- 2 months ago
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00:01New Orleans
00:05New Orleans
00:10You're gonna get everything that you need
00:17Down in New Orleans
00:21This train, the train they call the city of New Orleans,
00:25left Chicago 8 o'clock yesterday, and in a very short time,
00:30we'll be coming into the city they call the city of New Orleans.
00:42The Great American South.
00:47From the Atlantic to the Gulf,
00:49and a few points in between in a runabout sort of way.
00:53Come with me, exploring its rich, its wondrous,
00:56and, let's face it, its sometimes troubled history.
01:01Rejoicing in the spiritual.
01:05And the creative.
01:06Now I have faith in welding.
01:08Wrapping myself in legend and myth.
01:11That's like a sort of American Gothic novel.
01:14Stuffing myself with southern food.
01:16And what is your secret?
01:18Meat.
01:20Meat.
01:25I want to explore America where the crawdads sing.
01:29By land, by air, by water.
01:32It promises to be uplifting, exciting, and very beautiful.
01:37I'm going with Griff.
01:39Yes, ma'am.
01:40The Great American South.
01:42I've changed my mind!
01:43Ours for the taking.
01:44Safe travels.
01:45I'm heading now as south as south could be, really.
02:04And we're crossing into Louisiana.
02:07And even the name of the state takes you back to colonial times
02:10because it's named for a French king.
02:14This train began running here in the 1940s.
02:18It's been scheduled every day since,
02:21leaving Chicago in the evening
02:23and arriving in the afternoon on the following day
02:27to the place nicknamed the city that cared for God.
02:30New Orleans, a place with such a convoluted history,
02:36it's a positive gumbo of cultures.
02:43New Orleans sits in the middle of a gigantic swamp.
02:49The true Mississippi Delta.
02:52The land it sits on is only 2,000 years old
02:57because it was created by the silt of the river.
03:07Well, I have arrived.
03:09Like millions before me who came here to make their fortunes
03:12by trade or by gambling or by any other means.
03:16Refugees from the Haitian Revolution or Irish or Germans
03:20and later Italian, Jewish and Asians.
03:23By the late 1800s, this was the third largest port in the US.
03:28An exit door for produce ferried down the Mississippi.
03:33It's been a wild town too since its early days.
03:37What if it's still naughty?
03:39This hotel seems an appropriate place to find out.
03:43Welcome to jail.
03:44Well, thank you very much.
03:46What a great idea.
03:47So tell me, am I going to stay in a cell block?
03:49You are going to stay in cell block B, in fact,
03:52which was the male cell block back when the property
03:54used to be an old jail.
03:55And when was that?
03:56So it was constructed in 1902.
03:59It was a jail all the way up to kind of the mid-60s.
04:02It was never a big, you know, penitentiary.
04:04There was no barbed wire and, you know, big walls outside.
04:08But yeah, they had police officers, patrolmen,
04:10and then they had a few cell blocks upstairs
04:13and a drunk tank lock up over here.
04:16Do you get old convicts coming back and saying,
04:18well, I had such a good time here.
04:20I must stay here a little bit longer.
04:22There's a lifter, Uber driver out there in New Orleans
04:25that has been locked up here.
04:27And he's had to, you know, he's dropped off plenty of people
04:29from the airport or from in the city.
04:31And he's come in and he's told them all about their stay.
04:33And I love when this guy comes back.
04:35It's such a funny idea.
04:36Yeah, I think he loves every time it pops up
04:38that he has to drop somebody off at the old jail.
04:41All right, so Griff, you are in cell block B.
04:45Okay, I get my main meal pushed in for a little.
04:48Yeah, yeah, bread and water.
04:49All right, great. Thank you very much.
04:51Oh, and listen, Griff, while you're in New Orleans,
04:53you know this is the big easy.
04:54Yes.
04:55All right, just remember, relax, chill out.
04:59Take things easy.
05:00Yes, of course, I'll take that as my challenge as I languish in my cell.
05:08Relax.
05:10And that's probably the most difficult challenge that I've ever had
05:13because I'm an uptight little Welsh person
05:15and with a tendency to manic behavior.
05:18But I'm prepared to have it a go
05:20because New Orleans is big easy.
05:25And it also has a bit of a sort of, well, a rakish reputation.
05:32It all dates from the 1940s
05:35when hundreds of thousands of sailors and soldiers
05:40came to this city and partied.
05:42And it got notorious.
05:44But that reputation is one of the reasons
05:48that tourists flock here.
05:52Anyway, I can't waste any time at all.
05:55I've got to get out there and be relaxed.
06:03But from my very first step outside,
06:06the streets become a circus of music and dance and people.
