Louisiana: Fontainebleau State Park

Having successfully extended our planned 9-day Pensacola trip into both Alabama and Mississippi for a couple of weeks, we continued our efforts to be “real RVers” by booking yet a few more days in yet another state. We settled on Fontainebleau State Park located on the northern shore of Lake Pontchartrain near the town of Mandeville.

When: Saturday, February 27 to Wednesday, March 3, 2021 (four nights)
Where: Fontainebleau State Park
Cost: $22/night +$6 transaction fee + ~$9.00 in state/local taxes
Bucket Lists: Gator Hunting
Beer: Gnarly Brewing Company (Hammond LA)
Biking: Tammany Trace Trail

Having successfully extended our planned 9-day Pensacola trip into both Alabama and Mississippi for a couple of weeks, we continued our efforts to be “real RVers” by booking a few more days in yet another state. We settled on Fontainebleau State Park located on the northern shore of Lake Pontchartrain near the town of Mandeville.

About Fontainebleau State Park

Spread across 2,800 acres, Fontainebleau State Park offers 126 “premium” and “improved” full hookup campsites. There are also cabins and lodges for rent.

The campground is not your average park. The park was once an old plantation and sugar mill that belonged to Bernard de Marigny de Mandeville. In addition to naming the neighboring town after himself, he also named the property Fontainebleau after a forest near Paris that was enjoyed by French Kings. Though the plantation house is no longer visible, remnants of the sugar mill are adjacent to the Visitor Center. The Visitor Center was understandably closed during our visit because of Covid-19.

The property is lined with old oaks covered in Spanish moss. We saw several photographers and engaged couples have their pictures taken near a grove of trees. At the same time, a recently installed sign tells a part of the sobering story of the property:

Beneath this alley of oaks were 20 double cabins that housed enslaved families from 1829 to 1862. They were the workforce for Marigny's Fontainebleau Plantation and included skilled steam engineers who managed the power source for the sugar presses and lumber mill. Brickmaking was the site's most profitable endeavor, but capable blacksmiths, schooner crews, masons, sawyers, and ox drivers were also part of the enslaved labor. A shoemaker, seamstress, and field hands were also noted in papers of the time.
Children, with their small hands, fed sugar cane into steam operated presses during harvest. Sugar refining was hazardous work, and a small hospital was kept onsite. Tending sheep, cattle, horses, mules, and oxen was a daily affair.
In 1840, 153 enslaved individuals were documented here including 57 children under the age of 10. The economic panic of 1837, crop failure, and fallen sugar prices led to the 1852 sale of Fontainebleau, further impacting enslaved families. The women, Violette and Bonnine were babies when Fontainebleau was built in 1829, and 23 years later were sold with their own children to the plantation's new owner, Pierre Poutz.

The history of the park is well documented in this Tammany Family blog post, and it is worth a read if you are a history buff.

While we were there, beachgoers and families made good use of the pavilion and shelters near the lengthy beach. The pier also made for spectacular sunset photographs along the beach and water.

The park features several nature trails. Our favorite was the “Alligator Marsh Boardwalk.” After successfully spotting gators on our first excursion, we were literally on a gator hunt each morning and/or evening after that. There are also some signs to help identify many of the plants and animals common to the area throughout the park.

Biking Near Fontainebleau State Park

The park is also conveniently located adjacent to the Tammany Trace trail. Originally a corridor for the Illinois Central Railroad, this rail-to-trail traverses Slidell to Covington (about 31 miles). We rode the trail to up to Covington one day, and also just tootled around Mandeville on another day. There are several breweries located along the trail. And, not surprisingly, we visited every one!

Breweries Near Fontainebleau State Park

The southernmost brewery along the Tammany Trail is Old Rail Brewing Company. With designated booths for seating, the place feels more like a restaurant that happens to serve craft beer, rather than a brewery that happens to also serve food. We were hungry after our bike ride when we went there so that was okay with us.

Chafunkta Brewing Company is named after an early Indian settlement located in what is now the city of Mandeville, LA. There is also a river named the Tchefuncte that is located in the Mandeville area. Located just a few blocks from the Tammany Trail, Chafunkta is part of a weekly bike crawl to Abita Brewing Company. The Chafunkta brewery is in a large industrial building, with plenty of indoor and outdoor space. A local food truck/tent was slinging some yummy pitas when we were there. We shared a flight; and I especially liked the Anonymous Complaint IPA.

The granddaddy and most northern brewery on the trail is Abita. We’ve heard they do a pretty good brewery tour, but the taproom and tours were closed because of Covid-19 so we sat outside during our visit. About 1.5 miles south of the brewery on the trail is the Abita Brew Pub, which was the home of Abita Brewing until 1994. The pub features a good selection of food and exclusive Abita Beer selections. We shared a flight, and my favorite was the PB and Jams.

