Mardi Gras in St. Martinville, LA

Today, Feb. 19th we had already booked into Catfish Haven RV Park located just outside St. Martinville, LA. Our goal was to check out the Acadian history here in Louisiana from after the deportation of the Acadians from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island in the middle 1700’s. We were impressed with the similarities between the historic interpretation of Grand Pre, N.S. and here in St.Martinville. There are several museums downtown and in the Evangeline State Park. The Acadian Memorial detailed the names of Acadians who settled here after surviving extreme hardship. They settled here with the largesse of the Spanish government who had title to Louisiana at that time.
The Acadians were given some land, tools, and livestock and rapidly became adapted to the Louisiana environment settling down and prospering.
We didn’t find any Gallants on the wall but did find a number of Hache names which as history tells us are the name of Michael Hache dit Gallant.
The Acadians became known as Cajuns or in the local dialect “Coonan”.
We are here until Feb. 25 to experience the Mardi Gras festivities in St. Martinville, Lafayette, Baton Rouge during the coming week until the grand parade on Tuesday. On Saturday will be La Grande De Boucherie, a long held local tradition where a large pig is butchered, disembowelled, quartered and roasted on the spot.

Later….