evangeline monument

If you have ever read the poem of "Evangeline" by Longfellow, as I have, you were probably charmed by it, as I was. The faith, courage, and love of this noble Acadian woman is inspiring. When my family and I visited Louisiana to visit a friend, I was unaware of the vast number of others who also adored Evangeline's poem and story. This statue is located behind the St. Martin de Tours cathedral in Saint Martinsville. Don't walk away after viewing the inside, though. There is much more to see around the left side of the building. There is a stone statue of Evangeline, which was made to look like the actress in an early film titled "Evangeline." You must see this if you are in Saint Martinsville.

Vanessa del Rio portrayed Evangeline in a silent move in 1929. She commissioned this statue of herself in the role which now sits behind the church. Worth finding and seeing.

We love St Martinville. Not only is a historic town, but also very quaint with shops and Evangeline/Acadian sights and stories. The church is beautiful, and highlights our Acadian heritage. The Evangeline Oak and park are so beautiful as well.

All English teachers should visit. Read or quote the poem there to feel historical and enjoy the beautiful walk along the Bayou Teche.

We drove up and checked out the statue. It is easy to get to. Takes about a minute to pull in and check it out.

It's located to the side of the church in a small garden area and it's quite nice to look at but it didn't appeal to me very much. It's well made and if you are interested in the story perhaps you would have a better take on it - it's ok but not that special ..

We liked this little statue and the grave stone from the girl whose story was the original of the Evangeline poem. As we had watched a very interesting video about 'Arcadia' whilst in Thibodeaux and again in New Iberia we were definitely interested to see this. It certainly doesn't take long and I wouldn't go just for this reason but it should be part of a visit to St Martinville and the Evangeline Oak.

If you're into the Evangeline thing....you need to go to see the statue outside the church. You can drive up and almost park your car right beside it. Simple & quick - more of a 'Roadside America' (app) thing.

There is nothing special about the monument. the whole story was made up to begin with. The saga of the displaced/exiled people exiled to Louisiana is of historical importance to people in Louisiana, but the monument has nothing to do with anything important.For the good people of Louisiana, I apologize to the Dutch visitors who were treated so rudely.

At home I planned a tour for our trip in Louisiana, I found this place in a guide and it looked very nice. I made a copy from their Internet page with directions and opening times.I was a warm and sunny in the end of February 2007 when we entered Louisiana and were on our way to this location. There was occasionally a sign to this spot, but when we were actually there we passed it because there was no indication (it is on the other side of the road as you come from the North). We turned around and drove into the entrance.After a short drive we found a parking lot in front of us, the plantation house to our left and a nice picnic place to our right. As it was already in the afternoon and we felt hungry, we were very happy to find such a nice place and drove over the parking lot (with only a very few cars) to the picnic area. (We wanted to picnic already on our way, but hadn’t found a rest or picnic area.) There was a road next to the picnic place (no sign that it is forbidden to drive or park on that road) and we parked our car next to a nice table. We would have our lunch and after that we would visit the house and museum. After a few minutes a car drove by with inside a young girl. She started shouting as us that it was not allowed to picnic! We had to register first inside the house. We said that we were very sorry, and we didn’t know we had to pay first. Then she shouted at us if we had stopped at the stop sign just before entering the parking lot, we must have seen the mark underneath with this request. We said yes, we had stopped, but still had not noticed the mark under this sign. She started moving her head, putting her eyes up and down, making deep breaths and all other non-verbal signs that should tell us that we were very stupid. She also told very loud several times that it was strictly forbidden to be there without registration. She drove away, turned around and stopped again, waiting until I started our car. This took awhile, because my husband had driven before and I had to change the seat and mirrors. Then she got really annoyed, moved her fingers up and down the steering wheel, showing she was very irritated by this delay before she drove back to the parking place. I parked my car next to hers and entered the house. Inside I paid the entrance fee; it was only two dollars (for my husband it was free, he is a pensioner). I apologized again, telling her we were very sorry we didn’t knew about this. That let really the fury inside her lose; she started again shouting at me at a very brutal level. DID YOU STOP AT THE STOP SIGN, DID YOU STOP AT THE STOP SIGN, THEN YOU MUST HAVE KNOWN THIS, she kept on shouting at me. HOW CAN YOU PARK OVERTHERE, YOU DON’T WANT A CAR IN YOUR BACK YARD DO YOU, DO YOU!!!!!!!!!I walked out the building and then started shaking; it was very emotional and I was upset to be encountered this way, having made my apologies several times. I walked back to the picnic table; this was only a one-minute walk (as it was not so sad, it is even funny that she took her car for this short distance!). Over there we decided to pack our things and not to visit the museum, park or make any other tour on this Historic Site. Before leaving I went inside again and asked her name. Her name was Dana and another employee joined us. I said that we were visitors from the Netherlands, wanted to see this place, even made a copy of their website at home and showed this to them. We were very sad and disappointed to be treaded as some naughty children and didn’t want to see anything at all anymore.When we wanted to drive away, this Dana girl went out and apologized, which we found hard to accept and still wanted to leave as soon as possible. We told her, that we have seen the stop sign far ahead and indeed stopped, however close by there is so much to be seen, the house, the parking, the picnic place, that it is very hard to notice a small mark under the stop sign. We have said several times that we were very sorry that we didn’t pay first, but there is never a reason to shout at us, or any other visitor, or be treated the way she did. This was our ‘welcome to Louisiana’, but we didn’t know that is was only the beginning of a horror day in this state.