06:10Is this some sort of touristy put on?
06:13Not really.
06:1418 million visitors come to New Orleans each year.
06:17And one of the main reasons
06:19is that this place does a street parade like nowhere else on the planet.
06:24It seems to be the home of Mardi Gras.
06:29Mardi Gras means Fat Tuesday.
06:33And traditionally, it's the Tuesday before Lent
06:36when fasting begins in the calendar of religious observance.
06:41And everybody starts eating all the fatty food.
06:44Or it shrove Tuesday, so we tend to eat pancakes.
06:49But here in New Orleans, it's traditionally celebrated by an enormous festival.
06:54Everybody starts parading around.
06:56And what are known as crews take floats out and make a carnival.
07:00And they do that for days on end.
07:03Now, this isn't the Tuesday in March that that happens.
07:09This is the first Sunday in December.
07:13But on that Sunday, this crew have a special parade.
07:19Rene?
07:31Yes, sir.
07:32Hello, I'm Griff.
07:33Hey, man, how you doing? Nice to meet you, man.
07:34I'm very pleased to meet you.
07:35You're looking magnificent.
07:37Oh, man, thank you. I appreciate it.
07:38That's really good.
07:39So all your crew, is this your crew here?
07:43Yes, this is Dumas Street Game Social and Pleasure Club.
07:46Why are you going out today?
07:49Well, today is our actual parade.
07:51We've been parading almost 27 years on today.
07:55Mardi Gras was, as you can imagine, originally a European and rather white event.
08:00This neighbourhood joined the parade more recently.
08:04Some of the decorum that we wear, the white dove that's on their shoulder,
08:07signifies the pioneers that have passed on,
08:10people that have passed on, have paved the way for this second-line culture.
08:14It's a resemblance of them.
08:16And somebody said to me there are nearly a hundred different festivals in New Orleans.
08:19You have a lot of different festivals.
08:21You have simplest from a jazz festival.
08:24Yeah.
08:25About all jazz to as small as a chicken festival.
08:28Right.
08:29New Orleans is all about being festive and having a festival.
08:32So what's the day hold? What's going to happen?
08:35A long day.
08:37This will be the most exciting four hours that you've possibly ever witnessed or ever seen.
08:43And everybody, come out and have a good time.
08:45The Dumaine Street Gang's parade honours people who have passed away.
09:00These so-called second-line parades began in black neighbourhoods as funeral processions.
09:18But they borrowed heavily from the city's Mardé Gras celebrations and now are used for everything,
09:24from weddings to community gatherings.
09:27And this is just the beginning.
09:39They've got a long way to go.
09:42This is no tourist jaunt.
09:49This parade will be a regular Sunday affair across months to come,
09:53with purpose and meaning.
09:55A bit like going to church.
09:57MUSIC PLAYS
10:14Well, I feel like a relaxed breakfast now.
10:17Maybe Creole or Cajun.
10:19Maybe gumbo, jambalaya, mufaleta, etouffee or po'boy.
10:25Just some of the choices in New Orleans, each with their own story.
10:30I'm on a streetcar now.
10:33And people use this.
10:36They're not just here for tourists.
10:37We're going down the main street.
10:39And in 1929, there was a famous strike.
10:45It lasted for a long time.
10:47And that strike still resonates today in the form of a New Orleans staple to the Po'boy sandwich.
10:54A local restaurant offered free food to the striking streetcar workers.
10:59And every time somebody came in, they would say,
11:03look, here comes another po'boy.
11:06And they would split open a piece of bread and fill it with food and hand it to them.
11:11The strike is long forgotten, but the po'boy continues as a culinary delicacy here in New Orleans.
11:21But search no more.
11:32I found what I'm after.
11:34Can you tell me, can I get a po'boy here?
11:36No, no, no, no, no.
11:37So you've got an alligator po'boy here?
11:38An alligator too, yeah.
11:39Oh, well, well, I bet, you know, I'd better try an alligator po'boy.
11:43I think I'm going to...
11:44All right, let's try an alligator po'boy.
11:46All right, okay.
11:47And I can carry it out?
11:48Yeah, you can carry it out.
11:49All right, okay.
11:50And I can use it as I go along.
11:51All right, that suits me.
11:52Great.
11:53Thank you very much.
11:55Po'boy, originally, it was food for people who had no money at all.
12:03And they were filled with fried oysters because the oysters were cheap.
12:07Now, my alligator po'boy is going to cost me a bit more, about $23.
12:18Get me some alligator and make it snappy.
12:25In truth, New Orleans is a pick and mix of culture.
