December 10, 2010: The Natchitoches Festival of Lights
	Return to the Index for Our Natchitoches Trip

This afternoon, we are driving over to Natchitoches to visit with Justin and Gary, help them with their Christmas Tour of Soldini House and see the Natchitoches Festival of Lights and fireworks.

Getting to Soldini House

Before we head over to Natchitoches, we should probably clear something up. Natchitoches, Louisiana, is often confused with Nacogdoches, Texas. The confusion is understandable, since the names look very similar and the towns are not that far apart:

Both towns were originally Spanish settlements, although Natchitoches eventually came under the dominion of France and became part of the United States by way of the Louisiana Purchase. Nacogdoches was originally part of Mexico, then became part of the Republic of Texas and finally became part of the United States when Texas was admitted to the Union.

How to Pronounce "Natchitoches"

It seems that the greatest confusion, though, is in how the two towns' names are pronounced. Texans are always mispronouncing the name of the Louisiana town; I can't say what Louisianians call the Texas town. But, to set the record straight, the Texas town is pronounced "Nak-a-do'-chess" (emphasis on the third syllable). The Louisiana town is a bit harder (and not at all what you'd think); in fact, there are three or four YouTube videos devoted to just how to pronounce the city's name. One of those videos is at left.

As the video makes clear, the pronounciation is "Naa'-kee-tush" (emphasis on the first syllable). That's true, as far as it goes, but most locals elide some of the sounds, and it comes out more like "Nah'-ke-dish" or something like that. But as long as you don't try to make more than four syllables out of it, you should be fine!

Now that you know how to pronounce our destination, let's get there.

Getting over to Natchitoches is actually quite simple, and we follow the same route that we always take when we go to Florida. We leave Dallas on US 80 East, hooking up with I-20 East near Terrell. We take that all the way to Shreveport, and then take I-220 around the southwest quadrant of the city, picking up I-49 South on the south side of the city. We take this all the way to the Natchitoches exit.

When we take the Highway 6 exit, we head east into the town of Natchitoches. We go almost to the Cane River and then turn north on Jefferson Street. Then it is less than a quarter mile to Soldini House.

You can get a better idea from this aerial view of what the local area around Soldini House looks like. You can also see the Steel Magnolia House where Fred and I will be staying Friday and Saturday nights.

Finally, here is an aerial view of the immediate area around Soldini House, which is at the corner of Demeziere and Jefferson Streets, just two houses south of the Steel Magnolia House. I have marked a couple of the other features that will appear in some of the pictures that we took this weekend.

Justin and Gary and some of their relatives were there to greet us when we arrived. This is probably a good place to apologize to both Justin and Gary (and their relatives) for my failing to write down everyone's name and their relation to either Justin or Gary. Many of their relatives will appear in these pictures, as they were helping with the tour of Soldini House that would occur on Saturday, and I am chagrined to admit that I am unable to identify them specifically. Until I am able to remedy this situation, I will do the best I can with a general appelation.