FRENCH - A - THON
Saturday, March 15th
10:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Larose Civic Center

     Music by "Cajun Toujours" and "Lafourche Cajun Band".  Come out and enjoy speaking French, playing bingo and pedro.  Exhibits and plenty of French games and storytelling in French for the Children.  Demonstration of a day in a French Immersion Class.

Free beignets and coffee at 10:00 AM
The Play "Blanche Neige" at 2:00 PM
Lunch and Concessions will be sold
FMI call: 985-532-2907 or 985-693-7355

Bayou Lafourche Heritage Celebration

A Special
Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial 2003 Event
Larose Civic Center, Larose, LA

SUNDAY, MARCH 16TH

     As Louisiana celebrates the Bicentennial of the Louisiana Purchase in 2003, the Bayou Lafourche community of Larose offers an exciting event. The free day-long celebration will offer historical aspects of The Purchase and explore the cultural traces of Francophone heritage found in today’s Cajun culture.

     Join in our Birthday Celebration featuring historians and nationally recorded performing artists. Make Ia Viellie (visit), dansez at the Fais Do.Do, and mangez great foods native to Bayou Lafourche. Celebrate with us!

Perspectives of the Purchase

1 - 2 PM -  Panel of Scholars:

                   Dr. Gerald Bodet: A Failed Policy: Britain’s Efforts to Control America’s  
                   Frontier, 1783-1815 

                   Dr. Raphael Cassimere: Impact of the Louisiana Purchase on African
                   Americans

                   Dr. Connie Atkinson: Battle on the Dance Floor:  Music and Culture in 
                   New  Orleans as the Americans Arrived

Louisiana’s French Inheritance:

3 - 4 PM -  Panel of Scholars:

                  Dr. Barry Ancelet: The Linguistic Legacy of the Louisiana Purchase

                  Dr. John Doucet: The Genetic Legacy of Historical Louisiana Villages

                  Dr. David Cheramie: They Brought Their Language With Them: How   
                  Other Languages Influenced Cajun French.

Folklife Demonstration Schedule.

11:30 PM  - Net Making 

12:30 PM -  Making Gumbo

1:30 PM -  Traditional Decoy Carving

2.3O PM -  Cistern Making

3:30 PM -  Cooking Wild Game

4:30 PM -  Traditional Louisiana Boatbuilding

Schedule of Events

10:00 AM -  French Mass at Our Lady of the Rosary Church, Larose, by Fr. Arsenault     
                     recipient of the Leger-Comeau Medal of Honor, National Acadian Society

11:30 AM -  Food Booths Open
                      Make It & Take It Opens
                      (Nominal fee for above kids art activities)
                      Folklife Demonstrations Begin

11 :30 AM - 2:3O PM  -  Live Music and Dancing by Vin Bruce and La Bonne Vie

Noon - 2:00 PM  -  Louisiana History Quiz Bowl Competition

1 :00 PM - 2:00 PM -  Perspectives on the Purchase Panel Discussion

2:00 PM - Ducos Home Tour  (Tour departs parking lot at 2:10pm)

2:OO PM - 2:3O PM -  Development of Fiddle Music from France to Acadia and on to 
                                        Louisiana lecture/demonstration by Roland Cheramie, Jr.

2:OO PM - 2:4O PM -  Settlers of Early Lafourche by Audrey Westerman, CGRS

2:3O PM - 3:OO PM -  Classical Louisiana Music by the South Lafourche 
                                        High School Concert Band

2:4O PM - 3 :OO PM -  Biloxi-Chitimacha Folklife

Presentation

3:OO PM - 3:3O PM -  Accordion Music Development from the Louisiana Prairies
                                       Eastward - lecture/demonstration by Buddy Miller, Jr.

3:OO PM - 3:45 PM -  Music & Dance Performance by the 20 member La Swing 
                                       du Swete of Cheticamp, Nova Scotia

3:OO PM - 4:OO PM -  Louisiana’s French Inheritance Panel Discussion

3:OO PM - 6:OO PM -  Live Music and Dancing by Cajun Toujour

4:OO PM - 4:45 PM -  Cajun Two-Step and Waltz Dance Lessons by Carol & 
                                       C.J. Knobloch

Directions via the Luling Hale-Boggs Bridge:

     Take I-10 east from Baton Rouge or I-10 West from New Orleans.  Exit I-310 towards Boutte.  Follow I-310, approximately 12 miles to its end point.  At the end of I-310 take the westbound exit onto Hwy. 90 (towards Houma) for 17.5 miles; at the overpass, take the "Hwy. 308, Raceland" exit.  Turn left onto Hwy 308, which runs along Bayou Lafourche.  Head east on Hwy. 308 for 16 miles, continuing until you reach an overpass that spans the Intra-coastal Canal.  Once on the overpass, you will see the festival grounds on your right.  Turn right at the foot of the overpass; proceed 1 block, turn right again.  Continue two blocks and you will have reached the fairgrounds.  Ample, free parking is available.