12:35The state of which it is the capital originally stretched from the Mississippi mouth
12:40all the way to the Canadian borders.
12:43First, it was claimed a Spanish territory, then French, then Spanish, then French again.
12:51But this city had a key difference to other southern cities.
12:55It operated under French law, which meant that enslaved people here were allowed to earn their freedom.
13:03So, there is a distinct African influence as well.
13:08And you'll see this in the wonderful mix represented by the word Creole.
13:14Generally, many people think Creole is a racial mixture.
13:18It is not necessarily.
13:20Creole is a Portuguese word in origin that means native to this land.
13:24And it was used to differentiate people coming from Europe, coming into the New World, and being born here.
13:30So, you could have two African parents, two Portuguese parents, two Spanish parents,
13:35and be born here and be a Creole person.
13:38It just meant that you were born here within a specific time frame.
13:42So, if you were born in Louisiana prior to 1803, you're a Creole person.
13:46If you were born in Louisiana after 1803, you're a Creole descendant.
13:50Now, the year 1803 is significant.
13:54That was when Napoleon decided to sell Louisiana to the United States for 15 million US dollars in order to fund his European wars.
14:05But despite the sale, New Orleans maintains its French connection.
14:11But what's interesting for somebody who comes here is how the French idea has continued in New Orleans.
14:20I mean, the Americans arrived, well, 250 years ago, and it's been kept alive partly by those natives, those Creoles.
14:29Yes. France very actually did little for the development of the city.
14:33Spain developed New Orleans more than France did, but we are French loyalists.
14:38We, for the longest time, even I am very young, I consider France to be the motherland for some reason.
14:45That's extraordinary.
14:46Kim is an amazing, passionate advocate for the idea of the identity of Creole people and the nature of New Orleans.
15:01This is a city that is not as laid-back, easy-going, fun-loving as some people might like it to be.
15:14It's got a complicated history and a history in which people of colour and Creoles have played an enormous inventive part.
15:24Ever since the Europeans arrived, it's hardly been laid-back at all.
15:34It was the third busiest port in the whole of America.
15:40People came here for work from all over the world, Italians, Irish, and interestingly, quite a lot from Canada, from another French part, Nova Scotia.
15:53They're called the Arcadians, and when people talk of Cajun stuff, they mean Canadian stuff.
15:59Canadian French-speaking food and influences.
16:03There's no relaxing for me in this heady mix.
16:10Down in New Orleans.
16:16Yeah, it's right this way.
16:18Another great French tradition to explore is a simple game they call POC, which evolved into what we now call POC.
16:27Yeah, I got room for two more. I got my buddy Griff here who wants to play.
16:30Hey, you got cash?
16:33I got some cash.
16:35Uh, you got room for two, right?
16:37Yeah, yeah.
16:38Cool. Yeah, would you deal me in for 300, please?
16:40My friend C has invited me to a friendly game of chance.
16:44They're playing 1-3, no limit, hold'em cash.
16:51So, see, for you, like, poker was a sort of hobby, was it?
16:55When I'm playing poker, I'm not thinking about work, not thinking about the wife, not thinking about bills.
17:01It's just an escape, man. You can make some money out of it, too, so...
17:04If you get lucky.
17:06Three dollars.
17:09Okay, I'm folding. Yeah.
17:12I see. I'm doing surprisingly well here, but...
17:16The truth is, now, this is a game of poker, which is completely different to games of poker that I play.
17:21I mean, essentially, we're still playing poker, we're still trying to get the same hands,
17:25but there are certain conventions, like the way the ante is done and this blind is passed around,
17:30which is completely new to me.
17:31So, let me match this.
17:33You guys, how often will you play poker?
17:37Once or twice a week, up to every day.
17:40Some people like it, like it so much.
17:43Some people, professional, yeah.
17:45Yeah.
17:46C considers himself a semi-professional player.
17:49Last year, I made, let's say, I made $17,000.
17:53That's probably not going to be a trend, it's going to go up and down from there, but...
17:57Yeah.
17:58Last year was really good.
18:00Opening bets down, we begin.
18:02Uh, yeah, I'll go five.
18:05C's bought his A game, not giving anything away.
18:09Interesting.
18:10Fifteen.
18:11Fifteen.
18:12Fifteen.
18:13And I can tell he's got his eye on my pot of money.
18:17I'll race you, whatever that is.
18:20Uh, I'm all in.
18:22Oh, boy, here we go.
18:24He is all in, which means...
18:26C stakes everything he has.
18:28He doesn't know what I have in my hand, and I have no idea what's in his.
18:32This is called, and now he's raising you for the rest, if you wish to continue.
18:37For the rest?
18:38Already?
