Rip Van Winkle Gardens — Attraction in Youngsville

Yes, Rip Van Winkle is a beautiful place. I’ll start off that way. But today we went to take my little sisters senior pictures and were met with a very rude, highly offensive and inappropriate worker there. Admittedly, we were not informed of the photography rules that are set in place at Rip Van Winkle, but the way we were corrected today was absolutely disgusting. As a family not from New Iberia, we had heard of how beautiful this place was and wanted to take some pictures there for my sister’s senior session. We did not realize we had to call ahead in advance and we do know that in hindsight that may have been a wise option. When we arrived, gates were open, signs saying “welcome” and “open 7 days a week, 9-5pm” and no where were there signs saying “private property”, “no unapproved photography” or “no photography, there is a wedding today”. As we walked around trying to decide which beautiful scenery to take pictures near, a short haired, raspy voiced, older lady came RUNNING out, SCREAMING at us to get off the property and SCREAMING that we cannot take photos. Shocked and embarrassed, we obeyed her rude requests and walked down to the parking lot immediately. She continued to scream at us across the yard, extremely rudely to us saying “This is private property, no photography”. We had not once seen any indication that Rip Van Winkle was private property, nor any indication that we could not take photos. To our knowledge this was a beautiful garden open to the public from 9am-5pm per their signs out front. The impolite worker then said that we cannot take any photos due to a wedding taking place. It was then she decided to finally give us reasoning to her yelling. Mind you, there was also no indication of a wedding near where we were as we were not even close to the venue and we also saw 5 other families dressed in work clothes and casual clothing taking pictures with their kids and walking about the gardens. We told the lady we were sorry and had not known, and she scoffed at us and continued to shoo us into the parking lot. We stood up for ourselves saying “We are sorry , but we do think you could have said it nicer”. She said “You can’t just walk onto private property.” As to which we replied “we were unaware, but you could have said it nicer.” She rolled her eyes and started walking away. My mom looked over to me and said “Wow, that was so odd.” And the lady then scoffed once again and said “Yeah, wow, that’s right, wow.” After that, we went to our car and drove away. I am still in disbelief with the encounter we had with that lady. I wish I would’ve gotten her name as I believe she needs a talking to about how to treat guests. We were more than willing to comply with all rules, had we been informed properly. I’m not sure I would recommend going to this place without stalking their web page, digging deep into media, or studying each and every rule at Rip Van Winkle, because it seems that is what you must do or you will get screamed at across the garden from their rude employee. If there is a manager or owner that needs me to specifically describe this woman to you, it would be my pleasure. That was the most unpleasant woman I have ever encountered in a professional establishment. I truly hope she does not get away with treating other guests this way. People like her are what make beautiful places like Rip Van Winkle lose money and wither away because it leaves such a bad taste in...

lives were lost during this event and New Orleans musician Armand St. Martin has a song about this incident.

Today the Rip Van Winkle Gardens offers both a tour of the Joseph Jefferson Mansion and the surrounding gardens along with offering accommodations if you want to stay on site. They have a welcome center that includes the gift shop where you purchase your tour tickets, the Jefferson Cafe that is open for lunch and a movie theatre where you can see a film on the history of the island. Depending on your timing you might end up doing the house tour or the garden tour first and the hosue tour is guided only and is a good tour while the garden tour is self guided. The gardens also include a few musters of peacocks, a Japanese tea house, fountains, wells, wildlife (with over 260 species of birds), multiple statues around the property along with a Bali stone carved gate and various other artwork surprises. Many of the items in the garden are slightly hidden and there are many winding paths so you really need to do some exploring to find all the hidden gems around the property so dedicate some time to this tour.

Tip: Take a Saturday to do the Avery Island Tabasco Sauce and Jungle Garden tour in the morning with a breakfast at the Tabasco Restaurant 1896 then do lunch at Rip Van Winkle Gardens Jefferson Cafe and do that tour in the afternoon for a full day adventure. Then head into Lafayette and stay at the Blue Moon Saloon & Guesthouse get some ice cream at the Borden's Dairy Dip across the street then go back to the guesthouse to...

While the lady at the front desk was lovely and very helpful the guide for the house tour (CHERYL) made us feel EXTREMELY unwelcome.

I was visiting with my mom and as a French speaker she did not understand everything. In the second room of the house, as I was WHISPERING in her ear some of the info that had been said, the woman stopped talking to glare at us and ask whether I was translating what she was saying. I said yes and explained that I was just giving the major info since my mom did not understand everything.

She said this behavior was highly disruptive because she could “not hear her thoughts over my voice” and that based on how she was bothered by it she could not imagine how the 6 other people on the tour must feel.

Being singled out in this context felt highly humiliating as I was doing nothing wrong but simply trying to compensate the lack of documentation in French.

The other visitors did not seem bothered at all, I did apologize just in case and one lovely lady actually stood up for us and said she hadn’t been disturbed and even asked the others how they felt. Everyone agreed they were fine with this.

Sorry for this rant but either we should not have been able to purchase tickets as English is not our first language or the guide might have been more understanding and trained to “hear her thoughts” even with someone whispering a few words.

This visit definitely left a bitter taste...