After waking to the rat-a-tat-tat of this redheaded visitor, we drove to Natchitoches (pronounced NAK-a-tash) which is the oldest continuous settlement from the Louisiana Purchase.  It is a very pretty, very Louisiana looking little town on the Cane River (originally the Red River ran through here but when it changed course it bypassed the town leaving just a 33 mile lake named Cane River Lake ).   It is the sister city to Nacogdoches, TX.   It is also the home of meat pies (or crawfish if you prefer) so we had to have those for lunch at Lasyones (not pronounced “lazy ones”).