A friend and I went to Natchez, MS last weekend and it was such a wonderful trip. We stayed at The Devereaux Shields House in the Gallery Suite, it was just beautiful. The hospitality was wonderful and the breakfast was outstanding. The Gallery Suite has a balcony you can go out on and sit for hours. This area is so quiet, with a wonderful breeze blowing that kept it quite comfortable. The room we stayed in was beautiful and the private bath had plenty of hot water and a very comfortable bath tub.
The back yard had lovely flowers as well as the front yard along with a comfortable sitting area both in the back yard area and on the porch in the front yard area. I did not realize that at night we would have the house to ourselves, it was so quite and just a fantastic place to stay.
Ron and Eleanor were such wonderful hosts, they made sure we had everything we needed and helped us with where to go to eat and even made our reservations for us. We ate at the Magnolia Grill down on the river bank close to the Mississippi River Bridge, I am attaching a picture of the Mississippi River Bridge that I took right there on the bank of the Mississippi with my IPhone. I hope you enjoy it.

When we left there we had a lovely carriage ride around Natchez with a very knowledgable drive and a dancing horse. It was late evening so it was dark except for the street light that made it very pretty and romantic, couples you really need to go on this ride at night.
The next morning we went to breakfast at the Aunt Clara's Cottage where we sat with others visiting Natchez for the first time, but will not the last. All of which has such wonderful things to say about our beautiful state. It made me very proud of Mississippi listening to them.
When we left there we decided to visit some of the places that the driver told us about on the carriage ride. We went to the St. Mary's Cathedral, the only church built at a cathedral in Mississippi. This is a very beautiful cathedral and well worth stopping and touring. We left St. Mary's and started walking downtown, decided we were hungry and so we stopped at a quaint little restaurant by the name of Breaud's Seafood and Steak; wonderful food a must eat there.
When we left there we went back to the room and got ready to go on the Green Tour of houses. We toured "The Burn" (1832), "The Elm" (1804) and "Hope Farm" (1775-1789). These tours were very informative and interesting, along with being beautifully furnished in Greek, Spanish and the Elm being built in 3 different distinct stages.  That is all I am going to tell you, you have to go on the tour yourself. Believe me it is worth taking the time to go. After we left the Green Tour, we went to tour "Longwood" (1860-1861) and learned all about the owner and his visions that were way ahead of his time as you will see when you go ont the tour and why the house was never completed. This is a very interesting story, you do not want to miss it. This home is octagonal in shape and in the a National Historic Landmark.
This was an amazing trip and we cannot wait to go back to Natchez.

There is no doubt that big movie hits like The Help have a massive impact on tourism. Movies inspire tourists to totally immerse themselves in “discovering” and wanting to see the setting. Greenwood and Jackson are building Help-related tourism, and are far from finished. Visionaries in the Mississippi Legislature have been working for years supporting incentives for filmmakers to choose our state as a location. And, it's just good business. Find out more about the Mississippi Film Office.

On Monday, August 29, the world lost another great blues legend when David “Honeyboy” Edwards of Shaw, Mississippi, passed away in his Chicago home. The GRAMMY-winning artist was known to be the oldest surviving Delta bluesman.



Honeyboy achieved many accolades during his career, which included induction to the Blues Hall of Fame, several GRAMMY Awards, the Mississippi Arts Commission's Governor’s Lifetime Achievement Award and many other notable recognitions. However, one of his fondest memories was being honored on the Mississippi Blues Trail on April 13, 2007.

The bestselling novel “The Help”, now a major motion picture, is set in the Greater Belhaven neighborhood of Jackson Mississippi. The novel’s author, Kathryn Stockett, is a native of Jackson and of Belhaven, one of Mississippi’s most intact historic neighborhoods.



With the popularity of the book and now the movie in theatres nationwide, women across the country want to walk the streets where Skeeter, Aibileen, Miss Hilly, Elizabeth, Stuart and more walked. As the area has changed dramatically over the years, many ofthe places in the book have not. The Jackson Convention & Visitors Bureau have made getting a glimpse and walking this historic neighborhood the newest attraction in Jackson with their Driving Tours. Download the tour and drive the streets of Belhaven and see the neighborhood that brought “The Help” to life!



Click here to download the PDF document, map included! Click here to download the PDF of the combined Part I and Part II tours. This tour shows the relationship between actual places in Greater Belhaven and the text of "The Help".



If you want to see the points within this tour on a map, check out the combined tour for The Help in Belhaven Neighborhood Tour and The Help in Jackson Driving Tour via Google Maps. Want this tour to go on your smartphone? It can easily be viewed in Google Maps for smartphones. Click here for the map.