Sunday, May 30 – Can you read French? No. The title of the blog is the motto for Abbeville…Let the good times roll!
Formerly called La Chapelle, the land that was to become Abbeville was purchased by founding father Père Antoine Désiré Mégret (Père is French for 'Father'), Capuchin missionary, on July 25, 1843 for $900. Father Megret modeled his original plan for the village after a French Provincial village.
Visited downtown Abbeville this morning to see some of the historical buildings some dating back to 1903.
This building is the site of the local bank.
Being Sunday, EVERYTHING was closed! It is center of government for the Parish of Vermilion. Founded in 1850, they have a proud Cajun heritage of living close to our coastal environment.
This is an unusual small town in that it has two city centers. One is the courthouse square with a surrounding traffic circle
and the other is Magdalen Square, which is a beautiful town square accented by huge oak trees, a fountain, and gazebo. Today, a statue stands in Magdalen Square in memorial to Father Megret.
There is also a beautiful huge Catholic Church called St. Mary Magdalen Church.
The Church also has an above ground cemetery that is customary in Louisiana.
In case you would rather read it in French.
The town is also know for the Steen’s Cane Syrup. This typical setting of a small syrup mill is much like the one C. S. Steen started with in 1910. This mule drawn mill could produce a couple barrels of syrup a day. Steen’s has a famous recipe called STEEN'S Cane Cured Pheasant. Briefly it is a tender young breast in Pure Cane Syrup, Balsamic Vinegar, Madeira Wine, Rosemary, and Thyme over Andouille Potato Pancakes with Shiitake Mushroom Au Jus. If you visit the website, they have the recipe ingredients listed.
We stopped at the local grocery store – Robie's. Marsha loved shopping for local grocery items. Things like spicy chicken salad, egg salad, Cajun spices and Cajun spicy green beans.
We relaxed most of the afternoon. We planned our next stop in Houston. We watched the college softball playoffs on TV and the Indy 500.
We got a couple heavy rain showers this afternoon. Lucky all our sightseeing adventures have been completed.
We went to happy hour at 4:30. Betty grilled some Cajun sausage, another RVer made ribs and green beans, and Marsha made some delicious rice. We had a really nice picnic.
We visited many other attractions that we will tell you about in future posts.
Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon.
