To the Platin and back with the Milans

My Padna Mike Hebert dit Milan makes the most interesting videos of his parents Madame Calvelene and Monsieur Roland Hebert speaking French. Every word they say is pure Evangeline parish poetry. Merci Mike! Keep the videos coming. Check out his YouTube Channel for more videos like this one.

Allons 'oir icitte, Mike nous a donné un papier icitte avec des mots comment dire en français

Uh, j'étais soule hier au soir...Ça ça veut dire...I was drunk last night.
J'crois ça serais...eh? J'étais soule hier au soir...
Ouais lui il a écrit "Je m'ai saoulé hier au soir."  Which means, I got drunk last night.

Un autre mot c'est uh...
Beaucoup d'bière

Ouais, beaucoup de bière...a lot of beer.

Ouragan.  Ça c'est comme ouragon. That's Hurricane like Issac! Ouragon!

Uh, Ça c'est quelquechose ma grandmère disait quand on avait un ti bo-bo sur la main or quelquechose a disait "caca chat, caca chien, guérir quand tu pourras."  Ça, ça veut dire: Cat poo dog poo heal when you can!

Et un autre affaire c'est sureau petard pop-gun with china ball which was des boules de lilas!

Et icitte c'est, Donne-mon du pain d'maïs. Et c'est ça que j'suis juste fini de manger pour souper drêt... peut-être dix minutes passé. Du pain maïs. Give me some cornbread!

Et là c'est donne-mon une bonne bière fraide, s'il vous plaît. Give me a good cold beer please.

Et un autre mot c'est pigeon vole -- pigeon flies. On jouait ça quand on était petit, tu te rappelles?  Ouais quand on était malade on pouvait pas jouer dehors, ou c'était frais, ou c'était.. on peux pas aller dehors on jouait dans la maison, pigeon vole!

Et, orage de tonnerre and mauvais temps. Storms and bad weather. C'est là on peux jouer pigeon vole! That's when we played pigeon flies!

 Et les patates... blanquettes et.. comment tu dis ça, Dad? and oeufs battus! Blanquettes et des ouefs battus! ok, Moi, j'ai des misères à lire en français. Je peux parler en français mais, j'ai des misères à lire en français. Blankets (Smothered Potatos) and Beaten Eggs. I have trouble reading in French. I can talk in French, but I have trouble reading in French.

Ça c'est mure filante and mure d'éronce! dewberry and blackberry. Des bonnes affaires pour faire des tartes et des pâtés!

Bonjour! Comment les affaires à ce matin? Ça j'connais qui ça veux dire! Hello, how are things this morning?

Ouais, allons 'oir icitte ça dit c'est uh... la viande moulé ground meat...

Et là icitte dit...Sur le jour ma noce, ma mouman arête au Half Moon pour acheter une bouteille de champagne. Ouais c'était ma mouman. C'est...j'avais dis ça. Sur la route pour aller à ma noce, on avait arrêté au Half Moon à L'anse Grise pour acheter une bouteille de Champagne pour ma noce et j'restais assis dans char avec ma robe de noce. J'avais beaucoup honte! On my wedding day, my mother stopped at the Half Moon in Grey Cove to buy some champagne. I was sitting in the car in my wedding dress. I was embarrassed a lot!

Ben, uh, icitte c'est une journée on té là bas... au assister les fetraille? Monsieur Edius Naquin et Gussié a passé et arrêté et l'on dit à mon, il dit, quitte-moi 'oir ces tites... ces petites Milans! Ça c'est le nom la famille avait pour les années et des années passés. Et tu 'ois, Monsieur Edius usait juste ce nom: Milan. Edius Naquin and Gussie passed and said "Let me see those little Milans." He used Milan, which was the name our family had gone by for years and years passed... and he only used this name: Milan.

Je me réveillé de bon matin pour mon aller pecher à Miller's Lake mais il mouillait trop. I woke up early in the morning to go fishing at Miller's lake but it was raining too much.

Monsieur Fontenot, donne-mon un bout d'boudin. Ça tu 'ois, je peux lire ça! et là il dit qui d'autre? Mr. Weelo, give me a link of boudin. Gratons aussi? Droite là. Je vas donner ça...toi.


Allons parler pour les places:

 Le Platin (The Large Flat, Low Place)

Le Platin. Qui ti jongles quand on dit platin? Quand on dit platin je jongle à la cimetière. Presque-proche tout notre famille est enterré là.
Ouais un platin c'est une grand place avec la terre basse. Et la cimetière est dans cette place là.

L'Anse de Tate. (Cove of the Tates)

L'Anse de Tate c'est comme tu dis ça "Take Cove"! (Tate Cove)
Ça j'aurais pas compris ça: L'anse de Tate. Quand tu dis Tate je jongle à la tête, ma head!

L'Anse Cavalier. That's Horseman Cove.

L'Anse aux Pailles. (Cove of Straw)

J'avais jamais connu pour L'anse aux Pailles, mais, seulement quand les affaires est tonnable icitte on dit Allons à l'anse aux pailles! C'est parceque L'anse aux Pailles est si loin de L'Anse Grise, un grand bout, ça fait, quand tu jongle à un chose qu'est loin loin, tu jongles à L'anse aux Pailles.

 Pointe aux Pins. (Pine Point)

Ça c'est des arbres de pin, peut-être?
Ça ça veux dire, ouais, une place ayoù y'a une bandes des arbres de pin.

L'anse Aux Vaches. (Cow Cove)

Y'a un tas d'vaches, peut-être? Ouais, L'anse aux vaches, j'pense c'était une place ayoù y'en avait des vaches dans les autres fois, un tas des vaches, ils ont nommé ce place, L'anse aux vaches....

