Miss Rosie's Bar

Here's "Miss Rosie's Bar" the latest lifesize sculpture to grace Lafayette. Miss Rosie and one of her customers are portrayed by artist Al LaVergne. "Miss Rosie's Bar" was recently placed in front of the Lafayette Visitor Center just off Interstate 10 on the Evangeline Thruway into Lafayette.

Another downtown piece of art

Here's another downtown sculpture in front of former parking garage. Building was transformed into a rather nice office building in the 1980's after years of service as a parking garage. The art work went up at the time of conversion.

Abandoned

This is a sculpture in the drive-thru of an abandoned banking institution in downtown Lafayette. The piece was pretty avant-garde for Lafayette when it was first displayed in the early 1950's. Now the building sits vacant and the sculpture has been abandoned. I have not been able to determine the creator.

Alexandre Mouton House

Here's the welcome sign at the Alexandre Mouton House Museum. Mouton was the first Gov. of Louisiana. With a staff of one you can see why you have to ring the bell for admittance! It is a beautiful house on nice tree lined street. Workers were painting the outside the day I shot this. I'll return for another more encompassing view once the painters have finished.

Here's the terrace

urban garden

After downtown Lafayette went through the phase of urbanization and most of the businesses moved to malls it was hard to find homes downtown. Now more small boutique type businesses are opening and some of the owners are moving in upstairs. A slight European feel is coming to downtown with a much slower pace than in the outlying areas. This terrace garden is in the rear of home over a lawyers office.

An institution

Antler's is a downtown pool-hall that survived the 20th century. This is an institution that made it through the years when "pool" wasn't cool! The 50's were good to the business, the 60's and 70's were probably not very good to it but it managed to make it through the 80's and in the 90's was bought and converted into a pool-hall/ live music venue by night and a "home cooked" meal establishment by day. The place flourishes today with downhome food during the day and live music ( mostly blues ) on Friday and Saturday nights.

Too hot for coffee!

Temperature hit 100 today with 30% humidity! One of the few outdoor cafes in town had no takers today. Even ice coffee would not have made it!

Could it be a global warming thing?

Art imitates life

This is part of a Robert Dafford mural in downtown Lafayette. The office building originally was a parking garage. The vertical mural depicts various car parts that could have been modeled after the cars in the adjacent parking lot.

Mello once again

Mello Joy was a locally owned coffee company that stopped production in the mid 1960's. About five years ago descendants of the original owners revived the name and started production again! Since then they've opened three coffee shops and seem to be doing well. The coffee is not nearly as "heavy" as European brands but more suited to South Louisiana tastes than some other national USA brands.

First Image!

Here's the sign ( in French ) in front of the Mouton House in Lafayette, LA. As you can see the house was the Govenor's house built in 1804.

Our town was named after the Marquis de Lafayette who figured prominently in our war for independence.