A day in Historical St. Martinville

We all decided to spend some time in the historic town of St. Martinville--the 3rd oldest town in Louisiana and considered the beginning of the Acadian (now Cajun) beginnings here in LA. We toured the beautiful St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church and the Evangeline Oak made famous in Longfellow's poem. These old oak trees stand majestically over all within its branches. From there we drove to the Longfellow-Evangeline State Historic Site and learned much about the early Acadian and Creole people of the area, dating from the 1815. This was the refuge of the Acadian people who had been exiled by the British from their homeland in Nova Scotia. They led very distinctively different lives. The local wealthy french Creole people lived on large plantations worked mostly by their slaves and the immigrant french speaking Acadian lived fairly separate lives, living in rustic cabins and farmed their new lands as a community.
Of course no visit or sightseeing adventure with Boomers is complete unless we break bread--and today was no different. We were directed to a favorite dinng spot, Le Petie Paris Cafe. The special of the day was Crawfish Etoufee and it was a resounding winner--but then there was the dessert--beignets (pronounced bey-Yay) served hot & with the must have requisite powered sugar, okay now we were talking Louisiana gooood!!! Our last stop was Martin Lake. It is a broad shallow lake full of Cypress and Tupelo stands which teems with aquatic life, including many species of amphibians and reptiles. Although, Lake Martin is the largest nesting area of wading birds in the United States and has been listed as one of the top 10 bird watching spots in the United States by the Audubon Society--today was not the day to see those birds, however the lake itself still provided us with a beautiful visual for the days end.