Bayou Weekly

French colonists founded New Orleans in 1718. This Sunday, the Saints find out how that plays in France itself. The Saints will host the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, Oct. 25, at the Stade de France, the national stadium in Saint-Denis on the northern edge of Paris. According to the team's ticket page, it's the NFL's first regular-season game in Paris. New Orleans is the designated home team, so this goes down as one of its home dates, even though it's being played about 4,8

At 7 o'clock on Christmas Eve, if the wind cooperates, fire chiefs in St. James Parish give the signal and dozens of wooden towers along the Mississippi River levee go up in flames at roughly the same moment. The heaviest concentration is in Lutcher, Gramercy and Paulina, with a scattering of fires in neighboring Ascension and St. John the Baptist parishes. In 1999 there were more than 100 bonfires along a 3.4-mile stretch of levee in those three St. James communities, geogra

By 8:30 on a Saturday morning, the red-brick bar in Mamou is already crowded. Couples are waltzing across the floor, a Cajun band is set up with accordion and fiddle, and the drinks on the bar include Budweiser and Bloody Marys. This is Fred's Lounge, which according to its website is open Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., and for a couple of hours every week, the whole morning goes out live on the radio. The broadcast belongs to KVPI, "The Legend," 1050 AM out of Ville Platte