Don’t Play the Blues for Biloxi, a Gulf Coast Jewel : Offshore gambling, fine food, art galleries and historic sites are lures of Mississippi ocean resort.

Back in 1734, a French explorer broke open a Gulf of Mexico bivalve and duly recorded in his ship’s log that “we meet with small oysters that are very well tasted.” Given the Gallic affection for good food, his culinary discovery probably helped this town become one of the things it is today--the oldest French settlement in the Mississippi Valley.

When four ships dropped anchor along this coast last summer, the fleet wasn’t particularly interested in oysters, nor in seining for any of the Mississippi coast’s other marvelous seafood, but sought riches of another sort. After years of fractious give and take, authorities in towns along the Gulf Coast finally had given the green light for gambling ships to troll their waters beginning Aug. 1.

And if locals and visitors from as far away as Canada continue to test the action at the flotilla’s tables, as they have during the first few months of legalized offshore gambling, these barges of bon chance could become the biggest money gushers in the Gulf since oil rigs.

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Like the gambling-ship controversy, Biloxi’s past is both checkered and colorful. It was the first capital of France’s Louisiana Territory, was later ceded to Spain, became a British town briefly, then Spanish again until it was returned to France in 1800. With the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, Biloxi finally became Americanized. Its last major footnote in history was as the final home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. The town has existed under eight flags in all, including France, Spain, Britain, the Confederacy and the United States.

The Gulf Coast, from New Orleans to Pascagoula, Miss., has been a year-round playground since the 19th Century, when the Louisville & Nashville Railroad would bring the upper-crust to their Victorian summer cottages all along the water. On our last trip, a smattering of this gentry remained, including patrician New Orleans families who considered it fashionable to have summer homes on the Gulf, most notably in the lovely towns of Pass Christian and Bay St. Louis.

Alas, parts of the coast became known as the Redneck Riviera until the late 1970s, thanks to the proliferation of beachfront fish shacks and rowdy good-ol’-boy roadhouses, where the milieu was tank tops and the beverage was beer.

But on a recent return after eight years’ absence, we noticed a satisfying return to the old ways. Gracious 18th- and 19th-Century mansions face down galleries of moss-laden live oaks that reach to the shore. A brick-and-shingle church where Jeff Davis rode to worship in a mule-drawn surrey with a loaded pistol under the seat is painstakingly restored. And the 26 miles of beautiful beaches are much tidier these days.

Biloxi is about as far down in the Deep South as one can get, and not the least of its charms are the people. They still greet visitors with “How y’all lak Biloxi?” in an accent dusted with essence of honeysuckle and verbena. Asked how folks liked the gambling boats, a local belle said, “They jus’ fine, an’ it sho’ is stirrin’ things up ‘roun hyeh.”

Getting settled in: Golf is king at the Royal Gulf Hills resort, a former country club set in the lush pines and numerous lakes of an 18-hole championship course 10 minutes from the airport, six miles from Biloxi and the beaches. The grounds are absolutely gorgeous.

Bedrooms with white cypress walls have traditional furnishings of cherrywood. There’s also a fine pool, cozy bar, a lobby with several fireplaces and colorful slipcovered couches. The pretty dining room occasionally features an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet.

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Down the road in Pass Christian, the 1893 Harbour Oaks Inn was a latecomer in this delightful antebellum town. Yet this B&B; has the double-deck, neoclassic verandas and dormer windows of the early 19th Century, and bedrooms hold the family’s antiques, art and memorabilia.

There’s a small kitchen where guests may rustle up a snack, then sit on the veranda with a tall glass of iced tea while watching boats in the yacht harbor across the road. Several centuries-old live oaks draped with Spanish moss are on the property, which is in the National Register of Historic Places.

Biloxi’s Travelodge has a lot to offer, including tennis, a sandy beach nearby, shuffleboard, sailboat rentals and surf fishing. Contemporary bedrooms are spacious and well-furnished, and there’s an oyster bar and restaurant. The lodge is just the place for families, particularly when kids see the nearby Baskin-Robbins.

Regional food and drink: The lowly mullet is known hereabouts as “Biloxi bacon,” since it saved many from starvation during the Civil War. But a cornucopia of other fresh seafood includes shrimp, oysters, crab, catfish, flounder, red snapper, sea perch and delectable soft-shell crabs.

Gulf Coast cooking is a combination of Creole, New Orleans French, Cajun and down-home Southern, depending upon the restaurant chosen. Every dining room seems to have its own gumbo recipe, and many serve a West Indies salad of crab meat and onions marinated in oil and vinegar. Hungry travelers will likely beam at the fried-seafood po’boy sandwich, washed down with local Barq’s root beer or Jax suds from New Orleans.

