Legend holds that the notorious pirate Jean Lafitte used to meet Charles and his wife Catherine under this very oak. Nearby is the Imperial Calcasieu Museum with records and exhibits depicting the history of Lake Charles. Calif. Lake Charles restaurants offer a treasure trove of culinary delights - shrimp creole, crab gumbo, crawfish bisque, jambalaya and other ethnic foods. Natchitoches Natchitoches, about 50 miles northeast of Fort Polk, may be Louisiana's best-kept secret. The original outpost, Fort St. Jean Baptiste, has been reconstructed as a state commemorative area.
Visitors get a look into the lifestyle of the first French settlers there.
The buildings and houses, with their cast-iron grillwork galleries overlooking Cane River Lake, are reminiscent of the days of the Cotton Kingdom and the city's river port days. Beautifully landscaped townhouses were once second homes for the down-river planters when they visited Natchitoches. A plantation tour of Cane River Country is a glimpse into the sophisticated society of the French colonies. The French Creole style of architecture found in the region's plantation houses and their outbuildings is the only pure vestige of this unique society remaining today. The gem of the Cane River collection is Melrose, a nine-building complex built in the 1700s by a free woman of color, Marie Therese Coincoin.