Columnist Rheta Grimsley Johnson is living proof that it does not take a Cajun last name or deep roots in Acadiana to be formally adopted into the Cajun joie de vivre.

Grimsley’s book “Poor Man’s Provence” shares her story of how and when she first explored South Louisiana, and eventually how and why she fell in love with it.

“I’ve been to a lot of swell places in 30 years with newspapers,” Grimsley said. “But I never came back from an assignment owning real estate. I had to figure out for myself why this place was so special, and writing helps me do that.”

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Grimsley, who still writes a syndicated weekly column that appears in about 50 papers nationwide, will be at Books Along the Teche Saturday at 11 a.m. for a book reading and signing.

A Georgia native and Iuka, Miss., resident, Grimsley said she visited Louisiana while on assignment with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution about 14 years ago. She and her husband stopped at a Henderson marina to observe the Atchafalaya Basin and ended up buying a houseboat, The Green Queen. 

After she quit writing four columns a week at the Atlanta paper, she and her husband spent more and more time in Henderson, eventually selling the boat and buying a house.

“We get there around Thanksgiving, and sometimes we stay up until February,” she said. “We go there frequently, and we pretty much spend half our year in Henderson. It coincidentally coincides with duck season.”

Though Grimsley’s Cajun ties and many of her personal stories come from Henderson, Grimsley travels extensively throughout South Louisiana, and described several experiences in the book pertaining to New Iberia, Bayou Teche, Bon Creole, St. Martinville and Lejeune’s Bakery in Jeanerette.

One excerpt from her book describes her favorite place to get a po-boy: “Our absolute, No. 1 favorite is Bon Creole in New Iberia, a cinderblock joint with a windowless exterior. Joe and Jean Barlow, two of my more cautious Iuka, Miss., friends, took one look at the place and refused to go inside. They are used to more upscale restaurants. Once their organdy sensibilities got past Bon Creole’s humble looks, they loved its food.”

Grimsley admits she had initial reservations in writing a book about Cajuns because she is not a native, but decided to use only her personal experiences to illustrate “small stories about wonderful people.”

In another excerpt, she describes her warm views on Cajuns and the attitudes built into the foundations of Cajun culture.

“That’s one of the big differences in Cajun Country and the rest of the South, I think,” Grimsley said in her book. “There’s a lot less hypocrisy here. The level of guilelessness is such that I’m not sure it ever occurs to the Cajuns that they should hide anything. When you’re given cultural license to pass a good time and let the good times roll, what’s to hide?”

Grimsley is the author of several other books including “America’s Faces,” “Good Grief: The Story of Charles M. Schulz” and “Georgia.”