French antiques to fine art by regional artists.
• Lafayette Natural History Museum & Planetarium is a combination museum and planetarium, which houses over 1,000 paintings, prints and sculpture of Louisiana artists and regularly changing exhibits and planetarium programs.
• Lafayette Public Library System
• Louisiana Immersive Technologies Enterprise (LITE) is a state-of-the-art resource center encompassing the world’s first six-sided, digital virtual reality cube as well as the world’s largest digital 3-D auditorium.
• Mall of Acadiana – Contains a Dillard’s, Sears, JCPenny, Macy’s, and over 100 specialty stores and services.
• National Wetlands Research Center is a research facility operated by the U.S. Geological Survey that focuses on estuarine, marine, and freshwater wetlands.
• Paul and Lulu Hillard University Art Museum has a Permanent Collection consisting of more than 2000 works of art, including paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture, and photographs that represent 18th, 19th and 20th century Louisiana, in addition to works from around the world.
• University of Louisiana at Lafayette
• Vermilionville is a reconstruction of a Cajun-Creole settlement from the 1765-to-1890 era
• The Village of River Ranch
• Zoo of Acadiana is located nearby in Broussard