Lafitte, LA

Lafitte stretches along the southern end of LA 45 beside Bayou Barataria, about 27 miles south of New Orleans and across the bayou from Barataria. This is a fishing community in the Barataria Basin, where boats, canals, levees, marsh grass, and weather reports are part of ordinary conversation. The community's school, post office, and church ties run across nearby Jean Lafitte and Barataria too, giving the bayou a shared-neighborhood feel. The bayou is both transportation route and front yard, and the weather can change the day's plan quickly.

Fishing is the main thread, from commercial boats and shrimping to the smaller trips that send people out for crabs and crawfish. Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve's Barataria unit brings visitors to boardwalks and waterways shaped by the Mississippi River, while local residents keep the working knowledge of the basin close at hand. Lafitte is not a resort strip; it is a bayou road community where Highway 45, the levees, the school bus, and the boat docks all point toward the water.