NATCHITOCHES, La. — Visitors come to the oldest permanent settlement in the Louisiana Purchase to revel at the city's numerous festivals held along the Cane River, eat meat pies at Lasyones and shop in the historic district, where ferns adorn the decorative wrought-iron balconies like plumes in a hat from the 19th century.

That's as far as some visitors go, but there are others who want to do more than scratch the surface of Natchitoches (say NACK-ah-tish). This is the land of the Cane River Creoles, and the mystique surrounding this culture inspires some to become amateur historians and anthropologists. They want to learn all they can about the origins of Creole people and how the culture has evolved since the days when Louisiana was a French colony.

Wesley K.H. Teo (ENLARGE)

The antebellum home at Melrose Plantation in Natchitoches, La., was built by a former slave. It dates to about 1833. The plantation grew cotton, corn and tobacco and also cultivated indigo.

Photos IF YOU GO Getting there Driving: Natchitoches, La., is about 610 miles from downtown Atlanta, about a 10-hour drive. Flying: Round-trip airfare from Atlanta to Shreveport, La., about 80 miles from Natchitoches, is about $500. Airfare from Atlanta to New Orleans, about a four-hour drive from Natchitoches, is $250 or more. What to do Melrose Plantation, 3533 Highway 119, Melrose. 318-379-0055, www.preservenatchitoches.org. St. Augustine Church. The second weekend of October, the St. Augustine Church Fair is held on the grounds across from Melrose Plantation. The church has been hosting this event for more than 100 years. It features creole cuisine, entertainment and folk art. 2250 Highway 484, Natchitoches. 318-356-5555, www.caneriverheritage.org. Where to stay Skip the hotel chains when visiting Natchitoches, and stay in one of the numerous bed-and-breakfasts. Jefferson House overlooks the Cane River and all guests receive a complimentary boat ride. Jefferson House B&B, 229 Jefferson St. 1-866-254-7279, www.jeffersonhousebandb.com. Where to eat Lasyones Meat Pie Restaurant, 622 Second St., Natchitoches. 318-352-3353, www.lasyones.com. Antoon's, 805 Washing-ton St., Natchitoches. 318-354-7767, www.antoonsrestaurant.com Information Natchitoches Convention and Visitors Bureau: 1-800-259-1714, www.natchitoches.net. Louisiana travel stories A plantation, Creole-style plantation  One city, three price points: A weekend in New Orleans  Near New Orleans: Tours of swamps and plantations  New Orleans: Food, folks and all that jazz  Mardi Gras on the cheap  Photos: Travel / Southeast Galleries Latest deals! Back to: Travel | Southeast destinations

Creoles are usually defined as people of mixed French, Spanish, African and Native American ancestry. Before the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, many Creoles were French-speaking gens de couleur libres, or free people of color, and identified more strongly with their European ancestry than their African heritage. They did not move in the same social circles as whites, but neither were they a part of black society. This resulted in a world of their own, a tight-knit Creole community with strong bonds that exist today.

Natchitoches was home to some of the first Creoles in the state, and descendants of many of those original families still reside in Natchitoches Parish.

Melrose Plantation

Take Betty Metoyer, for instance. A Cane River Creole, she has roots here as deep as the massive pecan trees that thrive on Melrose Plantation. A direct descendant of the Metoyers who once owned Melrose, originally called Yucca Plantation, Betty Metoyer has given plantation tours at least one afternoon a week for the last 28 years.

As one would expect, the plantation has a grand antebellum home, but the house itself is not the attraction so much as the story behind it. This mansion was not built by a white planter, but by Louis Metoyer, a former slave whose family rose to become some of the wealthiest free people of color in the United States.

Betty explains that her family's story really begins with Louis' mother, Marie- Therese Coincoin, born a slave in 1742, and her French lover, Claude Thomas Pierre Metoyer.

Theirs is a peculiar kind of love story. When Coincoin's beauty caught his eye, Claude Metoyer made arrangements with her owner, and claimed her as his mistress. The pair had a 19-year relationship and produced 10 children. (Coincoin had four children before she met Metoyer.)

According to local stories, Metoyer was deeply in love with Coincoin and would have married her if social censure and other obstacles hadn't prevented it. Hoping for a legitimate son to carry on his name, Metoyer married a woman of European descent, freeing Coincoin and giving her 68 acres. She went from slave to landowner to slave owner, practically overnight.

"The most surprising thing for people is that Marie-Therese, being a former slave, owned property and had slaves herself," Betty Metoyer said. She adds that Coincoin also bought many slaves their freedom.

Coincoin toiled in the fields alongside the slaves, determined to forge something from the land that would give her family independence, security and hope for the future. She amassed considerable wealth by growing tobacco and other crops and exporting bear skins and bear grease.

By the time she died around 1817, her original 68 acres had swelled to 12,000, due in part to a series of land grants, and she had managed to buy out of slavery the children she had before she met Metoyer. Metoyer eventually manumitted the children he fathered.

Despite her prosperity, Coincoin never was a mistress of a plantation home. The big house on the plantation was completed about 16 years after her death. She resided in a simple French Creole cottage known as the Yucca House (c. 1796). The house, made of mud, is the oldest building at Melrose.

St. Augustine Church

Evidence that the family was a pillar in the community stands just across the road from Melrose Plantation.

St. Augustine Church, founded in 1803, is believed to be the first Catholic Church in the country built by and for free people of color. It was financed by Nicolas Augustin Metoyer, Coincoin's eldest son, and his portrait hangs in the church today.