Oak Alley Plantation

Rien de plus à dire sur la beauté du lieu. En dormant sur place, vous avez toute la plantation rien que pour vous à partir de 17:00, quand les portes se ferment au public et ça c’est juste magique. Une expérience unique à faire une fois dans sa vie. Nous avons loué le bungalow no 6. Un des seuls avec une grande terrasse sous les arbres. Nous y avons pris notre souper (repas ok, commandé à l’avance et déjà au réfrigérateur à notre arrivée) en écoutant le chant des oiseaux (le jardin regorge de Cardinal rouge). Pour les citadins que nous sommes, c’était très charmant et dépaysant. Par contre la nuit fut assez épouvantable. Nous n’étions pas rassuré de dormir dans cette cabane en bois perdue au milieu de nulle part. L’intérieur était très sombre et décoré avec de vieux meubles et de vieux bibelots chinés ici et là. L’ambiance était un peu creepy. En allant aux toilettes pendant la nuit, mon mari a marché sur un espèce de cafard gros comme une maison et il y a avait constamment une odeur bizarre de cuisine dans tout le cottage. Très désagréable. A faire donc, mai pour la beauté du lieu seulement.

We were extremely impressed by our stay. We chose one of the newer deluxe cottages which was spacious, clean and well appointed. A key advantage of staying on the site of the plantation is that you can wander around the grounds after the visitors have left to get some great photos. Dinner (pre-ordered) was good as was the breakfast. Would thoroughly recommend.

We clearly chose the wrong time to dine here. I say that because every glowing, gushing, 5-star review about this restaurant is based on a lunch or dinner review. But trying to find a good review about their breakfast offering? Good luck. We actually didn't drive all the way down to Oak Alley to visit the plantation. I'd booked us reservations down the road at the Whitney, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to see the famous Oak Alley visual, the one that's made its way to so many posts, blogs and stories. So, we compromised by choosing to have breakfast at their onsite restaurant before driving back to the Whitney to pick up our tour. If you're doing like us and are just stopping in for lunch or dinner, once you enter the gravel parking lot, keep driving past all the parked cars and take the small lane on the left. That'll bring you to another smaller parking lot, which is where you want to be for the restaurant. When we arrived, fairly early on a Friday morning, the restaurant was mostly empty; they had just one other older couple at a table close to us. They seemed to have been there for a while - the woman had spread out to the table closest to her and the man was deep into a newspaper - but they didn't have any drinks on their tables. Not even water. Our waitress, Skylor, was either very new or very not interested in being there and serving people that morning. If she had a personality, it was not on display. We would thank her for something, and she'd either grunt or ignore us altogether. In fact, she practically ignored us the entire time. And when I say "us" I mean the two tables that were occupied at that time. It took about five minutes for her to make her first appearance, when she stopped by the other table first, then ours. We'd all had so much time to review the very limited menu by then that we knew what we wanted. So, even though Skylor made it very clear that she only wanted to take our drink orders ("What do you want to drink?") we all made it a point to place our food orders at the same time. For my main, I went with the Full Breakfast, eggs scrambled ($10.95) and a cup of coffee; my husband got the Pain Perdu ($10.95) and a cup of coffee. And then we settled in to wait. Not really sure what took the kitchen so long; they had three of the exact same order (the other couple also got the Full Breakfast) and only four people to feed, but the wait was incredible. And then, when we thought we'd have to run out without our meal to make sure we got to the Whitney on time, the food arrived. Skylor barely made an effort to place the plates in front of us - most items landed with a clatter and a clang - and then scurried off without so much as an "enjoy your meal" or "can I get you anything else?" That last would have been nice; turns out we were all hoping for a small pat of butter for our gigantic and dry biscuits. The other couple guy gave it a go without, then tried to wait to see if Skylor would come back to check on us (