Bayou Byways - The Most Scenic Drives in America: 120 Spectacular Road Trips - page 781

8. St. Martinville
After leaving Jefferson Island, the drive swings east on Rte. 675, then continues north on
Rtes. 86 and 31 until it reaches St. Martinville. The town was established as a military post
in 1714 and settled by French expatriates and Spanish soldiers. The Acadians—or Cajuns,
as they came to be called when the word was contracted—eventually settled here after be-
ing driven out of Nova Scotia by the British in 1755, and have indelibly branded the area
with their customs. During the French Revolution so many Royalist refugees came to St.
Martinville that it was dubbed Le Petit Paris.
Butitisliterature,nothistory,thatdrawsmostvisitorstoSt.Martinville,forthischarm-
ing hamlet is the setting for Evangeline, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem about
star-crossed lovers. The Longfellow-Evangeline State Historic Site, a 157-acre park just
north of town, has a museum and visitor center that explain the history of the region's
French-speaking peoples, including the colorful Cajuns. Also on the grounds are a recon-
struction of a 19th-century plantation and a house that, according to legend, once belonged
to Louis Arceneaux, the real-life counterpart of Evangeline's hero, Gabriel.
Ofallthetown's Evangeline- relatedsites,perhapsnoneismorepopularthantheEvan-
geline Oak. Found at the end of Port Street, this ancient moss-draped tree is said to be
the place where Emmeline Labiche (whose story inspired Longfellow) met her long-lost
fiancé. Nowadays the hoary oak is a shady spot for musicians who sometimes gather to
play Cajun tunes beside the bayou.
9. Lake Fausse Pointe State Park
While you hum along with Zydeco and Cajun songs on the radio, continue to Lake Fausse
Pointe State Park, site of one of the region's oldest bald cypress groves. To reach the park,
take Rtes. 96 and 679 east, Rte. 3083 south, and turn off onto the Atchafalaya Levee Road.
This 6,000-acre recreation area sits on land that once periodically disappeared beneath
Atchafalayan floodwaters; levees on the park's eastern border now protect it from such
flooding. Acting like a giant sponge, the 15-mile-wide by 70-mile-long Atchafalaya Basin
absorbs much of the soil and water runoff of the Mississippi's drainage system. Conse-
quently, this root-snarled habitat nurtures a bonanza of creatures—bass, crappies, frogs,
snakes, alligators, black bears, eagles, herons, and ibises, to name just a few.