Evangeline

The mythic Acadian girl made famous by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s epic 1847 poem gives this parish its name. The largest city and parish seat, Ville Platte, or “flat city,” is named for the area’s relatively horizontal topography. Popular legend holds that the city was founded by Marcellin Garand, a French major in the Napoleonic Army. Today, Ville Platte is known as both the “Smoked Meat Capital of the World” (celebrated in an annual June festival) and the “Swamp Pop Capital of the World” (memorialized at a local museum). The town of Mamou is home to Fred’s Lounge, a 70-plus-year-old bar and Cajun dance hall only open on Saturday mornings. Arrive early; it fills up quick. On Mardi Gras morning, costumed revelers go door-to-door collecting ingredients for a gumbo to feed the whole town during the famed Courir de Mardi Gras. The town of Basile houses the Nathan Abshire Museum, celebrating the life and career of the man who helped popularize Cajun music beginning in the 1940s. Evangeline Parish is also home to Chicot State Park, a man-made lake surrounded by rolling hills.