18:39Already?
18:40Already?
18:41Already?
18:42That's crazy.
18:43A moment of truth with the turn of the cards.
18:46Will I lose my shirt as well?
18:48I'd love to see what you have.
18:49Oh, yes, a hidden pair of kings wins me the day.
18:57Yeah, I called C's bluff and took home the pot.
19:00Yeah, but I go on to win two more hands.
19:03Oh, buddy, you killed it.
19:04Good job.
19:05So, uh, you...
19:06It was beginner's luck.
19:07And it's never good poker etiquette to leave a table mid-game, so I spread the winnings
19:12around.
19:13The tip was about 50, was it?
19:15If you decided that, then...
19:16Yeah, that's fine.
19:17And if everybody wants a drink, that's probably a good idea.
19:20I know.
19:21Steve, thank you for bringing me here.
19:22I've had a great, great time.
19:24Yeah, I bet.
19:26Bye-bye.
19:27Have a really good next 15 hours.
19:29That's all I like, because I know these games are never short.
19:32You'll see that and get happy.
19:34I know!
19:35See you, buddy.
19:39All right, well, over the last year, I've consistently started playing poker again.
19:45And those were the best hands I've had ever.
19:53So, as you can imagine, that hasn't relaxed me.
19:57That's just made me rather alarmed.
20:04Bourbon Street.
20:05And just to emphasise the French influence here, engineer Adrien de Pouget laid out the streets
20:25of New Orleans in 1721.
20:27He chose one to carry the name of the French royal family ruling at the time.
20:32Rue Bourbon.
20:34It sits in the heart of the French Quarter, and they've been dancing in the street here
20:39just about ever since.
20:41We're experiencing a sort of rival cacophonies of noise competing for our attention as we
20:50walk our way down through the French Quarter at night.
20:54But the point is that this was Big Easy for jazz musicians originally.
21:03They called it Big Easy because it was a place where they could relax and play music, and it's
21:09the home of jazz.
21:12The foundation of everything we understand from syncopated rhythm and blaring trumpets was
21:21established right here in these clubs on these streets.
21:26So, does that jazz as easy still continue?
21:37Is this still a place to play what you want, earn what you want, and get what you want?
21:44Hello, guys.
21:45Hi, hi.
21:46So, now, you come from a tradition of Italian jazz players, do you?
21:51Correct, correct.
21:52Yeah, so tell me about that.
21:53Well, my grandfather, Papa Jack, had two boys, Frank and Freddie, and they ended up creating
21:57the Dukes of Dixieland, which was the number one jazz band in the country.
22:00Played on Ed Sullivan three times.
22:02They were the first white group that ever played and toured with Louis Armstrong.
22:05I mean, Louis used to come to our house when I was kids.
22:07I've got pictures of all of us kids sitting on Louis' lap and things like that.
22:10When he came in, everybody was just, it was just a fun time.
22:13And no pretensions whatsoever.
22:15They were just good friends.
22:17And I've been going around New Orleans trying to find out if it's true that
22:21Big Easy means laid back and sort of, you know, relaxed and cool.
22:27But the truth is, traditional jazz is quite an agitated music, isn't it?
22:33What I mean by that is it's quite a lively music, generally.
22:36Yeah.
22:37Oh, it's very upbeat, for sure.
22:38The old style back in the 20s and the 30s may have been a little more slow movement.
22:42But as it's progressed, and Jim will probably attest to this, is that it picked its pace up.
22:47And more groovy, more double-timed, and just sparked it up a bunch.
22:51As it got, you know, the younger guys got into it.
22:53Did it start in New Orleans?
22:55I think, I think yes.
22:57I think that most historians will say that it started in New Orleans for one big reason.
23:01Right.
23:02Port City, just after the turn of the century.
23:04Most important port city, probably in the south.
23:07You had so many people coming in.
23:08You had the French, you had the Italians, you had Africans.
23:11Every ethnicity coming and they brought their music.
23:15And that's how the music evolved that day.
23:17Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I understood that jazz had some of its origin in the sort of music that was played in parades that followed funerals.
23:25Is that true, do you think?
23:26In a second line, they'd do a dirge and then they'd obviously break into the happiness and the joy to celebrate their life.
23:32They will join in together on the streets and perform as one unit, even though they've never seen the person they're playing next to before.
23:38Many times you don't know the person until you shake hands on the bandstand.
23:41Was that military as well, do you think?
23:44They would recycle their instruments, from what I've read, about every ten years, especially the Naval Academy, the band.
23:50So those musical instruments would end up in pawn shops and people would go and they'd pick up a horn for five bucks, six bucks.
