This is the kind of place you’ll only find if you know where you are going. Picard Cemetery, or “Le Cimetière des Picards” as locals call it in French, is located south of Milton down a gravel road that is lined with sugar cane fields, and not much else. And when you think you’re lost, all you have to do is open the gate and drive some more on a grass road. It will lead you strait to a little piece of heaven by the Vermilion river.
Picard Cemetery is beautiful, eerie, peaceful, a little creepy, and somewhat magical, all at once. My husband’s great-grand father is buried here although I couldn’t tell which tomb is his (it is one of the unmarked graves; he died in the 1880s). The cemetery is a mix of recent, old and very old graves. It is also a bit of a mess with broken tombs, broken crosses, and weeds growing around them.
According to my husband, who heard the story from the owner of the property a long time ago, Picard Cemetery came to be shortly after the war between the states when a man was shot to death there by the vigilantes. The man was buried by the river and was later joined by others. I could not find information at this point to confirm this story. If you know anything, do tell.
Part of the cemetery is still being used and is well maintained but most of its grounds could use some TLC. At the same time, I think part of the magic about the place is due to the mess.
If you know of a special place like this one I could visit one day, I would love to hear about it!
Originally Posted at: Lafayette Real Estate News
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