Support for LR 64 is provided by.

Office of the Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser.

Keep Louisiana Beautiful and the Louisiana Office of Tourism.

In this episode of LA 64, hit the road with me as we explore the festivals, flavors and culture.

Keepers of Vermilion Parish.

From the crawfish ponds of Kaplan to the docks of welcome and the historic streets of Abbeville, where a 5000 egg omelet honors ties to France.

Join me as we explore this self-proclaimed most Cajun place on earth.

I'm Karen LeBlanc, a travel journalist and Louisiana native.

Join me on.

LA 60 for.

A journey through all 64.

Parishes.

Exploring Louisiana's less traveled paths and.

Vermilion parish lies in south central Louisiana.

Our road trip begins in Abbeville and continues through Erath.

Henri, Gainer, and Kaplan, exploring the people and places that define one of the most culturally rich corners of the state.

Here's a bird's eye view of 5000 eggs scrambled in a skillet by chefs holding eight foot wooden paddles.

Have I piqued your curiosity with the egg aerial?

Then join me at the annual Abbeville Giant Omelet celebration, held the first weekend in November.

It's one of Vermilion parishes claims to fame.

The day begins with a mass at Saint Mary Magdalene, the cornerstone of the town founded by a Catholic priest in 1850.

Now, I was invited to attend this blessing of the eggs.

I'm not quite sure what to expect.

Then I'm told that it ties back to the omelet festival's origins in France, where the town cooked an omelet on Easter Monday.

The Abbeville Contrary, which belongs to the World Brotherhood of the Knights of the Giant Easter omelet.

Let's call them the alma nobility.

Enters the church carrying baskets of eggs and rings of bread for the priests to bless in French and English.

The legend has it that Napoleon came in on Easter Monday, and he demanded that the townspeople cook a giant omelet for his troops because they were starving.

And so the town of Bestia revisited the legend in order to help people come around.

And they started a giant omelet in the Air France.

Abbeville is the only U.S.

city to host a sister celebration to the Omelet Festival in BCR France.

In 1984, it joined the conference, becoming the official American counterpart to the French tradition.

After the mass omelet, knights known as chevaliers posed for pictures, and then they head to the giant skillet to light the wood fire and prep the ingredients.

Crowds spill into the streets around the town square, some dancing to live Cajun music, and others browsing booths filled with arts, crafts, local foods, and the must have festival T-shirt.

When members of the company began cracking eggs and slicing French bread, people lined both sides of the giant skillet to watch the action unfold.

And of course, there is more dancing.

Now, at this point, you might be wondering why a giant omelet?

I mean, why not just cook a pancake?

Wouldn't that be easier?

Well, that's a good question, because we are part of a worldwide fraternity of the giant omelet, of which there are seven towns in the world that do this giant omelet at different times of the year.

United members are identifiable by the chef's hat and a large skillet they wear around their necks.

I mean, I was knighted in 2018, and that's my my skillet that says I'm an official Cheviot.

And if you're a member of a conference in another city, you actually get to participate and cook the omelets in other cities.

So it is a French exchange program for adults with a little bit, a little bit more fun.

I think Abbeville gives its omelet a Cajun twist, with 15 pounds of local crawfish and a generous splash of Tabasco ceremoniously added by the Tabasco girls, a coveted honor as each ingredient hits the skillet.

Volunteers circulate.

Signs of the crowd can follow the recipe.

Nearby, several schoolchildren cook a baby omelet with adult supervision, future Calm conference members, and training.

After the official tasting and a thumbs up, it's a la maje, French for let's eat.

The whole process takes about two hours as this time lapse shows.

Now, what impressed me most was how efficient and well-organized the entire operation is.

I'm all day, as I'm say, in these parts or anyone.

I pretty.

Much pretty up to.

Use.

Either way, they're like this.

Well done.

Outside the festival, Vermilion Parish offers small town charm worth slowing down to explore.

Many of its communities trace their roots to the French Acadians who settled here in the 1800s, and you can still hear Cajun French spoken across the parish.

My stroll begins in Abbeville Historic District, laid out like a traditional French village as a Louisiana designated Main Street community.

Abbeville has reclaimed its heritage and restored storefronts.

Locally owned shops and pedestrian friendly streets that invite you to shop, stroll and stay a while.

The imprint of Sicilian families who settled here in the late 1800s is evident in places such as this 1913 blacksmith's shop owned by Sicilian immigrant Sam Guarino.

Today it's a museum opened by appointment and fully operational thanks to this guy, Brandon Briggs.

