It is Rayne(ing) Frogs in Louisiana

Saturday, we hopped in the car and headed to Rayne.....the Frog Capitol of the World. First stop was the old depot.

The mural here was just the beginning of the frogs we saw.

The fountain must be on a timer as it was flowing when we arrived and then stopped.

We made a stop in this very old five and dime store. They had lots of old unique items along with things people would use every day. The staff was very friendly and recommended "Gabe's" for lunch.

First frog statues.....many more to come and we probably only saw 1/4 of them.

Some beautiful murals graced the outside walls of buildings.

Each of the frogs is decorated differently.

Frogs have been the business of this town for a long time. The Weil brothers from Paris started shipping frogs in 1901. Up to 10,000 pounds legs were shipped in a week.

Some of the frogs were dressed in accordance with the business they represented. This is a banker.

We saw an old hardware store that also looked interesting.

Some of the frogs had business names on them.

Some had sayings.

This mural was a little faded but still neat.

This one was especially neat.

The newspaper had lots going on in front of their building.

This was all a mural on the blank side of a building. Looked like you could just walk into the shops.

This pretty lady was in front of a jewelry store. Two middle-aged ladies were painting the trim and columns sprucing up the building for their brother who was inside sprucing things up....a real family project. When they also recommended "Gabe's" for lunch, we were sold.

Another beautiful mural on the outside of a building.

This little shop was closed but had lots of interesting things in the yard.

Another blank was turned into "little shops".

We did have lunch at "Gabe's" which turned out to be very popular with the locals. They are well-known for their fried chicken and seafood as well as their daily specials. It's pretty small but shriving business with lots of takeout going on in addition to customers inside. It looks like a fast food restaurant but the food is much better.

We saw only about 1/4 of the frog statues and 1/2 of the murals. It would be nice if Rayne put together a pamphlet and map for visitors but we still had a lot of fun.