Laura Plantation

Four generations of a Creole family, told through the memoirs of a woman who walked away from it all.

Laura Plantation in Vacherie tells its story differently than most. Instead of a generic timeline, the tour follows the memoirs of Laura Locoul Gore, the great-granddaughter of founder Guillaume Duparc, who recorded her memories of growing up on the estate in the late 1800s.

Through her eyes we meet four generations of a Creole family — their ambitions, their quarrels, and the enslaved workers who kept the sugar operation running. The main house, built in 1805, is a riot of color compared to the white-columned Greek Revival estates nearby, with bright shutters and raised French colonial construction.

What lingers is the sense of real people, not plaques. Laura eventually sold the plantation and left Louisiana, and that act of walking away gives the story its bittersweet shape.

It is one of the most personally narrated plantation experiences you can have in Louisiana, and a favorite of guests who want history with a human face.