Although not located on the Tammany Trail, my favorite brewery in the area was Gnarly Brewing Company in Hammond, Louisiana. Our bartender/server was attentive and engaging, and the Fat Jose taco truck did not disappoint. Many of the beer ingredients were unusual both in selection and combination. Kasie enjoyed a Mango Passionfruit Smoothie, which was t...h…i...c...k. Even at 5% ABV, this beer is truly more fruit “smoothy” that anything else. It is dangerously close to being a breakfast drink. We took home some of the Jucifer IPA and the Strawberry Catahoula Common, rationalizing that those beers are actually servings of fruit.

Super C Dealers in the Area

Our reason for venturing to the Hammond area was look at some Super C motorhomes for the first time in person. These are RVs built on a semi-truck chassis. We’ve been eyeing several online as a possible upgrade to Birdie, our 2019 Greyhawk 31F. We filmed lots of video of the Super C rigs but because the house batteries were dead in ALL of the rigs, the poor lighting made most of it not worth showing. The rigs included a lot of obvious stuff that was wrong with them (doors that didn’t latch, dings in the woodwork, etc). And, the interior design of the Renegades needed updating (at least in our opinion). Thus, our candid first-impression of the dealerships and the RVs themselves were not exactly “classy.” You can get a sample of those impressions in the outtakes at the very end of our video.

Great American RV – Jayco Senecas

Berryland Campers -- Renegade Valencias and Dynamax Force/DX3s

For more info on Super Cs, check out our blog: What is the Difference Between a Regular Class C RV and a Super C RV?

Gators, Pigs, and Coons – Oh My!

For folks who only have a few days in the area and want something touristy to do, Canjun Encounters (Slidell LA) offers several options. We opted for the “swamp tour” along the Pearl River not too far from the Mississippi-Louisiana border. Despite Covid-19, our tour boat was full, holding roughly 25 passengers. We had a seat at the front of the boat, which was ideal. The crying kid in the seat in back of us was not so ideal. Nonetheless, the tour guide was funny, informative, and we had an overall good time. We saw about a half-dozen alligators, a wild pig, some racoons, and a snake. The cost was $30.50/person (with reservation fees).

Day Trip to New Orleans

We decided to take a day-trip to New Orleans. Although the rain made visibility of the Lake Pontchartrain difficult during our drive, the drive over the causeway was a civil engineer’s dream. At nearly 24 miles, the causeway holds the Guinness World Record for the longest continuous bridge over water. The causeway is comprised of two parallel bridges, and includes both places to pull over and also places to cross to the neighboring bridge.

We started our day in the French Market with some over-priced beignets from Café Du Monde. We nonetheless picked up some coffee and other goodies for our neighbors back home who had been kind enough to keep an eye on the house during our extended time away. We then wandered around Jackson Square, getting pretty much soaked in the rain. My eyeglass strap broke, so they were temporarily lost. The morning was becoming a complete bust. One thing would likely help our increasingly negative mood: beer and food.

Luckily, Port Orleans Brewing Company saved the day. The brewery is located on Tchoupitoulas Street, and our spirits lifted just trying to stay the name (CHOP-i-TOO-less). Because of the rain, we were not able to enjoy the spacious and colorful outdoor space. The beers were just as good inside. The 3-Day Weekend Hibiscus Lime and Coffee Break stout were my favorites of the flight we shared. There’s a food window run by Avo-Taco inside the brewery, and the street tacos hit the spot.

Urban South Brewery — with Travel Trailer!

Also on Tchoupitoulas Street is Urban South Brewery. They have a pretty big canning operation, and we had already tried some of their beers while staying in Mississippi. We fell in love with their award-wining Lime Cucumber Gose, and purchased a couple six-packs of it to go. You know the stuff is good when we get TWO six-packs….

With our spirits lifted, we decided to explore another outdoor part of New Orleans, Louis Armstrong Park. Because of the rain, we were basically the only folks in the park. The public art there is pretty cool; the only thing that might make it a little better is if the park piped in some of Louis’s trumpeting in the background. (Note to my fellow copyright lawyers: I would have liked to have included some Louis Armstrong music in our video, but the recently enacted Music Modernization Act now gives copyright protection to pre-1972 sound recording so if I’m interpreting the new statute correctly, I think some early Armstrong recordings that otherwise would have been in the public domain won’t be until December 31, 2021).

Our last stop of the day was…you guessed it…another brewery. Founded in 1907, Faubourg Brewery is the oldest operating brewery in New Orleans. Most people know it as “Dixie”. It was renamed in 2020 when the owners of Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, and similar brands were doing the same. The brewery’s new name is pronounced “FO-burg” and is a French word that generally means “neighborhood.”

Hurricane Katrina destroyed original Dixie brewery, forcing the company to relocate out of state and survive by contract-brewing. The company and its new facility are now owned by Tom and Gayle Benson, owners of the New Orleans Saints and New Orleans Pelicans. There’s a ton of history about the New Orleans brewery scene located in the new building. The place is huge and features lots of event space, including some outdoors. As of this blog, the brewery is also a Harvest Host location so if we ever decide to stay in New Orleans itself, that is an option. Given how much we liked Fontainebleau State Park, I’m guessing we will probably just stay there again.