Do you know one of the things I love about staying
in a casino resort?
You have so many options for dining
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Today we're trying Claim Jumper here at the Golden Nugget
The super berry waffle, please
Oh, you wanna get hyped? Ok!
Yeah!
Change of plans, they ran out of waffle
Okay, so here it is!
We had breakfast very fast it was delicious, and we said goodbye to everyone
Today we're crossing the entire states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama
And guess what? It's sunny now!
There are four important cities in southern Louisiana:
Lake Charles, Lafayette, Baton Rouge - the state capital, and New Orleans
And we'll try to show all of them at least a little bit
Almost there!
Here's Lafayette
Wow! Beautiful!
How cute! All vintage!
Remember that in Lake Charles I talked a lot about Cajun culture?
Well, Cajuns descend from French
They used to live in northern United States and Canada, on the east side. There was a French colony there
Long story short
Sorry! So long story short
France got involved in a war with England
England won, expulsed all the French from the area
and they moved to the other French colony in North America: Louisiana
And why am I explaining all this here?
Because this city of Lafayette is considered the center of Acadian culture
Acadian is the name given to the French descendants from that area
Huh! Look at how many references to Acadians
Cajun and Acadian even here
And in fact a lot of people here still speak
French at home. 11% of the population more precisely. Census data
Huh, look at that! Instead of "Street", "Rue"
That's French
French here, too!
Too early!
This house here is very famous in Lafayette
It belonged to a former governor of Louisiana in the mid-nineteenth century
Today, it's a museum, and it maintains the furniture and the decor
Time to go
Charming city, huh?
And listen to this. There was a happiness study
done by two professors - one from Harvard
and the other from Vancouver School of Economics
And they discovered that Lafayette
is the happiest city in America
Actually all five, all top five are from Louisiana
Based on the days in Lake Charles, I guess why!
And guess what's the unhappiest city of all?
Gordon, any idea?
It's New York
We're here! We're here!
This is my favorite part of the road
I'll have to let the video roll. Look at this
Wow!
It's a huge swamp
Gordon, careful driving, baby!
If there's an accident here, this is all full of alligators
This bridge here is enormous
It's the third longest actually in the United States,
and shortly, we're gonna drive by the longest
Imagine! The longest bridge in the United States
This one here is almost 20 miles long
Atchafalaya
We had to stop at a place like this
All these people come here with their boats
and they go explore the swamp
Wow! You can actually do boat tours here
I'd prefer to join a tour, there are lots of tours departing here too
I'd never feel comfortable by myself. You know? Too many alligators
Whooo! Not only alligators, look at that! Snakes too!
Someone else arriving here with a boat
That view made my day!
Bye!
Next stop, Baton Rouge, the capital of Louisiana
To arrive in Baton Rouge you cross the Mississippi River,
which is the river that basically divides the United States into East and West
It starts all the way in Minnesota close to the border with Canada
before flowing to the Gulf of Mexico, here in the south
I shot a vlog in Minneapolis showing the river there
_ Oh, my God! _ I got you!
Now I feel like a pro!
The Mississippi ranks as the fourth longest river in the world
And for you to understand the importance of this river,
its watershed drains all or parts of 31 U.S. states and 2 Canadian provinces
Here we go
The Mississippi is down there
Look at this bridge how cool
And that's downtown
Really nice view! Such a peaceful place!
If you're not American you may not know this, but every U.S. state has a Capitol
This is where the governor works and also the state representatives and the senators
And this one here in Baton Rouge is the tallest Capitol in the entire country
But this place here actually has a sad history
The governor who managed to build all this was murdered right here in 1935
Imagine! He built the site of his own assassination
The governor's name was Huey Long. He's buried right here, and his statue faces the building
Here in Baton Rouge there something unique in the country. Maybe even in the world!
A live mascot. The mascot of the local university here - Louisiana State University
is a tiger, but instead of being someone dressed as a tiger, it's a real one
And he's right here for everyone to see
Here's Mike the tiger.... No, no! There's a real one over there
Let's go check it out. Let's see if he's awake
If everyone is on the other side, chances are he's there
Let me follow the crowd
Ahh, there's Mike!
He is really big, much bigger than I thought
Oh, my God!
People here in Baton Rouge love Mike.
I heard that it doesn't matter when you come here, there's always someone checking him out
This is actually the sixth Mike
It's a long-standing tradition here that begun in the 1930's
This Mike came from a sanctuary and rescue facility in Indiana and now he has a new home
This is where he lives, right here, and that's the stadium
He lives just outside the stadium. That's a true mascot
From Baton Rouge you can go through or around New Orleans
We're going around because it's faster
But I promise I'm going to show you New Orleans too
Actually I was there a few months ago for a conference
I shot a vlog but I never managed to edit
This is real life, this is what happens sometimes
You know? One thing brings others, there's work, and so on
So this is what I'll do: I'll update that vlog,
I'll edit, and I'll finish this one right here, so that you can have New Orleans in sequence
Looking back at the days in Lake Charles
I feel like I should have introduced to you guys all the other journalists
but I didn't know them in the beginning
And I was a little shy of bringing everyone on camera immediately
But after spending four days together, getting to know everyone, everyone was so nice
So, I feel like missed opportunity here. I'll remember that for next time