Good local dining: Drive to the Blow Fly Inn (Bayou Bernard), or row in your own bateau , since its dock is right on an inland bayou where mullet jump, gators make a now-and-then desultory appearance, and sunsets over the cypress trees are spectacular. This is a good-ol’-boy type of place without the rowdiness. It’s nothing much to look at inside or out, but the swampland setting is right out of a Faulkner novel and the food is excellent.

Try the barbecued ribs, fried oysters, stuffed devil crab, seafood platter, or shrimp or catfish plates, none costing more than $8. A half-dozen different cuts of steak run $10.50 to $14.75 for a 24-ounce T-bone, all served with salad and baked potato or fries. And don’t bolt at that huge and awfully lifelike fly perched on your steak; it’s a plastic joke. Ask for a matching set of blowfly earrings. Very fetching.

Vrazel’s (3206 W. Beach Blvd.) is a very romantic place with soft lighting, huge chandeliers, fine views of the water and lovely old murals on the walls. A good starter is the calamari and crayfish combo of Louisiana crayfish and Gulf squid breaded lightly and fried, then served with a piquant sauce ($7).

The Gulf flounder stuffed with shrimp and crab meat, then baked to perfection, is a good follow-up, or the South Carolina quail sauteed with fresh garlic and green onions and served with rice pilaf, both $13.95.

The Blue Rose (120 W. Scenic Drive, Pass Christian) set out to re-create the fine dining, service and ambience of New Orleans’ best restaurants of the late 19th Century, and has been so successful that private yachts from as far away as Mobile dock across the road to allow their owners to have a very special luncheon or dinner.

It’s in a marvelous 1850s West Indies cottage, very flowery and formal, with handsome period furnishings. You may also dine on the pretty veranda beneath ceiling fans. We were mesmerized by the magnificent menu selection. We finally started with the crayfish pie, a true Cajun feat of magic. We followed that with two partially boned frog legs, one stuffed with crab meat, the other with andouille (a French sausage), sauteed and sauced with a bayou gravy. The pompano en papaillote (cooked in a paper bag) is a Creole delight, and the pan-simmered rabbit with poached oysters in a cream sauce no less enticing. Plan on about $50-$60 for two at the Blue Rose, plus wine.

On your own: The opening of the Walter Inglis Anderson Museum of Art in 1991 was the biggest cultural event to hit these shores in many years and, according to art critics throughout the country, it should well have been. This New Orleans artist, sculptor, poet and mystic worked with the intensity of Van Gogh and preferred the isolation of Gauguin, often rowing his small skiff 12 miles off the Gulf Coast to uninhabited Horn Island to live, paint and cogitate.

The museum in Ocean Springs has a changing selection of some 250 of his works in all media, including the very stylized, 1930s Works Progress Administration murals of coastal Indians, inspired by cave paintings in Les Eyzies, France. Don’t miss the works of this accepted American master.

Shearwater Pottery, begun by Anderson’s potter mother in 1928 and still run by family members, is in a small cottage set in the woods near Ocean Springs. It’s noted for the variety of its glazes and subject matter, and many of the pieces are for sale.

Try not to miss a visit to Beauvoir, the beautiful home of Jefferson Davis, set on 74 acres of wooded parkland overlooking the Gulf. Or enjoy a cruise to Ship Island (one hour, $12 round trip) and its historic Ft. Massachusetts. The beaches there are wonderful.

One of the most enjoyable outings we’ve had of late was the one-hour-plus Living Marine Adventure Cruise ($8; kids 4-12, $4; tykes free) aboard the Sailfish from the Biloxi Small Craft Harbor. The guides set a purse seine, then retrieve and show passengers every sort of small marine life that lives in the Gulf. It’s fascinating.

Sports types will appreciate the coast’s 16 golf courses, all playable in the area’s year-round mild climate. Revelers have the choice of 11 Mardi Gras-season parades in 11 towns along the coast between Feb. 21 and March 3.

GUIDEBOOK / Coasting Through Mississippi

Getting there: Fly Delta, Northwest, Continental or American from Los Angeles to the Gulfport-Biloxi Airport. An advance-purchase, round-trip ticket will cost $350-$520.

Where to stay: Royal Gulf Hills (13701 Paso Road, Ocean Springs; $55-$75 double); Harbor Oaks Inn (126 W. Scenic Drive, Pass Christian; $75-$95 double B&B;); Travelodge (2030 Beach Blvd., Biloxi; $45-$75 double).

For more information: Call the Mississippi Gulf Coast Visitors Bureau at (800) 237-9493, or write (Box 6128, Gulfport, Miss. 39506) for the Mississippi Beach Fun Directory, a 36-page booklet giving accommodations, restaurants, festivals and events, plus golf courses, charter-fishing boats and other attractions, with area map.