A sign on a local restaurant cleverly lets you know they only serve fresh food inside. It reads: "Everything on our menu slept in the bayou last night."

Well, folks around here tend to exaggerate a bit. The menu does have lots of crawfish, alligator, shrimp, crab and other swamp-born dishes, but you'll also find tasty treats such as gumbo (a mix of onions, bell peppers, celery, rabbit, smoked sausage and the like in a roux of flour and oil) and boudin (sausage made with bits of pork, rice, fiery seasonings and green onions).

And to stoke your fire even more, there's usually plenty of Tabasco sauce on the table. It comes from the red pepper fields of Avery Island just down the road.

This is Cajun country, home to a hefty number of Louisiana's 400,000 or so residents of French-Acadian descent. You can get a good taste of their culture in New Orleans, but to really get into the Cajun "joie de vivre" (joy of living) you'll have to take a short trip inland -- about a two-hour drive -- to their heartland at Lafayette and the city's eight surrounding parishes (counties).

Most Cajuns trace their roots to the French settlers who arrived here in the mid-1700s after having been evicted from their homes in eastern Canada. They'd been living there in a region called Acadia for a century when British troops seized their lands and sent most of them packing down the coast.

Some Acadians died at sea on the journey, others made it to places like New York and Charleston, and several thousand wound up in southern Louisiana, then a French-friendly Spanish colony. Over time, the Acadian tag morphed into Cajun.

The tragic story of their explusion from Canada is told in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1842 epic poem, "Evangeline." Today, you can drive just about anywhere in the Cajun heartland and chances are within a few minutes you'll spot something -- perhaps a street, plaza, park, hotel or even a bread company -- with the name Evangeline on it.

The story is also told in museums around the region. For example, the Acadian Museum in Erath, about a half-hour drive from Lafayette, displays what looks like thousands of photos, maps, costumes, books, artworks, and other memorabilia of the Cajun heritage.

Museum chairman and co-founder Warren Perrin spearheaded a drive to win what amounted to an apology from Queen Elizabeth II for the explusion. Spotlighted in the museum is a framed copy of the Royal Proclamation, which was issued in 2003 after years of legal and political wrangling.

Perrin, a lawyer, says "I didn't start out to be an activist, but something inside me stirred when I heard about (an 18th century guerrilla movement against the explusion) led by Joseph Broussard."

Broussard, like Evangeline, is remembered today on everything from street names around the region to his likeness on tee-shirts. His nickname, Beausoleil, was taken by a world-famous Cajun band based in Lafayette.

Visitors to Cajun country will likely hear this expression a lot: "Laissez les bon temps rouler" (let the good times roll). Eating is one good time. Another is waltzing around the dance floors to old-time Cajun music, such as at the free, jam-packed concerts in downtown Lafayette on Friday nights.

Among scores of other places to kick up your heels around the area is Vermilionville, where guests whoop it up at a "fais-do-do" dance party while enjoying a super-potent gumbo made on the spot.

Traditional Cajun bands typically feature an accordionist backed by a fiddler and someone dinging a "tit-fer" (a metal triangle) with a short rod. Modern versions add instruments like guitars, drums, a keyboard and a ribbed metal vest rubbed up and down with spoons. But the accordion player -- some shell out as much as $2,500 for hand-crafted instruments, such as those made by Clarence "Junior" Martin -- still calls the shots.

His or her opening chords tell the rest of the band how fast they're going to play a tune. The song often goes on and on, until the accordionist decides it's time to move on to something else and signals the band to stop by raising a foot.

The accordion is also featured in particularly peppy music known as zydeco. "The Big Z," as some call it, combines the influences of Cajun, rhythm and blues, country, rock, jazz and Creole, the latter with Afro-Caribbean roots. Zydeco bands come in varying ensembles -- for example, some have brass sections, some don't -- but they usually have one thing in common: When they're around, you know it.

Getting there: Several airlines offer nonstop service to the Lafayette airport from hubs such as Houston, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Atlanta and Memphis. Tour buses take vacationers to Lafayette for a stopover there coupled with visits to other regional cities like New Orleans and Natchez. If you're driving, you'll find Lafayette on U.S. Route 10 about 220 miles east of Houston and 110 miles west of New Orleans.

Staying there: Lafayette and its eight surrounding parishes together offer some 60 hotels plus two dozen bed-and-breakfast inns. Among top hotels is the 327-room Lafayette Hilton.