23:57And to quote the great Ellis Marsalis, they'd go out on the street and they'd play, they'd learn to play, because music was always a good street hustle.
24:04You could get a couple of pennies thrown in the head if you could carry a tune and play well.
24:09If you graduated, you'd get into a bar and you'd join a band.
24:13That's exactly how Lewis Armstrong did it.
24:16That's how Lewis Armstrong did it.
24:17That's how Lewis got in there, that's exactly right.
24:19I'm going to hear you guys now, I hope.
24:21I hope that.
24:22So this is one of the places where I can hear it.
24:23Amen.
24:24That's right.
24:25Time to get nice.
24:26That's on then.
24:27Where's my white hankie?
24:28I've got to get one of these.
24:29What are we doing?
24:32Woo!
24:33You may have noticed in some of the previous episodes that I've, I've got to get one of these.
24:37Whenever a bit of music has been played.
24:38But here, in...
24:39I've got to get one of these.
24:40Time to get nice.
24:42That's on then, where's my white hankie.
24:43I've got to get one of these.
24:44What are we doing?
24:45Woo!
24:46You may have noticed in some of the previous episodes that I've, I've joined in whenever
25:02I've joined in whenever a bit of music has been played.
25:04But here, in Big Easy,
25:08I'm afraid what these guys do is far from easy.
25:12Well, it's pretty quiet now in the French Quarter,
25:32and I thought it never got quiet here,
25:34but it's night, and spirits are abroad.
25:40New Orleans is known as a centre for voodoo,
25:44partly because of films like James Bond and Pirates of the Caribbean,
25:48but partly because the local tourist board
25:51thought they'd encouraged the whole idea in the 1960s.
25:56So how authentic is the voodoo, or hoodoo, hereabouts?
26:04I thought I'd go and see the local priestess to find out.
26:10Welcome, welcome.
26:28So what brings you here?
26:30Well, I'm travelling through New Orleans, and I just thought there's so much.
26:37There are so many stories, there's so many films that feature voodoo in Louisiana,
26:43and I thought it was important to come and find out a little bit about it.
26:46Okay, a little bit more of the truth about it.
26:48Possibly, yeah.
26:49Instead of a James Bond movie stuff.
26:51Exactly.
26:52Double-O voodoo.
26:54Yeah.
26:55So tell me, what sort of voodoo do you practice here?
26:58Do so well?
26:59Yeah.
27:00So you've got New Orleans voodoo, and obviously that's a focal point for us.
27:04I'm from New Orleans, born and raised.
27:07But the path that voodoo took to get here, you start in Africa, and when the enslaved were
27:15taken to the New World, you have New Orleans becoming part of that story.
27:22They brought their traditions with them, clung on to those traditions to survive.
27:27For a while, it had to be a fairly secret in this part of the world.
27:33The practice was masked behind the Catholic practice.
27:38The slaves were forced to practice Catholicism.
27:42So a slave master would come in and see Catholic imagery and representations looks like they were
27:49just practicing Catholicism, but they were really honoring their own spirits.
27:55We often associate voodoo with hexes and curses, but practitioners decide whether they administer
28:04white magic or black.
28:07Is that true about your following voodoo rituals in order to achieve things for yourself?
28:13Let's say you come to me, and you're like, I've got a crappy boss, and I want to hurt him.
28:18So we always say, well, you point the one finger out, and how many are pointing back at you?
28:25So it's a boomerang.
28:27What you put out is going to come back to you, and that's us.
28:31That's not how everyone's going to practice.
28:33Somebody said, you know, they went to see a voodoo priest to see if the football team could
28:37do a little better.
28:38We did.
28:39We do that.
28:41We love the New Orleans Saints.
28:43No shame in our game, okay?
28:45I mean, I don't have a crisis, but if I were to say to you, what blessing could you give me?
28:50What help could you give me?
28:51Can we do something together?
28:53The first thing we really need to do is introduce you to the spirits, and then we're going to
28:58get a feel for what is going to best serve you this evening.
29:04So it all starts with us pouring libations and talking to spirits.
29:07Right.
29:08And that's what we're going to do.
29:09Do I need to be naked for that?
29:10Or just, no?
29:11Wait, wait, wait.
29:12Well, libations.
29:13Yes, he does!
29:14Yeah, libations sound like I need to have things poured over me, but what shall I do?
29:19I'll take my coat off.
29:20Yeah, please get comfortable.
29:21Yes.
29:22I think that's not a bad idea.
29:24Take a little sip.
29:31Mm-hmm.
29:32Comfortable, but not exactly relaxed.
29:35How easy is this going to be?
29:37And we're going to do a little cleansing for you.
