Michel Doradou Bringier, one of Emmanuel Bringier’s sons, married Louise Elizabeth Aglae duBourg de Sainte-Colombe in 1812. She was fourteen years old  when she married, was born in Jamaica, and was educated in Baltimore by nuns. She was also the niece of the Bishop of New Orleans, Louis William Valentin duBourg.

The War of 1812 took Michel Doradou away from the plantation. He nobly served with General Andrew Jackson and returned in 1815, at about the time construction was being completed on his manor house. He named it The Hermitage after General Jackson’s Tennessee home, to honor his much-admired commander. To his French Louisiana relatives and neighbors, the home, of course,  immediately became “l’Hermitage.”

Elizabeth outlived Doradou by thirty years; he died in 1847. She had grown from a child bride to a self- confident plantation mistress, managing the business successfully through the Civil War times. The house was fired upon by Federal troops but survived intact, being hit by only one cannonball.

After the war, Louis Bringier, one of Michel and Elizabeth’s sons who had served as a Confederate army colonel, took over the plantation’s operation. Against all odds and with the help of Some of the former slaves who now worked as free persons, he successfully produced profitable sugarcane.

Eventually Duncan Kenner of Ashland, who had married into the Bringier family acquired the property. In the 1880′s it was acquired by the Maginnis family, then by the Duplessis family, then by the LaSalle family, and in 1959 by Dr. and Mrs. Robert C. Judice of New Orleans. The Judices have completed a faithful and beautiful restoration.

Designed with splendid simplicity The Hermitage is built of thick “brick-between-post” construction and  smoothed over with plaster. Massive Doric columns and wide galleries sweep around the house. Two dormer windows are perched on a typical hipped roof. The interior is beautifully furnished with decor and furniture in the pre-Civil War style.

Evidence suggest that the house had been remodeled in 1849, probably by the noted New Orleans architect James Gallier Sr. The encircling galleries originally had brick pillows below and wooden colonettes above, typical of the time of its construction. They were replaced by the well-proportioned pillars as seen today.

The Hermitage is open by appointment for group tours. For more information on The Hermitage Plantation visit the Hotel Monteleone.

Bocage translates to Shady Retreat. The plantation home was built in 1801 by I Marius Pons Bringier as a wedding gift to his daughter Francoise and her husband Cristophe Colomb, an alleged descendant of the famous explorer. Bringier, head of the wealthy and powerful Bringier family, owned several plantations along the Mississippi River in South Louisiana.

Francoise, at the time of her wedding, was only fourteen years old; her husband Cristophe was thirty-one.  Cristophe was quite a remarkable character: He was invalved in the French Revolution and escaped from his native country to flee the guillotine. His departure reportedly led him to his uncle’s island plantation in Santo Domingo, where a slave uprising forced him to flee again – this time to Philadelphia and then on to a French Louisiana.

Cristophe and Francoise’s relationship was very unusual for the time, but it was harmonious. Fanny, as she was popularly known, had inherited the Bringier aptitude for business, and ran the plantation. Cristophe’s talents, however, were in the arts: He was an accomplished singer, musician, poet, and dancer. The usual roles were thus reversed in this marriage. Fanny directed I the work in the cane fields and sugar mills, while her husband wrote poetry and entertained at their social gatherings. He even had a fancy boat built for himself, with a silken canopy and friezing on the sails. His slaves rowed the boat along the bayous and waterways, taking Cristophe to relatives and friends.

The two-story house itself is almost square, constructed of wood on the upper level and brick on the lower level. Its front gallery is supported by six large square pillars and a pair of smallish pillars at the center, forming a novel facade. A high entablature with Empire details hides the roof and most of the chimneys. After a fire in the late 1830s Bocage was extensively remodeled, emphasizing Greek Revival and Empire detailing. Bocage and many of its counterparts fell to decay and abandon after the Civil War. It was rescued by Drs. E. G. and Anita Crozat Kohlsdorf, who restored the home and gardens to their former glory. Their restoration included furnishing the house with elegant antiques. Mr. and Mrs. Richard Genre are the present owners; Mrs. Genre . is the niece of the late Anita Crozat Kohlsdorf.

For years the house has been open to plantation tours by appointment. It is located about two miles north of Burnside along the east bank of the Mississippi.

For more information on the Bocage Plantation visit the Hotel Monteleone.