Raconte-moi un Bayou

As a place for living in Second Life, I usually don’t favor themed regions due to the fact that, for me, enough space and freedom to create my own atmospheres are a must. Yet, I do recognize that a themed region is the best way to keep a series of sims coherently attractive.  That’s why old Mainland is always such a mess: since every parcel owner can place whatever s/he pleases on the ground level, the place never makes sense. On the contrary, themed regions are tourist destinations that (usually) guarantee the visitor plenty of nice sights.

The other day I was visiting Pi Illios at her home in New Toulouse. She pointed to me the sim next to her was a swampy area with a somewhat lively crowd. The sim was empty, though, hence I think the crowd must have died at nightfall, but I headed there to take a look anyway. I’m very fond of swamps and marshes (I guess I must have been a frog or a wetland cricket in my previous life), so I think this Bayou sim in New Toulouse is a nice place to visit.

Gabrielle Riel’s New Toulouse estate recreates the New Orleans, Louisiana, area at the turn of the 20th century. Known for its wetlands down the Mississippi river delta, its SL equivalent couldn’t exist without a bayou. So that’s what New Toulouse Bayou stands for.

A bayou is a body of water typically found in flat, low-lying areas, and can refer either to an extremely slow-moving stream or river (often with a poorly defined shoreline), or to a marshy lake or wetland. Bayous are commonly found in the Gulf Coast region of the southern United States, particularly the Mississippi River region, with the state of Louisiana being famous for them. […] The word was first used by the English in Louisiana and is thought to originate from the Choctaw word bayuk, which means “small stream.” […] Bayou Country is most closely associated with Cajun and Creole cultural groups native to the Gulf Coast region generally stretching from Houston, Texas, to Mobile, Alabama, and picking back up in South Florida around The Everglades with its center in New Orleans, Louisiana. [Source: Wikipedia – Bayou]

So this is New Toulouse’s Bayou sim. If I were looking for a prêt-à-loyer location, this would definitely be an option. Check more pics after the break… and don’t forget to visit  Bayou [slurl].