Baton Rouge beckons to followers of politics, football, history and culture. South and west of Baton Rouge, the landscape of sugar cane is ever present. For 200 years, sugar plantations have been a major part of the region's culture. Explore how by visiting a 19th century sugar planter's home and slave cabin at the excellent West Baton Rouge Museum in Port Allen. Highway 77 south is one of Louisiana's best scenic drives, meandering through swamp and cane fields, and the occasional settlement. Along it, distinctive Creole and Acadian house forms continue to be expressed even in modern residential development. Plaquemine's large tree-canopied historic district includes a Main Street of shops and restaurants as well as numerous residences of varied scale. In the center of the downtown, climb the levee for a view of the Mississippi and a look back at the huge Plaquemine Lock. South of Plaquemine intrepid explorers who find their way to White Castle are in for a treat: Nottoway Plantation is perhaps the largest antebellum home in the nation.