Exploring the Acadia Region

 

Maison Oliver

We’ve been to the Acadia region of Louisiana before, so we’re planning to visit new sights. We started in St. Martinsville at Louisiana’s first state park, the Longfellow-Evangeline park, inspired by Longfellow’s poem. Here we visited the Maison Olivier built in 1815. An example of a raised Creole cottage. We went into town and had lunch under the Evangeline Oak, the meeting place of the two lovers in Longfellows story. 

Evangeline Oak

Then walked to St. Martinsville of Tours church. The town was built on church land and paid rent to the church.

St. Martin of Tours Church

In the afternoon, we visited the Rip Van Winkle Gardens. John Jefferson built his home here in 1870 atop a Salt dome. John Jefferson was an actor who played the part of Rip Van Winkle over 4500 times. The gardens were created in the 1950s by John Bayless. On November 20, 1980, a Texaco oil rig pierced the salt mine caverns underneath Lake Pigneur outside the gardens. The lake disappeared flooding the entire salt mine including the Bayless home.

Home in the Rip Van Winkle Gardens