Baton Rogue, Lafayette, Lake Charles LA

Tours will probably be shut down in Jan and in lake Charles eat at steamboat bills

A few miles (10-30) south of Baton Rouge is the heart of plantation homes. Both sides of the river have lovely homes and many have tours.

Definitely the plantation tours, swamp tours and the FOOD. I like staying at Poches RV in Breaux Bridge, La. Crawfish capital of the world. New Orleans has a lot of history too!

Try Avery Island south of Lafayette. They have a Jungle Garden drive thru area with birds and gators. January might not be the best time for gators though. While you are there, tour the Tabasco factory and visit their company store.

January can be 30 degrees or 80 degrees. Louisiana tends to be rainy in January. Good thing is cold fronts don't last long. If it drops below freezing it will warm up in a couple days.

Don't be afraid to try Mom and Pops in small towns. I used to like Mulattes but it was average and overpriced the last time I ate there. Mike Anderson's in Baton Rouge used to be good. It's been a long time since I lived there. I can tell you po-boys in NOLA but you don't mention it.

Great place for birding. There is an estuary somewhere around Lafayette or Breaux Bridge. Google it. I've never been but would like to go with my camera. Any of the cyprus lakes/swamps are full of birds. Crawfish season for live crawfish won't start until late February most likely.

I can ask on the LSU forum about restaurants. Don't be afraid to eat boudin. Don't believe the lies about pig intestines. It's a seasoned rice dressing stuffed in a sausage casing and steamed. It is spicy though if you don't like spicy. Best boudin is from Mom and Pop meat markets. I also recomend Tasso or Chicken Sauce Piquant. Wonderful tomato based gravy served over rice. Tasso is smoked pork butt with cajun seasoning. Most know to try gumbo and you will be in "gumbo weather" which to a local means cold. In Lafayette region (Acadiana), they eat chicken and sausage gumbo instead of seafood gumbo as a rule. Both are excellent choices and should be available in local restaurants. Best case get seafood gumbo in BR and chicken and sausage in Lafayette.

LSU has a beautiful campus that is worth visiting. Ditto plantations as suggested. Nottoway is nice. Twelve Oaks is one of the standards you see on movies all the time. On history, there is an Acadian Village in Lafayette. Again, sorry I've never been. Classic local. Never saw the need to go to tourist stuff when I grew up there (60 miles north of Lafayette) but's worth checking reviews on Yelp.

What I am looking for is a GOOD Turtle Sauce piquant. Any leads there?
Preferably small town not New Orleans or baton rouge
My proposed route is Natchez to Alexandria, la to Holly Beach via Cameron.
Willing to detour

In Baton Rouge, be sure you go to the OLD state capital building. It is a beautiful building. Don't know where you plan to stay, but I would recommend Farr Park. Baton Rouge recreation dept equestrian park. Nothing fancy, but in the middle of the city, but with a rural feel (near the levee, and horse pastures to look at), reasonable rates, clean bathhouse. No reservations, but when I was there mid-week, there were about 3-4 RV's in entire park. By Friday, the park was filling with tailgaters for the home Tiger game on Saturday.

Thank for all the suggestions. i like spice, and Thai is one of my favorites, I'm a 3 star person, DH is closer to a 4 and both kids are asbestos mouths 5s.
So I'm going to try it all. I love the suggestion about the Tabasco factory and Avery Island I never thought of that. And I also love the suggestion of taking Plantation Tours. I did find a Swamp Tour that was open in January. We are going to skip New Orleans this time and spend a week or so exploring before we go to Texas.

If you go to Avery Isaland, which I recommend, you could also visit Shadows on the Teche, a preserved ante-bellum home. Another quaint place is the Konriko rice mill, oldest in the US and neat attached store. I would also suggest contacting some of the parish tourist bureaus they are a great source of info.

I could put you in touch with a cousin for the turtle sauce piquant but he will make you go catch the turtle first.:)

For Lafayette I would stay at the KOA in Scott. Eat at Fezzo's and 3 of the best places to get boudin (Best Stop, Don's and Billy's). I also recommend the Cajun Food Tour in Lafayette and get a sampling of Cajun food at multiple places. Other eating places to try would be Prejean's and Randol's, where you can eat some good Cajun food and also take in the Cajun music and dance.