The mighty Mississippi

This (below) is the big house, dating from 1752, where the owners of Whitney Plantation lived.

Further along the River Road we later visited the St Joseph plantation which still functions as a sugar cane plantation and has been owned by the same family for over a hundred years.

The mansion at St Joseph plantation is beautifully presented 18th century masterpiece (below).

In between visiting the two plantations we visited a country diner for lunch. Once again alligator sandwiches were on the menu, as were alligator burgers. You could also buy a pack of alligator flavoured crisps to take home. (Meanwhile Ruth tells me - she knows things like this - that are three million alligators in the state of Louisiana. At Whitney, we saw one of them basking in the sun, by the pond).

St Joseph Plantation

We resisted the temptation to consume any alligator meat over lunch but I did have a Louisianan 'Po'boy.' (short for Poorboy, a meat sandwich served in a long roll a bit like a baguette) and very delicious it was, too.

From the river road we travelled to Baton Rouge, the state capital of Louisiana, to spend the night in our next Airbnb.

Today we were up early to visit the Louisiana State Capitol, built in the 1930s, and said to be the tallest such building in the US. The views from the 24th floor observation deck were spectacular of the city and the Mississippi River. On the ground floor was the state House of 

Representatives and the state Senate (mirroring the two houses of congress at Washington) and these were connected by the extraordinary memorial hall, an art deco tour de force.

It was then time to bid Baton Rouge and the state of Louisiana farewell as we set off for the city of Natchez in the state of Mississippi.

Natchez has been controlled by the Spanish, the French and the British. It has been in the Unites States (before the Civil War), out of it (during the Civil War) and in it again (since the end of the civil war).

This small historic city on the banks of the mighty Mississippi is full of beautiful buildings  and today we saw it at its best in brilliant sunshine and temperatures of 85F.