29:40Give the cigar.
29:41And where there's smoke.
29:43He needs some fire.
29:50He needs passion.
29:52All right, you need to go through the fire.
29:54Walk, walk, walk.
29:55Walk, walk, walk.
29:56Come on.
29:57Come on.
29:58Again, again, again.
29:59Come on.
30:00Come on.
30:01Come on.
30:02You've got to step through the fire.
30:04Step on it, step on it.
30:05Oh, no, go.
30:06Walk, walk, it's okay.
30:08Walk, walk, walk.
30:09Yeah, this is definitely not a very soothing or relaxing experience.
30:14Hey, hey, hey, hey, mama ocean.
30:17Hey, hey, hey, mama ocean.
30:20So, how do you feel?
30:22I feel good.
30:23A little bit damp.
30:25But I was just nervous that I might suddenly catch into flames.
30:29No, no, no, no.
30:31But anyway, thank you very much.
30:33Bye, y'all.
30:34Bye.
30:35Bye-bye.
30:36Safe travels.
30:38All right.
30:39We've got some more voodoo to do.
30:40Later, y'all.
30:41Well, I'm cleansed and reek of perfume and alcohol.
30:48Rather like one of those ladies of the night on Bourbon Street.
30:56Now, New Orleans is clearly an endless city of parades and parties for visitors.
31:01For those who live here day in, day out,
31:05ever present is the very real threat that this is not an easy natural environment, to put it mildly.
31:12My destination, the ocean, is about 30 miles in that direction.
31:22But sometimes the ocean is about 20 feet in that direction, because more than half of the city of New Orleans is actually below sea level.
31:39This can be a catastrophic problem when one of the regular big hurricanes hits home.
31:48In 2005, Hurricane Katrina tore through here.
31:5380% of New Orleans was underwater, and this whole suburb was flattened.
31:58Charities like Rebuilding Together started rebuilding homes straight after the storm, and 25 years later, they're still at it.
32:09This is a strong spirit of community, and something to appreciate.
32:15When Katrina came, the flooding control systems failed.
32:19Was that the big...
32:20Yes, engineering failure.
32:21Yeah.
32:22200,000 homes flooded.
32:23Yeah.
32:24Can you say within an area around here, there are still... how many houses that people need work on?
32:28There's about 20,000 homes that are still blighted.
32:3120,000?
32:32Yeah, about 10% of the homes that flooded never came back.
32:36We have about 800 homeowners currently on our waiting list.
32:42Just with this house, what are you retaining?
32:45Nothing.
32:46It's a complete...
32:47That's where you started all over again.
32:48Yeah, so this is a very traditional New Orleans design.
32:52Yeah.
32:53And so essentially, we've just driven the piles 30 feet to the sand strata, which is essentially how to make sure that the foundation is solid.
33:01And we've tied the framing system directly into the pierce.
33:04And are you reasonably confident that if the levees go or the pumps fail, this house, the water might even rise above this level?
33:14We're built a foot above the base flood elevation.
33:17Right.
33:18So essentially, we're building above when Katrina happened.
33:21Take me to meet Anthony.
33:22Right.
33:23So, yeah.
33:24The man taking possession of this house is Anthony.
33:27His original home was destroyed by Katrina, and he's been displaced ever since.
33:32Just storms, one after another, came through.
33:35A hurricane.
33:36The first one was the big one was Katrina.
33:37Yeah, Katrina.
33:38Oh, man.
33:39And the whole house was gone.
33:41Gone.
33:42The Katrina hadn't taken it completely out.
33:44It was really a hard time then.
33:46And then a few years later, I started trying to get some help.
33:50Somehow or another, they got me on board.
33:52I don't know what happened.
33:53They got me on board and said, we'll build you a new house.
33:57I'm glad I stuck it out, but now look what I got.
34:02Anthony, this house is going to be secure again.
34:05Secure.
34:06This is where I'm going to be here until I go, until I leave this early.
34:08Come high winds or weather or storms or whatever.
34:11Right, right.
34:12This is going to hold up.
34:14What's your favorite spot going to be?
34:16The porch.
34:17My real porch.
34:19This is where I'm going to be.
34:20It's nice and secluded, hidden away.
34:21Yeah.
34:22Nobody knows I'm nice and quiet.
34:24Yeah, and my sister lives next door.
34:26I'm planning on cutting the gate in here.
34:28Yeah.
34:29So that she can just come on in, you know.
34:31Right.
34:32Yeah, yeah.
34:35I love meeting you, Anthony.
34:36What a great man.
34:37And what a great house.
34:40But it's another reason not to be too relaxed, isn't it?
