After a delicious lunch at La Cuisine de Maman, I headed out into Vermilionville proper, a living history museum in Lafayette, Louisiana.
My guide and interpreter was Ivy Brossard, and she did a wonderful job of taking me from location to location, meeting men and women going about their business as if it were in the 1800s.
Ivy explained that all the buildings were either moved to the location on the edge of Bayou Vermilion or built on site with authenticity in mind.
“Vermilionville’s mission is to increase appreciation for the history, culture, and natural resources of the Native Americans, Acadians, Creoles, and peoples of African descent in the Attakapas region through the end of the 1800s,” according to the website.
Along my walk with Ivy, I met different costumed interpreters going about their daily chores: a woman spinning cotton, Sitting Bear, an Avoyel Native American, and four-time Grammy Award nominee violinist Cedric Watson, who played a traditional piece in front of the school house.
For anyone interested in the foundation of the area, an afternoon at Vermilionville will answer questions and spark more.
For more information on Vermilionville, click here. For information about Lafayette, click here.
If you love history, you’ll love Vermilionville.
