ACADIAN MEMORIAL & CUTURAL CENTER MUSEUMS

Located along Bayou Teche, near the Evangeline Oak, the Acadian Monument is dedicated to the memory of the thousands of men, women and children who, beginning in the 1750s, were forced to leave their native Acadia (now Nova Scotia, Canada) and eventually came to Louisiana.

The site has several attractions, starting with Robert Daffort's mural depicting the arrival of the Acadians (paired with another painting in Nantes). Then there is The Wall of Names, which lists approximately 3,000 people identified as Acadian refugees. There is also an eternal flame that burns in the center's garden, to keep alive forever the memory of all the Acadians who died along the way. The Deportation Cross, a replica of the one in Grand-Pré, Nova Scotia, which marks the exact site where more than 2,000 Acadians were shipped in 1755, and the coats of arms of the Acadian families representing their separation in Canada and their reunion here in Louisiana are also worth seeing. Finally, the Acadian Monument Museum shares the premises with the African American Museum. It hosts a small but well-documented exhibition on the birth of Acadia, the deportation of the Acadians, the history of Evangeline, slavery and the triangular trade. A site to discover to understand the extent of the Great Deportation and the settlement of the first Acadians in Louisiana.