Circular staircase in a manor house in the Charpentier Historic District, Lake Charles, Louisiana
The land of the Cajuns stretches west from New Orleans up to the Texan border. These were people of French descent, who created their own particular culture in the bayous of the Mississippi Delta. The word "Cajun" is an Americanized form of the French "Acadiens", the name given to French settlers deported from Canada by the British from 1755 onwards. Acadiana, or The Heart of Acadiana, (Cajun French: L'Acadiane) is the official name given to the French Louisiana region that is home to a large Francophone population. Of the 64 parishes that comprise Louisiana, 22 named parishes and other parishes of similar cultural environment, make up the intrastate region Despite the frequent association of Cajuns with swamplands and bayous, Acadiana consists mainly of low gentle hills in the north section and dry land prairies, with marshes and bayous in the south closer to the coast. The wetlands increase in frequency in and around the Atchafalaya and Mississippi basins. The area also is cultivated with fields of rice and sugarcane. Acadiana, as defined by the Louisiana legislature, refers to the area that stretches from just west of New Orleans to the Texas border along the Gulf of Mexico coast, and about 100 miles inland to Marksville. This includes the 22 parishes of Acadia, Ascension, Assumption, Avoyelles, Calcasieu, Cameron, Evangeline, Iberia, Iberville, Jeff Davis, Lafayette, Lafourche, Pointe Coupee, St. Charles, St. James, St. John The Baptist, St. Landry, St. Martin, St. Mary, Terrebonne, Vermilion, and West Baton Rouge. The total land area is 37, km² (14, sq mi). At the 2000 census its total population was 1,352,646 residents. Three of the parishes, St. Charles, St. James, St. John the Baptist, are considered the River Parishes. Ascension Parish is occasionally included with them. Present-day St. Charles and St. John the Baptist parishes also made up an area formerly known as the German Coast (les côtes des Allemands) because of settlement by German
Size: 5100px × 3414px
Location: Cajun country, Louisiana, USA
Photo credit: © Dimitry Bobroff / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: acadiana, acadiens, bayou, cajun, charles, charpentier, circular, district, french, historic, lafayette, lake, louisiana, pattern, staircase, swamp, swampland
