Frog City RV Park, Duson, Louisiana
A discerning man keeps wisdom in view, but a fool’s eyes wander to the ends of the earth. ~ Proverbs 17:24
I spent the day trying to get the blog caught up. Blaine edited for me and went by himself for a short, cold walk around the campground area. But at least the sun’s shining today!
We did nothing worth mentioning until tonight.
Tonight, we visited Noel Acadien Au Village. It was a bit pricey at $10/person, which included absolutely nothing but the privilege of walking around the village, but it’s Christmas. We considered it a donation to help with the cost of keeping the restored village operational throughout the year. Here’s what their website says:
Acadian Village is located on the 32-acres of LARC. In the early 1970s, officials were looking for an opportunity to improve tourism in Lafayette, Louisiana. Dr. Norman Heard, Bob Lowe, and Glen Conrad are credited with the idea.
The Village was created to serve three purposes: to preserve a piece of early Acadian heritage, to raise funds to help offset government cuts to the program, and to provide employment for LARC clients. In order to recreate a typical 1800s Cajun village, the design team had to transform 10 acres of farmland into a shaded community with a bayou running through it.
The massive undertaking of construction, dredging of bayous, and home restoration were accomplished through local carpenters, businessmen, civic organizations, and community volunteers. Even the Army Reservists of the Lafayette area pitched in by building the general store. The result captured a specific moment in time. Perhaps the 1978 Village Director, Mrs. Marti Gutierrez, said it best in a Times Picayune article, “The old ways are worth keeping alive, worth handing down, worth remembering.”
Seven of the eleven buildings are authentic homes of the 19th century, donated by the families whose ancestors once occupied them. All homes show the passing of time and are remarkable examples of the ingenuity of the early Acadian homebuilders, complete with wooden pegs, mud walls, hand-hewn cypress timbers, and high-peaked roofs. Each was moved piece by piece and carefully restored.
LARC owns and operates LARC’s Acadian Village. All revenue generated from tourism, venue rentals, and fundraising events at LARC’s Acadian Village benefit LARC programs.
LARC’s mission is to support persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities in reaching their goals of self-sufficiency, quality of life and self-worth. For more than 50 years, LARC has been dedicated to serving the needs of people in our community with developmental disabilities and their families. Throughout LARC’s existence, the organization has continually expanded to fully include the people we serve in the mainstream and workforce of the community.
By the way, it took some doing, but I eventually discovered what the LARC acronym stands for, and it’s no wonder I had such a hard time locating it, since people are so touchy these days. It’s Lafayette Association for Retarded Citizens. Someone was bashing the name, but then someone else pointed out that the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) still uses their acronym, despite the fact that if the words ‘colored people’ are used nowadays, all kinds of hate-filled words and comments and violence come spewing forth.
So now that we know what the place really is, we can really feel comfortable with our ‘donation’. 😊
It was a beautiful place to walk around, despite the chill in the weather, and there were quite a few people and families present as well. Vestiges of the fact that it’s CHRIST-mas, were everywhere – from the church, to signs to several nativities. There is no shame down here for remembering and publicly acknowledging that Jesus is the reason for the season we love to celebrate.
Some “moved” – like a frog jumping, or a fish leaping into a pelican’s mouth, but they weren’t as well-done as the ones we saw in South Carolina last year.
There were food trucks selling things like funnel cakes and candy apples, and a cafeteria that offered other food items like hot dogs, hot chocolate, and even gumbo (probably run by LARC people). And there were a few amusement park rides, but tickets for those seemed astronomical – $1/ticket and a ferris wheel ride cost $4/person! So no romantic ride snuggled up against the cold for us. But I’ll bet the village was really pretty from up there!
Not sure why it was added???
Gotta get home and watch ‘Survivor’, one of Blaine’s favorite shows. 😊