34:47This can be quite an unsettling place.
35:00In Louisiana, you have to get a boat.
35:04It's a big part of belonging and the best way to get out of New Orleans and into the bayou.
35:09And in the bayou, you sleep all day and the catfish play, according to Roy Orbison.
35:15It's the ultimate laid-back, easy-going hinterland of swampy Louisiana.
35:22Look at this.
35:24This is the largest body of water in Louisiana.
35:27It's called Lake Pontchartrain.
35:31And this bridge is crazy.
35:36This bridge just goes on and on and on.
35:40It takes about 30 minutes to cross it.
35:44This is a great experience, though.
35:46It's got a sort of bailout point.
35:49So you get here, you go,
35:50I can't be bothered to cross any more of this bridge.
35:53I'm tired of it.
35:54I'm just going to turn round and go back.
35:56And there's one turn-round-and-go-back point.
36:00Halfway across what is the longest bridge over water in the entire world.
36:08It's almost 24 miles long.
36:12And an example of American can-do engineering
36:16inasmuch as it probably costs the GDP of Belgium to build.
36:21There we are.
36:23Coming to the end now.
36:25I feel like, you know, a pirate going,
36:28Land ho!
36:31Anyway, we've made land.
36:34We're here.
36:35And it's here that I'm picking up my lift
36:39to get down to the bayou proper.
36:42The swamp world at the edge of America.
36:45I'm intrigued.
36:46I have no idea what the legendary place really feels like.
36:50Is this the South's Shangri-La?
36:53Crystal, hi.
36:55Here we are.
36:57Good hard push on the bow out.
36:59Copy.
37:00Griff, if you could just push that bow off.
37:02Beautiful.
37:04Pull our fenders up.
37:07And we're off.
37:09These waters were formed by thousands of years of Mississippi River
37:15shifting its course, creating vast bodies of water like this.
37:21Well, we're out on the lake now, on the Poncho Train Lake.
37:26But I'm heading for a sort of margarita moment.
37:28I'm heading to the bayou.
37:32The lakes, the smaller channels, the boggy swamps, home to alligators and birds and fish and reptiles and adventurous people like Crystal.
37:43So, Crystal, do all these creeks, do they silt up?
37:49Um, not really. The bayou has a lot of movement to it, so it tends to stay pretty deep in the middle.
37:55You come in the summer, this is all gators.
37:58In the spring at night, you can shine a flashlight and you see just a bunch of tiny, beady red eyes from all the little alligator babies.
38:05It's a little scary.
38:07Sometimes here, um, deer swim across, which is always pretty funny to see.
38:11Right.
38:12You don't expect that with the gators.
38:15They're here now, they're just hiding because it's cold.
38:17We've got gators, turtles, lizards, snakes.
38:20But there are extensive lakes and bayous around here that you can just endlessly go to.
38:27There is a lot of...
38:29There's a gator.
38:30Oh, yeah, look at him.
38:32That's a little guy.
38:33He's come out because it's sunny.
38:34It's rare to see in this temperature.
38:35He's trying.
38:37You've been advertised to me as being a looper who's gone around and done an incredible journey by boat.
38:42Strangely enough, yeah.
38:43So we bought a boat, like, outside of Chicago and came all the way down the river system.
38:48Popped out into the Gulf of Mexico.
38:50And then each summer, because it gets too hot here, we go from North Carolina up to Block Island,
38:55which is off the coast of Rhode Island.
38:57Beautiful place.
38:59And then when it starts to get cold, we come back down.
39:01But it's beautiful.
39:02You're literally migrating like birds.
39:05Yeah.
39:06And then you come back.
39:07And the beauty of it is we work on the boats too.
39:09So we work on boats here.
39:10We go up there.
39:11We work on boats there.
39:13What are you seeking?
39:15Nothing.
39:16I don't know.
39:17I found it.
39:18You're like a nomad.
39:19Yeah.
39:20And quite a lot of time just at sea with nothing but the boat and David.
39:25Yeah.
39:26Yeah.
39:28They're sometimes called sleeping waters because they're slow moving.
39:32No fast rushing streams in here.
39:37It's been wonderful.
39:38Despite the alligators and the snakes, Crystal seems to embrace the sleepy bio vibe.
39:49Can I?
39:50Cheerio.
39:51Enjoy.
39:52Bye-bye.
39:54Night is coming on.
39:56It's time to try my hand at a local diversion.
40:00And what if an alligator comes along?
40:02You can't shoot an alligator.
40:03Wait a minute.
40:04We don't shoot the alligator.
40:05All right.
40:06Okay.
40:07That's not the season.
40:08Okay.
