From Lafayette to St. Martinville: 16 miles (26 km)
10 facts about St. Martinville:
1. The city of St. Martinville is twinned with the village of Ploermel in Brittany.
2. It is situated on Bayou Teche and its terrain is a mixture of swamp and prairies.
3. With a population of 6100 (2014), its largest racial/ethnic groups are African American (61%) and White (34%).
4. Its economy is based on agriculture (crawfish and sugar cane).
5. April 25, 1766 marked the arrival of the first Acadians.
6. It's called the birthplace of Cajun culture and traditions, in the heart of Cajun Country. It's a multicultural community with Acadians, Cajuns, Creoles (French coming from Guadeloupe, Martinique and Santo Domingo), French, Spaniards, Africans and African Americans.
7. It's nickname, Petit Paris, dates from the era when St. Martinville was known as a cultural mecca with good hotels and a French theater (1830).
8. It's the third oldest town in Louisiana, and has many buildings and homes with beautiful architecture.
9. The Evangeline Oak, made famous in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's* poem, Evangeline, An Acadian Tale, stands on the bank of the Bayou Teche. The epic poem tells the story of Evangeline who spends much of her life wandering North America in search of her love, Gabriel. It's based on the true story of Emmeline Labiche and her love, Louis Arceneaux, who were separated when the British chased the Acadians from their homeland in 1755.
(I shouldn't tell you this, but Evangeline dies of a broken heart at the end of the poem.)
10. St Martin de Tours Church is one of the oldest churches in Louisiana and is known as the Mother Church of the Acadians because it was founded in 1766 when the Acadians arrived.
And we'll return to this church and this town, in a special way tomorrow. I hope you are interested.
Jane
*Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet (1807-1882)
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-twinned = jumelée
-swamp --> http://www.wordreference.com/enfr/swamp
-crawfish--> http://www.wordreference.com/definition/crawfish if you have forgotten
-oak = chêne
-tale = a story (a fairy tale = un conte de fée)
-bank = http://context.reverso.net/traduction/anglais-francais/banks+of+the+mississippi
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