He learned the skill of blacksmithing at the shop, and today he maintains the museum and gives demonstrations.

Before they had this electric motor, they started out with a motor engine powering up.

They had rigged it up to power up this this one thing and everything ran by that one piece equipment.

So, you want to power it up and see how it works?

Let's see it in action.

Okay, let's.

The gears and pulley belts power everything.

The drill sharpeners, the bandsaw.

Brandon shows me how he heats and shapes the metal, and how the blacksmiths made much in-demand nutria fur stretchers.

For local trappers.

Blacksmithing is, a process of taking the raw materials and beating, bending, beating, stretching all the different processes of working metal.

I mean, that's the trade of a blacksmith.

Sam Guarino founded the blacksmith shop after he apprenticed in Sicily for decades.

He repaired and forged the region's agricultural tools.

After Sam died in 1979, the blacksmith shop remained operational until closing in 2004.

The Greenough family donated it to Abbeville to turn into a museum.

We moved it here and the city workers shoveled up four inches of the dirt.

So this is the original dirt that was in the building for all those years from the early 1900s till now.

So this dirt holds a lot of history and probably a lot of soot.

It's got a lot of construction that went on in here, a lot of work.

There was, oilfield work.

There was agricultural work that came here.

And if you needed anything repaired, Mr.

Guarino would say if I can't fix it, it can't be.

Can't be made.

I love.

The accent.

Highway 14 is the primary east west artery through Vermilion Parish.

It's part of the Cajun Corridor Scenic Byway, flanked by landscapes of sugarcane, rice farms and tree lined bayous.

It links the towns of welcome, Erath, Abbeville, Kaplan and Gayton.

Erath, a tight, Cajun knit town, was founded in the late 1800s by Auguste Erath and settled by Acadian families that continue to shape life today.

Their legacy is on view at the Acadian Museum in Erath.

Founded by historian Warren Perrin.

This town was founded in 1890.

When the railroad came through, most of the people lived on outlying areas along the bayous.

The Vermilion River, Bayou Teague, etc.

and they just flocked here to be where the action was.

The railroads and the businesses started.

At one time there was a small grocery store on every block of the town of Erath.

Population has never been any larger than around 3000 people.

The museum houses more than 6000 artifacts spanning 300 years of Acadian history.

Eight miles south of Erath, I met up with Abbeville Mayor Roslyn White near her childhood home in Henry, a small unincorporated community in the lower part of Vermilion Parish.

Mayor white wants to show me a well-kept local secret.

The Banker Grotto Memorial Park.

The rural parts of the parish that that, sometimes get missed.

You know, they have so much authenticity and such, deep roots.

But I think that, telling the rural parts of the parish a story is just equally as important as telling the city of Abbeville a story, because really, it all ties into each other.

Stations of the cross line the walkway leading to a cave like replica of the famous Grotto of Lord's.

An altar stands at the base with a statue of a woman praying to the Virgin Mary.

Above.

The grotto marks the spot where one of the area's earliest Catholic churches once stood.

The oldest marked grave in the bank or cemetery next to it dates to 1897.

The historic site sits on the east bank of the Vermilion River, with a boardwalk that invites nature strolls.

16 miles west of Henry I arrive in Gayton, the self-proclaimed duck capital of the world and one of North America's most important wintering grounds for waterfowl.

I head out on the two mile Birding in Nature walk at the White Lake Wetlands Conservation Area.

Birders have recorded more than 200 species here, including some rare finds, though the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries operates the trail and it's open year round.

From sunup to sundown.

There's various species of birds, freshwater marsh habitat.

We have waterfowl, blue ink teal, northern shoveler, wading birds such as, great blue herons, and shorebirds, such as sandpipers and, various other species.

American alligator you can see here occasional, Whitetail deer from the air, you can see how freshwater marsh canals, levees and open farmland weave together in a mosaic of micro habitats.

President Lyndon Johnson hunted here twice during his presidency, and today, hunters enter a lottery for the chance to do the same.

Every small town here has a story.

You just have to slow down long enough to hear it.

And it's music in Vermilion Parish.

And that would be swamp pop, a blend of Cajun soul and early rock n roll.

One of Abbeville claims to fame is the birthplace of the poet laureate of swamp pop, Robert Charles Guidry, known to the rest of the world as Bobby Charles.

His music influence lives on today and often takes the stage here at the Rishard Sale Barn.

It's a former cattle auction house turned musical venue that attracts local legends and Grammy nominated artists.

