Abbeville Historic District and Tabasco Factory

Yesterday we decided to go into Abbeville in the morning as it is only about 9 miles west, and we had our bedding in the washer downstairs. It provided us with an opportunity to go and visit the Historic District before coming back to hang the sheets on our line and then go visiting on Avery Island and at the Tabasco Factory.

 

We are truly enjoying the old buildings in the Historic Districts of the towns we come to.  Dont you love the colors?

This old bank was the first in Abbeville. I went inside thinking they might have restored the inside too, but only the vault is in existance, and the interior is rather shabby and smells bad...well, like an old bank, actually!

How pretty is this seat in the garden square?

Pere Megret is the founder of Abbeville

I hope you can read most of this story...

This lovely Catholic Cathedral is on the National Historic Places Registry. We noticed that there were a lot of bees buzzing around the top of the steeple, so you could say that they have an active hive up there somewhere.

 

 

This old canon is in the Centre Ville (town center)

 

As is this plaque commemorating the reunion of the Hebert family. It is a very common name in these parts.

This old train station renovation and restoration has been a labor of love for so many, and the present owner, Earl, has been there for 17 years. He told us he is now 70, and his wife is about to retire from teaching special ed. kids locally, at the same age. He made us a cup of coffee, though it was very hot outside. We enjoyed a cuppa on the house and thoroughly enjoyed looking at all the goodies he has for sale, and some things that arent.

 

the old carriage outside the Depot.

 

There are probably 25 stuffed birds on the wall just inside the front door of The Depot. While Im not a fan of stuffed things, it was informative and gave us an idea of what the birds are that we see around us.

 After departing Abbeville, we returned to the boat to hang the laundry, have some lunch and get ready to go to Avery Island, not far away. We left here around 2pm for a factory tour and to see the Jungle Gardens.
This handsome (yes, really!!) bird we think is a turkey buzzard. We may be wrong there though:)

The gift store and sampling place. We tried the Raspberry Chipotle ice cream and the Habanero one also. Lots of sauces and salsa to try...which we did by dipping pretzels into them. The ice-cream has a nice kick in the rear, after you think it is just nice sweet stuff:)

Yes, people here really do buy their Tabasco in these large gallon containers.

Tobasco Sauce bottles without their labels...naked, I guess?? The assembly line was fascinating to watch, and though it is automated, nothing really is and we still need people to check, recheck and fix things when they dont go according to plan...this seemed to happen all the time, while we were watching.

This is an Airboat that we saw at the Jungle Gardens. Had to take a photo of course!

 We didnt visit the Jungle Gardens...by the time we had been on tour and moved to the gift store at the Gardens, it was 4pm, hot and humid and we needed a coffee...which we got there. We sat outside in the heat..yes, I know...and drank our HOT drinks...:) and then decided to do the large gardens another day...or not.

We drove home and as luck would have it, they rail bridge went down and a train made it's way VERY slowly over the old rusty thing.

this photo should come after the next one, but Im sure you can figger that out:)

This is the railway bridge that has come down to allow the train to cross the Bayou Petit anse, just up from where the boat is docked. This was an exciting event for us:)

And so ends another eventful day.