NAPOLEONVILLE, La. - In 1983, Keith Marshall sat in the office of his New Orleans art-supply company pondering an electric bill for his family's country house. The latest statement was $450 higher than ever before.

He knew what that meant. Madewood, the 1846 plantation Marshall's mother bought and restored 20 years earlier, was simply too expensive to keep. There was no way to pay for the massive second house located about 75 miles outside of the French Quarter.

And then the phone rang.

They say necessity is the mother of invention, but Madewood's transformation into one of the nation's most elegant bed-and-breakfasts seems owed to happy coincidence. The doctor calling Marshall was planning a road trip with his wife and two other couples. The men wanted to go to the Tulane-LSU football game; their wives wanted to stay overnight in a grand plantation house.

"He asked me if we take paying guests, and of course we never had," Marshall said. "I looked down at the bill, and I quickly divided $450 by three. I told him we charged $150 and that we include a candlelit dinner, brandy in the library, breakfast and a tour of the house. And that's what we've being doing ever since."

The prices have gone up in the 27 years since that phone call, but not by much. The standard double-occupancy runs as much as $289, but prices are lower on weekdays and during off-peak months. While that might seem on the high end for a bed-and-breakfast, Madewood isn't any B&B.

Designated a national historic landmark, the 21-room mansion is one of the finest examples of Greek Revival plantation architecture in the South. Its first owner, sugarcane planter Thomas Pugh, ordered architect Henry Howard to design a house that would outshine the homes of Pugh's brothers. Imagine the Parthenon on a bayou, flanked by Spanish moss-bedecked live oaks, and you begin to get the idea.

Several Pughs remain at Madewood, laid to rest in an old cemetery out back that - during a visit last month - was particularly eerie when shrouded in the morning fog.

Also on the grounds is Charlet House, an early 19th century home of a local riverboat captain. It is one of several historic structures that faced demolition until Marshall moved them to Madewood. Charlet House offers three guest rooms - in addition to five in the big house - while staff live in the other relocated houses. One building houses a theater where Marshall stages operas from time to time.

Despite its history, Madewood isn't a museum or a pastiche of antebellum life. Unlike nearby plantation houses, visitors aren't kept behind velvet ropes or rushed by hoop-skirted docents from one room to the next. Guests are welcome to explore on their own, and what they'll find is an elegantly furnished home - not a walk-through diorama.

And they'll find plenty of good conversation that goes along with the Southern social art of "visiting," thanks to Madewood's owners.

Marshall, as genteel a man ever born in Dixie, is an art historian, classical music writer and Rhodes scholar. His wife, Millie Ball, recently retired after a lengthy career at the New Orleans Times-Picayune, where she spent her last 15 years there as travel editor.

When I asked Marshall if he ever gets sick of hosting a memorable, gourmet dinner party for strangers every night, I might as well have asked if he ever tires of breathing.

"My goal is to make Madewood the most fantastic, lovely experience people will ever have," he said.

"And the good thing is I love to talk, and owning this house is a loquacious person's dream."

WORTHWHILE DESTINATIONS

Rural southeast Louisiana boasts dozens of plantations and other historic attractions, and some of the best are within an hour's drive from Madewood:

Laura Plantation - (lauraplantation.com, 1-888-799-7690) Features a very early 19th century, Creole "maison principale" that likely will remind you more of Ste. Genevieve than Tara. The museum shows how, well after the Louisiana Purchase, French-speaking aristocrats lived apart from their new-money American neighbors. And there's a local connection: The plantation's namesake, Laura Locoul, was the third generation of women to run the plantation, until she moved to St. Louis.

Oak Alley - (oakalleyplantation.com, 1-800-442-5539) Oak Alley couldn't be more different than Laura. Showy and grand, its dramatic avenue of nearly-300-year-old trees has provided the backdrop to dozens of documentaries and period films. Inside, the house museum portrays what daily life was like for the very top of antebellum social heap.

Laurel Valley - Just outside of Thibodaux, this the unsettling reminder of how the opulence of plantation was maintained. Visitors can walk along a country road that cuts through the plantation "village" of more than 60 abandoned structures. Although most of the structures date to just after the Civil War, emancipation did not dramatically raise the living standards for sugarcane workers who lived there well into the 20th century.

The Wetlands Acadian Cultural Center - (nps.gov/jela, 985-448-1375) Located in downtown Thibodaux, the cultural center is part of the Jean Lafitte National Historic Park and Preserve. The small but informative museum tells the story of the Cajuns, their forced migration from Canada and their cultural legacy in modern Louisiana. If you go, call ahead to reserve a spot on a ranger-led boat tour of Bayou Lafourche.

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