Touchet's Bar is home to the French Jam Sessions.  We headed over there Saturday afternoon.

The music is French Cajun.  We stayed for several hours, watching several changes in players.  Had a chance to do some dancing too.

Everyone liked Touchet's slogan.

We left the jam session early to head north about 40 miles to Eunice, LA, home of the Liberty Theater and a live Cajun radio show.  The Liberty Theater opened in 1924.  The National Park Service sponsers the live radio show on Saturday nights.

Every week highlights a different local band.

Many of the bands are family oriented.  Notice the new drummer.  He is the 10 year old grandson of the leader of the band (the guitar player in the white hat).  He not only played the drums, but sang his songs in French too.  Keeping the culture alive is very important here.  Even the schools now require all children to learn French as part of their heritage.

After it was over we came out and found another band (folk music, not cajun) playing down at the other end of the street in front of a local coffeehouse.  The music had started at 4pm with a list of about half a dozen bands.

The town of Abbeville was founded in 1944 by a Catholic Priest, Pere Antoine Desire Megret, who was from Abbeville, France.  The original name of the town was La Chapelle.

Megret designed the town around 2 squares.  This town square is a park with this large live oak tree.

Steen's Pure Cane Syrup is one of the larger employers in town.  No tours though.  

The old depot is now a local cafe.

The Vermillion Parish Courthouse dominates the 2nd town square.