Owners Johnny and Kathy Richard say you can smell the culture at this livestock auction barn.

They converted into a live music venue, so.

It promotes the the French rural culture of a main parish, the cowboy culture.

And, just all around the preservation.

When we put this building on the historical registry, in 1996, it was because we could see the vanishing of these kinds of buildings.

You know, many stockyards now are made out of metal, and they are a whole different realm.

And so we knew that preserving this building was very important.

Wooden bleachers circled the stage built on top of the livestock ring.

The barn's wooden structure provides pitch perfect acoustics and an intimate setting that attracts Grammy winners and musical greats who autograph the walls after performing.

Hi, my name is Michael Nunez.

Welcome to the sale.

Born in beautiful Abbeville, Louisiana, I have with me tonight.

You know I come on keys.

Three time Grammy nominated piano player and songwriter.

I have John Buckley on film.

Fantastic muscle, Louisiana Ram.

Right on.

Anyway, I'm grateful to be here.

Thank you so much for lpb, PBS.

Hope you enjoy the music and.

The musicians like to come here once, they come here once, and they see, that it's not like a bar.

People are talking over their music and smoking cigarets.

The audience is attentively listening and watching the musicians.

The couple established the nonprofit La Bayou Legend Aire, which owns and operates Richard Sale Barn and hold spring and fall concerts.

Shot is being played and explored.

With the L.A.

six old.

Next, I head west on highway 14 to Kaplan for a work place stay experience at Crawfish Haven.

This is Rose's Bed and Breakfast.

Crawfish farmer Barry Tubes owns and operates this cozy retreat where overnight guests can go Crawfish Inn on his 40 acres of crawfish ponds.

Now it's November, so it's early in the season, but hey, we're gonna get some big ones and boil them up later.

There, he shows me how to pull the crawfish cages and sort the crawfish.

The smaller ones fall through the grate, and the larger ones I push into the sack to eat.

After a few minutes we get a rhythm going as Barry drives a boat with his feet.

Cajun ingenuity, he says, which allows him to navigate the water and land hands free to pull up the cages.

The crawfish crawl into the cage, but they can't figure out how to get out.

They feed on the rice that Barry planted, and sometimes predators feed on them.

We found a little turtle.

He was in one of the crawfish cages and he's cute and all.

But Barry says turtles are predators.

They like to eat crawfish.

So we're going to put this little guy back into the water.

Up you go.

You've got to be alert and quick with crawfish.

Spot the cage, pull it, dump it, sort and be on the lookout for the next one while avoiding the crawfish claw pinch.

I had a few alts during our call.

Hey hey hey.

And we're back!

After pulling 140 cages, we head back to the house to weigh in our catch.

How many pounds did they do?

The catch?

You got to guess the weight.

Okay.

I'm going to say 15 pounds.

That's a great guess.

All right.

Buried the moment of truth.

Yep.

How do we do?

We got 14 pounds.

14 pounds.

I was close, aiming for 5 pounds of crawfish per person for our crew of three.

Barry says that Cajuns.

Are.

The number one predators of crawfish, which means it's time for a crawfish boil.

We clean season, and boil our crawdads with a hearty serving of corn and potatoes.

Berry.

The big payoff for all our hard work and for me, a first of my lifetime.

I am having crawfish before Thanksgiving.

Your seasoning is really good.

Berry.

You should sell that.

Oh wait, he does.

Locals like to say the 337 area code is home to the best cooks in Louisiana, and they have the credentials and customers to back it up.

If you ask anyone where to find the best turtle sauce, they'll point you straight to swingers.

Grocery store and restaurant in Kaplan.

When the menu is spray painted on the facade, you know you're somewhere totally authentic and unpretentious.

Welcome to swears.

It's a grocery and restaurant.

It's family owned and it's legendary in these parts.

I'm in Kaplan in Vermilion Parish, and this place is a favorite with foodies and with hunters, and you are about to discover why.

Swingers opens at 5:30 a.m.

and serves breakfast, lunch and dinner from sunup to sundown behind the counter.

On any given day, you'll find the square sisters Joanne and Lisa took over swingers from their parents, who bought the store in 1976.

Their mother quickly realized that serving family recipes was good business, and cleared out a few shelves to make room for tables, creating the restaurant that customers know today, Joan handles the business side while Lisa, a talented cook, runs the kitchen with a small staff.

Something is baked every day.

Every single day.

All family recipes.

