Natchez & Antebellum mansions

Kristine and Paul have kindly given us a voucher for breakfast at one of the Antebellum houses, so this morning I’m particularly eager to get out. Dunleith is a large hall that is now a hotel and wedding venue, the breakfast buffet is in the old carriage house. It’s a very grand building, the kind you feel you should whisper in. the hot breakfast turns out to be grits, crispy bacon and vegetable frittata, Dave would like some nice Cumberland sausage to go with it. In addition to the breakfast we’re able to take a free tour of the downstairs of the main house, where we’re shown huge 16ft tall ceilings, hand painted wallpaper, rococo furniture and French chandeliers.

Stanton Hall

Inspired by this tour I drag Dave into the next Antebellum Mansion on my list, Stanton Hall. Now, here we really strike it lucky, as the last cruise ship of the season is docked in town, all the guides are assigned to a room in the mansion and dressed in period costume. Each room is explained along with the history of the owners, he only lived in the house for 9 months before he died, however his wife lived another 20 plus years! We’ve discovered that you can’t explore blues music without delving into North v South, the Civil War, cotton and slavery, it’s all interlinked and one of the ladies is very knowledgeable about slavery and cotton, very interesting.

A Natchez House

Dave manages to tear me away and continue with our blues music tour, looking for plaques, but what’s this on the corner, another church. I dash up the steps and inside before Dave protests, it is surprisingly ornate inside with a blue arched ceiling, stained glass and lots of carved figures. After this interlude, we spot 2 more blues markers and then the Blues and Biscuit café, just the thing for lunch. We get to try corn & shrimp chowder and chicken & sausage chowder, all lovely and evocative of southern cuisine. A short walk back home for washing and packing before going out in the relative cool of the evening is now in order.

Natchez Cathedral

By 7.30pm its all sorted and we’re walking back to the centre of Natchez to dine at the Rolling River Restaurant, it’s getting very black over there I comment and just as we get inside, the tropical rain starts. It’s like a white curtain coming down and bouncing back up from the road. Fortunately theres a good acoustic country singer, Taylor Spring, to keep us entertained and great food, hamburger steak for Dave and a salmon sandwich for me but really it’s a huge steak of salmon in a bun with salad. Both are delicious and washed down with a bottle of Californian champagne, yummy. It’s still raining when we come to leave so our waitress calls us a cab, he arrives and is possibly the most southern guy we’ve met so far. “This’ll be the best music yee’ll ever listen too” he greats us with and starts playing a recording by Sam Phillips (Sun Studios) of Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins. He’s probably right.

The steamboat moored at Natchez Under the Hill on the Mississippi