LAFAYETTE, La. -- It's a steamy Friday night, and Terry and the Zydeco Bad Boys are tearing it up at the Blue Moon Saloon . This is just one of the hot spots in this musical town, a place reminiscent of its sister city, New Orleans, as well as of Memphis, Rio de Janeiro, and Austin, Texas, for their passionate music scenes.
If anything, there are more musicians and artists in Lafayette than ever, due in part to the post-Katrina exodus that brought more than 40,000 evacuees to town. A year later, 18,000 of those newcomers are still here, including a healthy number of music makers. ``Musicians love the scene here," said Todd Mouton, a local music producer. ``It's the mix of black and white cultures, the influence of the French, the accordion, the fiddle. It's all here."
David Egan , a singer-songwriter known for his swamp pop rhythms and wry vocals, put it this way: ``In Lafayette, foods tastes like the dancers move. And the land looks like the music sounds."
And the dancers at the Blue Moon on Friday are most likely to show up Saturday morning for the zydeco breakfast at Café Des Amis in nearby Breaux Bridge , with bands like Thomas ``Big Hat" Fields and Lil' Nathan & the Zydeco Big Timers raising the roof from 8:30 to 11:30 -- a.m., that is. ``I found out late in life that all women like to dance," said Mack Treelis of nearby Sunset. ``So I learned."
Of the 39 US cities and counties named for the Marquis de La Fayette , the aristocrat who was a hero of both the French and American revolutions, this is definitely the place that will show you the best time. Located about 130 miles west of New Orleans on the Vermilion River, Lafayette is an exhilarating gumbo of Cajun and Creole cultures brought to life in the city's artwork, music, and food. French influences prevail, from the state's only doctorate program in Francophone studies at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette to the musical and cultural statements made at the annual Festival de Musique Acadienne , Festival International de Louisiane , and the Festivals Acadiens , coming up Oct. 13-15.
Festivals Acadiens celebrates the history of the ``Acadiens," Cajun forefathers who fled British persecution in what is now Nova Scotia and settled the region in the early 1700s. This history is the underpinning for everything that defines Cajun Country, from the music to the food and penchant for the lilting French language. With Lafayette at its center, Cajun Country sprawls through several South Louisiana parishes (and beyond) and includes a constellation of small towns such as Eunice, St. Martinville, New Iberia, and Breaux Bridge .
Take a drive out to Louisiana Heritage & Gifts not far from town, a craft and music store owned by fiddle player Mitchell Reed and his wife, Lisa , a vocalist and member of the Cajun band the Magnolia Sisters . Every Saturday, from 2 to 5 p.m., dozens of local musicians, novice and accomplished alike, convene for an acoustic jam on fiddle, guitar, upright bass, and squeezebox. Lisa's father, Harry Trahan, usually chimes in on vocals and a Lafayette-made Martin accordion , and Mitch is second only to Michael Doucet on Cajun fiddle. Lisa joins in on guitar, bass, triangle, and rub board . Would-be musicians can take fiddle lessons from Mitch or accordion lessons from Steve Riley at the shop, when he's not on the road with his band the Mamou Playboys .
Cajun people love the land, and it doesn't take much of a drive outside of town to fall under the spell of the giant live oaks, draped in Spanish moss, and the cypress and tupelo trees that line the bayous and swamps.
Pay a visit to nearby Avery Island , a subterranean mountain of salt surrounded by water and marshland. Near New Iberia, the island is most famous as the home of picante Tabasco sauce, first produced here in 1868 by Edmund McIlhenny .
Make time to walk around downtown Lafayette, an amalgam of Victorian, Acadian, Art Deco, and modern buildings centered on the intersection of Main and Jefferson streets. Look up to see outdoor murals by internationally recognized local artist Robert Dafford , including a Cajun accordion on the side of the Lee Furniture store.
Visit Jefferson Street Market , an artisan collective that offers everything from refined gifts to take-away kitsch.
The Blue Dog Café is as much a museum as an eatery, its walls crowded with Cajun artist George Rodrigue's famous Zelig-like blue dog.
No visit to Lafayette is complete without an evening at Mulate's in nearby Breaux Bridge. The sign promises ``bon temps et bon manger" (good times and good eating), and this venerable landmark delivers. The alligator hides on the ceiling are a clue that you're in Cajun country, along with the bronzed dancing shoes on the walls. Try the boiled crawfish, fried crawfish, crawfish étouffée -- you might guess that Breaux Bridge tags itself ``The Crawfish Capital of the World."
More than five generations of two-steppers have danced across these old cypress floors, with live Cajun music every night, as well as at noon on Saturday and Sunday. Even if you don't know how to dance Cajun style, don't be shy, cher . In Lafayette, getting on your feet and giving it a whirl is all it takes to feel a little bit Cajun.
Contact Beth D'Addono, a freelance writer in Belmont Hills, Pa., at bethdaddono@comcast.net. 