L'anse de Haïssable (Cove of the Hateful)

Ça c'est une place ayoù j'crois pas peut-être j'veux pas rester. C'est un drôle de nom, ça, L'anse de Haïssable.
Peut-être la terrte était pas bonne ou...J'pas comprendre qui ça veux dire, mais ils ont un place nommé comme ça. L'anse de Haïssable.


L'anse Bourbeuse. (Muddy Cove, birthplace of the Honorable Preston Aucoin)

Et là...beaucoup de boue? Ouais j'pense y'a pas beaucoup de bonne terre là, c'était trompe un tas. 'Pense c'était manière comme un platin.

Ok, Ça c'est tout!

Black Light Mary of Pointe Claire

There's a tree frog on her head, if you look close.

Faubourg Guadalupe

Faubourg Guadalupe

Faubourg Guadalupe

beautiful cypress "grotto" with pink impatiens

Beautiful Mary with scallop detail

Our Lady of Grace- Faubourg

Statues from the beautiful homestead of Monsieur and Madame L. Fontenot,  photo submission by M.L.S.

Green Pears in Leonville

As my old student Mlle LeMelle used to say. "Nothin's happenin in Leonville. You go to church, you go home." Technically, Leonville is the closest town to the PDF, but I don't often go there lately, mostly because the bridge leading there was out for six months, and because sometimes the big stores up on the Interstate have more selection and fresh fruit. But sometimes you don't want selection or the freshest fruit. Selection is overwhelming and say you want just good old fruit, trucked back on the Teche and displayed at the Marche. On those days, I retreat back into Teche Country, not to the busy Exit 11. Yesterday, I had a sick child and a fussy baby and we were out of milk. It was almost 5 and I wanted to be back home for my afternoon coffee and world news with Diane Sawyer, which is like religion to me. So, at the end of the driveway, I decided today would be a quick trip to Leonville, to the right, through the open fields of Pointe Claire. 

On the way, there is my favorite little homestead: it is a little white house with a blue roof and red truck in the driveway. It is surrounded by the green fields along Jules LaGrange. In the ditch are a big clump of red flowering ginger and in the side yard are hand painted statues of Jesus and Mary. Their house reminds me of the cardinals that swoop across the road along the bayou:

The town of Leonville itself is a little like a 1940's ghost town.  A few hundred people live in quiet, neat houses and trailers, and otherwise, abandoned white structures line the streets. Even the brown Teche flows quietly through with none of the fanfare you would find over it in a place like Arnaudville. At the heart of Leonville is Champagne's grocery, flanked by Leonville Elementary on one side and the rounded bell tower of St. Leo's Church on the other.  Inside I recognized a few of my old students and their growing siblings. I am always greeted with a "Bonjour Madame", even though I only taught French at the high school for five years and haven't taught in three.


D'après moi, Champagnes' Marche' is the perfect local grocery store. They had home-grown cantaloupes, perfectly portioned packs of green beans, soft loaves of sausage-jalapeno-cheese bread and giant boxes of Little Debbie Snacks. I got a six-pack of glass bottle cokes. I especially enjoyed picking out four green pears, whose green color and form seemed to belong in some mystical way to the very fiber of grey Leonville. 

In the parking lot, I saw a plainclothes Father Ken Domingue walk in, red shirt, smiling. He had taught me as a teenager at Sacred Heart in Ville Platte. Other people were pumping gas. There were dark, thin men with their sons, blonde mothers with children, more of my students, and an old couple talking in French. The church bells gonged the half hour. People were going home. 


Near the silos at Mark's Bridge, Mister Simon, expert snake killer and father to les belles filles Stelly was crossing the road near his lovely oak-shaded home on the Coulee. I pulled over briefly to tell him Hey, I almost called you earlier! I had a six foot chicken snake in my cabanne! He laughed. I told him that it got away, and I wanted to use my pistol, but there was cement in the cabanne, and would it ricochet? As I saw a black truck coming up behind me from the fields, Mister Simon said, Oh no, you don't wanna do dat, it'll ricochet bad! and as I drove away, he waved and laughed, Don't do dat!!

Mista Simon, masta snake killa and awesome neighbor! Pic by M. Stelly

 Further up the road, where the new houses (!) are being built, there was my old student the PDF Gazette and another neighbor, Tante Claire, visiting in the yard. I took the chance to pull over, visit for a minute, en Francais meme! and take a couple pictures of the double (triple) Mary Statues in their yard. It was nice to get to talk to the neighbors. I even saw something at their place that I never saw before:

A cement baby Jesus- SHA!!!!!

Prairie Pietà

 Appropriate Double-Grotto Home In the Prairie of the Women

Our Lady, Reine des Guêpes (and there are many on the Prairie!)

You never know the mystical things you will see when you go to Leonville...

Buffy on Saint Medard

From Wikimedia Commons

Alright bonjour qui c'est qui parle?

Hey This here's Buffy.

Yay! Steve Buffy! Go right ahead-

When does the Simeda start? Da eighth or da tenth of June? 

I think it's the eighth of June, huh? 

...I'm not sure no mo...

...j'crois...comme si il serait le huit de juin qu'est la la fête de Saint Medard. (I think that it'll be the eighth of June that is the feast day of St. Médard)

-Ouais (yeah)

Et là, si ça mouille ce jour là, ça va mouiller pour quarante jours et si ça mouille pas, ça va être sec pour quarante jours, ein? (And if it rains that day, it will rain for forty days and if it doesn't rain, it will be dry for forty days, huh?)

Yep, that's how it goes...

That's how it goes...

From KATC TV3 -Acadiana's News Channel