To really appreciate Bocage, you have to have an understanding of the rich history of the development of Louisiana. French influence dominated its early development and can still be seen and felt in New Orleans and up the Mississippi River to Bocage. The Spanish, Germans and English also were there and their contributions and influence are noticeable.

La Salle claimed the land at the mouth of the Mississippi River for France in 1682 but land wasn't cleared for the permanent settlement of New Orleans until 1718. With New Orleans as an anchor point and a port, settlers began to move up river developing plantations along its banks and the banks of the connecting bayous and river tributaries. The primary crop was indigo and life was fairly simple.

Four significant events starting in the 1790s increased the pace of development and prosperity. In the late 1700s Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin and Etienne de Boire developed, in New Orleans, a process to granulate sugar. Then in 1803, the United States bought the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon and in 1811 Robert Fulton invented the steamboat. The region now had prime agricultural land, technology, an influx of new Americans and a super highway of commerce in the form of the Mississippi River.

Regions began to specialize their crops according to soil types and climate. Sugar cane was the primary crop between New Orleans and Baton Rouge while cotton did best farther upriver. Most of the sugar plantations had their own sugar mills to process the crop. It was a time of prosperity and by the 1850s there were more millionaires found between Natchez and New Orleans than in the rest of the 75 year old republic of the United States of America. With this prosperity came the desire to enjoy and show it off and one of the ways in which this was done was to build grand manor houses.

Bocage in French means shady retreat. It is one of these grand manor houses.

One of the early successful planters was Emanuel Marius Pons Bringier, who came to Louisiana from Provence, France by way of Martinique in the late 18th century. He had extensive land holdings between Baton Rouge and New Orleans and built a grand house for himself on the river which resembled an Italian villa. It was a landmark structure which he named Whitehall. Unfortunately it was destroyed by fire in the mid 1800s.

Monsieur Bringier was generous to his children. He built Bocage in 1801 as a wedding present for his 14 year old daughter, Francoise and her husband Christoph Colomb, a French relative of Christopher Columbus. Their marriage was apparently successful, perhaps because of a division of labor. She ran the plantation and handled all business transactions. Christoph saw himself as an artist and entertainer and devoted his time to these endeavors.

Interestingly, two other grand Bringier houses still survive within a few miles of Bocage. L'Hermitage, which is patterned after Andrew Jackson's home in Tennessee, was built by Monsieur Bringier as a wedding gift for his son Michel Douradou Bringier. Ashland Belle Helene was built for Monsieur Bringer's granddaughter, Anne Guillemine Nanine Bringier, by her husband, Duncan Farrar Kenner.

The recent history of Bocage plantation has to be told as a tale of two houses for reasons that will become obvious.

Bocage was bought by Dr. Anita Crozat and her husband, Dr. Edwin Kohlsdorf, in the early 1940s. At about the same time, another grand antebellum house, Houmas House was bought by Dr. Anita's brother, Dr. George B. Crozat. The two houses are both on the Mississippi River Road about three miles apart. Both houses were unoccupied, unfurnished and in extreme disrepair. The two Crozats proceeded independently to restore the houses to elegance, even traveling to France to select the finest period furniture.

Drs. Anita and George Crozat are the true preservers of a significant part of Louisiana history. They seemed destined to accomplish what they did and a portrait hanging in the upstairs front parlor testifies to this fact. The portrait is of Madame Antoine Crozat and is a copy of the original which hangs in the Favre Museum in Montpellier, France. Madame's husband, Antoine Crozat, a distant relative of Drs. Anita and George Crozat, was Finance Minister to Louis XIV in the early 18th century. In 1712 he was given the trading rights to the land drained by the Mississippi River. This is what later became the Louisiana Purchase.

Ownership of Bocage eventually passed to Dr. Anita's niece, Marguerite Crozat Genre and her husband, Richard. Mr. and Mrs. Genre lived in Port Allen, LA and maintained Bocage as their country estate, where they spent their weekends and entertained friends.

Mrs. Genre was very active in preservation and historical groups, and was one of the pioneers of tourism in Ascension Parish. In the 1960s she was the managing owner of Houmas House and developed a business plan to open that house to the public for tours. This grew to a significant business which attracted visitors from all over the world and generated revenue to maintain the house and furniture. Bocage has always been a private residence although some tours were occasionally given by appointment.

Houmas House Plantation was sold in May, 2003 and its furnishings were sold at an auction. The auction brought record prices which attested to the quality of both the house and its furniture. With the passing of Mr. and Mrs. Genre, Bocage Plantation is now being offered for sale.