40:09It's just the most bizarre thing I've ever done.
40:14Setting off into the darkness, propelled by a giant propeller.
40:24I'm going windy night fishing in shallow waters.
40:28We level off the odds by giving me a bow and arrow.
40:33But in this shallow swamp, first, we've got to employ our giant fan.
40:39Many of the waterways of the south now contain invasive species like Asian carp.
40:55Now you're ready to shoot.
40:56Now you just hold on to the bow.
40:57Okay.
40:58Bow fishing was legalized as a sport as one way to control them.
41:02Conditions are ideal at night.
41:04You want to be aiming low, about six inches below the fish.
41:08I understand.
41:09All right.
41:10Yes.
41:11Now we're just cruising looking for them.
41:14Keep an eye out.
41:15Keep an eye out.
41:16We're on the boat, front right.
41:21Keep an eye out on the front right.
41:22Okay.
41:23There are fish swimming everywhere.
41:26Swimming for their lives, but they're all small fish.
41:31All right.
41:32Front left.
41:33Come over here.
41:34Front left.
41:35Over here.
41:36Over here.
41:37There he is.
41:38Oh!
41:39Oh!
41:40That was close.
41:41Not good enough.
41:42Okay.
41:43Not a bad shot.
41:44You saw just a little high.
41:46A little high.
41:48I should have tried to go lower.
41:50Not a bad shot.
41:52One came off on the left.
41:56Oh!
41:57Could be on either side.
42:02Oh!
42:03Oh!
42:04Oh!
42:05He swam away!
42:06Keep an eye out up here.
42:08We're going to turn around.
42:09Make a little spin.
42:11This is like being in a fun fair, where despite the encouragement.
42:15On the right.
42:16On the right.
42:17Cat.
42:18Big cat.
42:19Big catfish.
42:20Shoot him.
42:21I actually have no chance of winning the fluffy toy.
42:22Oh!
42:23A little high.
42:24A little high.
42:25It came right in the boat.
42:26We have a combination of three things here.
42:29We have angling, archery and incompetence.
42:34And the incompetence is definitely winning.
42:39Somehow, when I came along originally, I thought this was going to be like shooting fish in a barrel.
42:45But these fish will all live to breed or do whatever they do another day.
42:54Frankly, these fish would survive in a teacup with me firing at them.
42:58So, I guess that's bow fishing for you.
43:01Just to say, no fish were harmed during the making of this program.
43:10Well, we stayed out all night.
43:12We've caught nothing.
43:14So, decided to try and catch the dawn instead.
43:18We're going all the way down to get to the end.
43:22Can we actually get beyond the miles and miles of swamp?
43:25Through the half land, the estuarine mix of Louisiana.
43:29To meet the whole sea.
43:31And to look out at the gulf ahead.
43:40Virtually to the very edge of the bayou here.
43:45I've left New Orleans way behind me.
43:50What an incredible town.
43:52I think it's virtually impossible to relax there.
43:56Not only does it live on a sort of precipice.
43:59With a hurricane dew virtually every year that might devastate it.
44:04But it's also a place that parties on.
44:08And it enjoys itself.
44:10There's no doubt about that.
44:11But you need to put a huge amount of commitment into staying up till three in the morning.
44:17Playing music.
44:18Or parading around the town.
44:20Here, I can finally relax.
44:26And I think I understand what Big Easy really means in Louisiana.
44:34It means easy going.
44:36It's an open toleration of different cultures.
44:41Influences.
44:42Backstories.
44:43And food.
44:45They're easy about all that stuff.
44:48Where the crawdads sing.
44:51And so am I.
44:52Griff, can you bring that sail in?
44:56Okay.
44:57I'm bound for Charleston.
44:59The Old South.
45:00Cheerio.
45:02I don't know what I expected.
45:04To unravel the history that's made that place what it is today.
45:22I'm bound for you.
45:23I'm bound for you.
45:24I'm bound for you.
45:25I'm bound for you.
45:26I'm bound for you.
45:27I'm bound for you.
45:28I'm bound for you.
45:29I'm bound for you.
45:30I'm bound for you.
45:31I'm bound for you.
45:32I'm bound for you.
45:33I'm bound for you.
45:34I'm bound for you.
45:35I'm bound for you.
45:36I'm bound for you.
45:37I'm bound for you.
45:38I'm bound for you.
45:39I'm bound for you.
45:40I'm bound for you.
45:41I'm bound for you.
45:42I'm bound for you.
45:43I'm bound for you.
45:44I'm bound for you.
45:45I'm bound for you.
45:46I'm bound for you.
45:47I'm bound for you.
45:48I'm bound for you.
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