“Ribbiting” News

In Rayne, we have a lot to croak about!

Frog Capital of the World – In Rayne, frogs captivate our imagination and have gained iconographic stature.  Frogs and Rayne have a long history that dates back to the 1880’s, when a gourmet chef named Donat Pucheu started selling juicy, delectable bullfrogs to New Orleans restaurants.  Word of Rayne’s frog delicacies spread like wildfire and soon attracted the Weil brothers from France, who started a lucrative business exporting frogs to restaurants.  Jacques Weil and his brothers started using “Frog Capital of the World” in their marketing information, once they learned that Sardi’s in New York boasted on their menus of offering frog legs from Rayne, Louisiana, USA, Frog Capital of the World.  The Weil business was soon joined by the Babineaux family’s business, Louisiana Frog Company. Both companies continued to export frogs until the early 1960’s to restaurants and medical universities for research.  There is no longer a viable frog export business in Rayne, due to a number of reasons, some of which are the growth of populated areas and the change in field irrigation systems which contributed to the decrease of the area’s frog population.

The annual Rayne Frog Festival, celebrating the city’s role in promoting this unique Louisiana delicacy, is held the 2nd weekend in November.  Activities include frog racing and jumping contests, the Lions Club Frog Derby, a queen’s contest, parade, carnival and live music.  The first official Rayne Frog Festival was held in September 1973 under the sponsorship of the Rayne Chamber of Commerce.  The Rayne Jaycees deserve credit for helping set the Frog Festival in motion by sponsoring a festival the year before that was considered the forerunner of the first official festival.  Similarly, tribute should be paid to the Rayne Lions Club, whose members had been promoting the city by staging the Frog Derby races at Crowley’s International Rice Festival since 1946.