Tour du Teche V this weekend!

Paddlers, their coureurs de bois, and traveling cheering squads are coming to the Teche Country this weekend from Texas, Kansas, Florida, Illinois, California, Wisconsin and Maryland as well as all over Louisiana.
What is drawing them here is the chance to race down the bayou for cash prizes, trophies and adventure.
Tour du Teche is a 135-mile staged race down the entire length of Bayou Teche, completed in stages over three days. There are also several one-day races held in conjunction with Tour du Teche, the shortest of which is still a full marathon in canoe-kayak racing terms.
This is an annual opportunity to introduce the beauty, cultures, cuisine, music and joie de vivre of the Teche Country to goodwill ambassadors from all over the nation.
Volunteers of the T.E.C.H.E. Project – with the considerable help of others like St. Martin Parish Government and Sheriff Ronny Theriot’s Office – have been busy cleaning the banks of trash, clearing the bridges of debris, and even gathering huge rafts of water hyacinth.
Local well-wishers gather on the banks with welcoming signs, shake cowbells and toot air horns to urge the paddlers on.
Other events going on for paddlers who aren’t racing Saturday or for coureurs de bois and other bank crew with time on their hands include a special exhibit of gourd art in Arnaudville and a traditional Cajun-Creole boucherie in St. Martinville.
The Louisiana Gourd Society exhibit will be at NUNU Arts and Culture Collective, 1510 Courtableau Road (La. Hwy. 93E), Arnaudville, through November.
This Saturday’s reception will be 3-5 p.m. at NUNU’s. The public is invited.
At St. Martinville’s festival grounds, the finish line for Friday’s leg of Tour du Teche, La Grand Boucherie, a traditional harvest festival recreating the coming together of rural families to butcher and cook a pig, will be Saturday 11 a.m. to midnight. Of course there will be music and dancing.
In Breaux Bridge, its famed City Wide Garage Sale, with over 100 individual garage sales in town, special promotions in the historic downtown, plus an outdoor flea market in Veterans Park will be going on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
And at the end of the race on Sunday, Berwick’s Lighthouse Park on the Atchafalaya River will have arts and crafts vendors, jambalaya, music by Gone Pecan from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Plus a car show, raffle, door prizes, petting zoo and carnival style games.
The races begin this Friday at Port Barre. Voyageurs, the recreational division competing for trophies, will start at 7 a.m. Voyageurs may compete in the 34-mile Crawfish from Port Barre to Breaux Bridge or the 49-mile Acadian, which ends at St. Martinville, as well as the full Tour du Teche.
The Racing Division in Tour du Teche gets away from Port Barre at 9 a.m. Those are the start times for the two divisions each of the three days.
Saturday’s races begin at St. Martinville. Tour du Teche racers and Voyageurs in the Sugar Race paddle 59 miles to a finish in Franklin. Voyageurs in the Hot Sauce Race finish in New Iberia, at 24 miles the shortest race in the Tour du Teche event.
For the first time this year, voyageurs will have the option of starting at New Iberia on Saturday and racing 35 miles to Franklin in the Black Bear Race. The start is in New Iberia’s City Park at 11 a.m.
The final leg of TDT, along with the Oil & Gas Race for Voyageurs on Sunday goes from Franklin to Berwick in 27 miles.