Wonderful setting and old structure. The history of the locale of Thibodaux might be stated and shown, and for those who frequent the site, the "permanent" display needs variation occasionally.
This museum tells you a lot about Cajun life. If you read through everything it will take about two hours. It's a good place to stop if you're also visiting the plantations in Vacherie. (I actually visited longer ago than May 2013, but it won't let me pick anything earlier.)
Small, but contains lots of historical information and artifacts. Part of Jean Lafitte National Park. Right on the bayou with short boardwalk. Free
We got to the Center at 4, but it is open until 7PM on Monday's and Tuesdays so we were good. We started asking the staff folks some questions, like, "what is a bayou,?" "What is Gumbo?" Etc. You can tell I am from New Jersey. The staff kept us entertained and informed for over an hour filling us in on everything Louisiana and Cajun. It turned out that they were playing some old time Cajun music that night live, so we stayed until they shut the place down at 7. Came back the next day to see the actual museum exhibits, which were great. Left the place with some Cajun spices to cook some Gumbo at home and a CD of classical Cajun songs. Awesome!
The staff was friendly and took the time to answer questions. they have a small gift shop that is nice. It takes only about 2 hours to go through the facility.
Fred was a National Park Ranger who assisted us. Full of knowledge! Gave us good tips on where to go next, too.
Very comprehensive history of the area. We got personal service and much local history from the staff, who provide a library of videos that they will show on request. Nice exhibits on history and culture. We even got local fruit to eat on our walk back to our hotel!
The center presents history and culture of Les Acadiens--so as to offer a pretty good feel for the subject. The staff were well informed and helpful with respect to the center and to the whole surrounding area as well. We could have spent an entire day in the Thibodaux area but had to move on to New Orleans. As a bonus, we had come to the center the evening before on somebody's advice and listened to a small group play traditional "Cajun" French music.
A small but important place to develop your understanding of Cajun country. What's the difference between Cajun and Creole? What is the history of each? There's a nice short film, and an informative walk-through display. The ranger who helped us was extremely informative. This set the stage for our later visits to plantation Laura in Vacherie.
we throughly enjoyed our visit to this museum and we would certainly recommend a visit and that you include time to see the excellent video about Acadian history. The exhibits are also interesting and the staff helpful and well informed