Atlanta Magazine

If you wanted to create the quintessential Southern small town, you’d model it after Natchitoches. Just ask Robert Harling, the man behind "Steel Magnolias."

Drive or walk down the town’s original brick roads, sit on its wrought-iron benches, and admire its preserved Victorian architecture.

With 1,400 lakes and an elevation 184 feet above sea level, the Central Florida town was dubbed the “Land of Lakes and Hills” by early promoters.