The grocery store is a place of culinary pride in Kaplan, drawing lifelong customers who come for the company as much as the food, family photos, newspaper clippings, and famous faces line the walls, along with a payphone that still hangs in the corner, a reminder that this place is suspended in time and grounded in legacy.

And somebody will just come and just say, that was just like my grandmother's.

That is the best compliment to me that I can get.

That's or this place feels like home or my grandmother's home, or we just love that.

And they feel at home.

One turtle or the window.

I wasn't leaving sweaters without their legendary turtle sauce bacon.

Now, Lisa cooks it every Friday and it is a total labor of love.

She cooks the turtle meat for hours.

For the OG of oyster shucking as entertainment, head to shops and Abbeville, where you can watch skilled shuckers, pop oysters from their shells in rapid fire succession.

Owner David Bertrand greets me through the window of the oyster shucking room, which overlooks the restaurant.

It's almost a lost art because now people are growing oysters and like, like crops, you know, so it gets easier.

These are all caught while.

Shuck serves up raw oysters and a culinary cornucopia of charbroiled oysters.

Six specialties David invites me into the kitchen to watch and learn.

And we're going to cook them especially for Karen, because she likes well-done oysters, and they will set up just like a steak.

You can take them out of the shell, cut them with your steak knife and delicious.

Well, shocks.

I'm ready to eat.

This.

If I don't pinch myself, I won't have room for the famous dessert.

That's right.

We always say when you come, the shocks, you begin your meal with the end in mind.

Okay?

Shaq's bread pudding is legendary.

Foodie fans talk about it with a gleam in their eye and in an excited uptick in their voice.

The recipe for the bread pudding, topped with hot white chocolate butter rum sauce, hasn't changed since 1973, and it's deceptively simple.

Made with hot dog buns.

For the freshest shrimp in Vermilion Parish, I suggest a stop in Del Cam.

Or you can purchase wild caught shrimp straight off the boat.

I met up with the Del Mare at the Bayou Karlyn Cove boat Landing and Pavilion, which host a seafood and farmers market on the first Saturday of each month.

It's allowed the shrimping, the shrimpers, who have struggled over the years to have a place to come and sell fresh shrimp, fresh seafood.

There's a lot of recreational fishing and hunting here as well.

So, we try and maintain that that history here and keep it alive.

Del come straddles Vermilion and Iberia parishes and sits at the mouth of Bayou Carlene.

The town is a hub for seafood processing and shipping.

When I travel across Louisiana, I look for accommodations that connect me with a sense of place spaces shaped by the land, the people, and the traditions that define each parish.

Louisiana State parks offer campsites and cabins designed to immerse you in the region's landscape.

While exploring Vermilion Parish, I stayed at Palmetto Island State Park along the Vermilion River, where a boardwalk leads to my cabin overlooking the water, complete with a screened in porch and a deck for grilling.

The park's Cypress Swamp is home to the rare Abbeville red iris, a plant found nowhere else in the world.

Discovered in the 1930s and officially named in 1966, it's Louisiana's only endemic iris species.

A nature center introduces visitors to the birds and plants and wildlife that call the park home.

And there's even a storybook trail for kids.

The campgrounds have RV hookups and tent sites, plus boat launches.

I'm going to take the canoe out and get some fresh air, some exercise, and be it one with the beauty all around me, I paddle and admire the fall leaves turning amber, orange, yellow and red along the waterway.

An aerial view reveals the full palette along the river's winding path through the forest.

While exploring Abbeville, I stayed at the Caldwell House Bed and Breakfast, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Vernon Caldwell, a state senator who served under the Louisiana Governor Huey P long, built the six bedroom home in 1907.

Antique furnished bedrooms, pressed tin ceiling tiles, and a central staircase exude hospitality rooted in heritage.

The highlight of my stay was the home cooked breakfast.

Each morning I'm in the kitchen with Gretchen, the in-house caterer at the Caldwell house, and this is the most popular dish on the breakfast menu.

Yes, this is our pecan praline French toast.

It is our signature dish here at the Caldwell.

It is the most requested dish by people who come back more than once.

Here's my takeaway from visiting Vermilion Parish.

Its communities and small towns are detours worth taking along the way.

I discovered it's not where the road leads, but who you meet the storytellers, musicians, cooks and culture keepers who make Vermilion Parish the most Cajun place on earth.

To.

Be.

Support for LA 64 is provided by office of the Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser.

Keep Louisiana Beautiful and the Louisiana Office of Tourism, and by the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area, the Saint Landry Parish Tourist Commission, Northwestern State University, and by the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

And viewers like you.

Thank you.