Longstreet Rosenwald School in DeSoto Parish, Louisiana: The Schoolhouse a Community Built by Hand
By Karen LeBlanc, host of LA64, a Louisiana Travel Show on PBS Longstreet Rosenwald School: DeSoto Parish’s Treasure In Louisiana, we hold tight to the places that made us — the church, the dance hall, the corner store, the schoolhouse at the end of the road. I’ve driven past plain little buildings like this one […]
Meet Anne Hitt: The Lafourche Parish Quilter Stitching Hope, One Heartfelt Doll at a Time
By Karen LeBlanc, host of LA64, a Louisiana Travel Show on PBS I have met a lot of organized people in my travels across Louisiana, but I am fairly certain I have never met anyone who vacuums up stray sewing thread out of pure devotion. Anne Hitt does. She told me she keeps a little […]
Richard Sale Barn in Abbeville, Louisiana: A Cattle Auction House Turned Cajun Listening Room
By Karen LeBlanc, host of LA64, a Louisiana Travel Show on PBS Louisianans, we love our music. We’re raised on it — fiddle and accordion at the dance hall, brass on the street corner, somebody’s uncle picking a guitar on the back porch. But here’s the thing most of us never stop to think about: […]
Don’s Boat Landing in Erath, Louisiana: A Shrimp Burger at the End of the World
By Karen LeBlanc, host of LA64, a Louisiana Travel Show on PBS There’s a particular kind of road in South Louisiana that keeps narrowing until you start to wonder if you’ve made a wrong turn somewhere around the last rice field. You haven’t. You’re exactly where you’re supposed to be. Keep driving because at the […]
Grotto of Bancker, Louisiana: A Hidden Gem to Visit Near Abbeville
By Karen LeBlanc, host of LA64, a Louisiana Travel Show on PBS There are places in Louisiana you have to be taken to. You will not find them on a billboard off I-10. Your GPS will sigh at you. And you will absolutely drive past the turn at least once, because the turn does not […]
Crawfish Haven & Mrs. Rose’s Bed and Breakfast: A Cajun Crawfishing Getaway You Won’t Find in a Guidebook
By Karen LeBlanc, host of LA64, a Louisiana Travel Show on PBS Louisianans, we love our mud bugs. We’re raised on a hearty dose of Louisiana crawfish at every backyard boil and family reunion. But here’s the thing most of us never stop to think about: the work that goes into harvesting them. So when […]
Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana: How Basket Weaving Saved a Nation in Charenton
By Karen LeBlanc, host of LA64, a Louisiana Travel Show on PBS I’ve traveled to a lot of places that call themselves hidden gems, but nothing quite prepares you for pulling into Charenton, Louisiana — a small, unassuming town tucked into the bayou country of St. Mary Parish — and discovering that you’re standing on […]
Laine Hardy on Louisiana Roots, Guitar at Seven, and Why Music Is Meant for Good
By Karen LeBlanc, host of LA64, a Louisiana Travel Show on PBS The historic Teche Theater in Franklin hummed with anticipation on the evening Laine Hardy arrived to perform. Outside, St. Mary Parish was celebrating the wrap of filming for LA64, the documentary series that has taken me deep into the soul of Louisiana. Inside, the […]
DeRidder Gothic Jail: Where Elegant Architecture Meets a Grim and Ghostly History
By Karen LeBlanc, host of LA64, a Louisiana Travel Show on PBS I stepped inside the DeRidder Gothic Jail, and the contrast hit me right away. From the sidewalk, the building could pass for a small collegiate hall. Pointed Tudor arches, dormers, and bay windows face the street with a quiet, scholarly grace. Built in […]
Shreveport Municipal Auditorium: The Stage Where Country Legends Were Born
By Karen LeBlanc, host of LA64, a Louisiana Travel Show on PBS There are places that hold history in their walls, and then there are places that hum with it long after the amplifiers have gone silent. The Shreveport Municipal Auditorium belongs to that second category. I felt it the moment I stepped into the […]