HEART OF LOUISIANA: Oak & Pine Valley

ST. MARTINVILLE, La. (WAFB) – As you drive along Highway 96, near the Cajun community of St. Martinville, the seemingly endless sugarcane fields are suddenly interrupted by a much older crop. This gravel road is lined on both sides with towering oak and pine trees that have shaded this alley for nearly two centuries. The road is still in use today by farmers hauling in their cane harvest, but it once led to a grand plantation home of Charles Durand, a wealthy sugar planter who wanted an impressive entrance for his mansion. When Durand created this oak and pine alley, it stretched for nearly three miles from his grand house all the way to Bayou Teche. Today, this shaded roadway is still nearly a mile long. And it was here beneath these same limbs that one of Louisiana’s most unusual wedding stories took place. It was called the golden spiderweb wedding.

“This is a picture of my mom. She was 18 years old, 1952. This was a reenactment of the golden spiderweb wedding down Pine Alley,” said Chip Durand.

Chip Durand. The great, great, great-grandson of Charles Durand proudly points to a photo hanging in a st. Martinville restaurant, a recreation of that legendary wedding…

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