The Village of French Settlement held their Creole Festival on October 24, 2026 from 10 AM to 5 PM inviting everyone to sample a little bit of the history of the area and support some of the amazing local artists.
The highlighted artist of the festival was Peggy Carbo with her stall selling Louisiana-inspired artworks including whimsical portraits of tigers driving boats through the swamp and crawfish cooking pots of gumbo, along with several breathtaking nature scenes of the bayou with spanish moss framing the setting sun above the water.
Vendors for the festival included Todd’s Woodcraft with several handmade wooden pumpkin decorations, 225CuratedThrift with select curios and antique goodies, Kam’s Craftastic Creations with plenty of scented freshies and wax melts, and It’s all His Creations with Christian themed handmade jewelry.
Kaitlyn’s Kids Area had face painting, ping pong palooza, football toss, tic tac toe, and kingdom golf for children to play and enjoy at the festival.
Foods, such as hot boiled peanuts, fresh cracklins, and candy apples, went alongside freshly made lemonade and coffee lattes for a quick pick-me-up.
One of the main attractions at the Creole Festival was the Creole House Museum which is fashioned out of the Decareaux House that was built in 1898. The museum is placed on the national register of historic places and displays the typical rooms that were found within the house at that point in history along with items previously used by the families that lived in the house.
Informational placards and the knowledgeable historians working there help to weave together the story of Louisa Lambert, and her husband Alexander Decareaux, for whom the house was originally built.
Rooms include donated and recovered items such as early spectacles, baby bottles, hand-tatted doilies, paintings of religious figures, quilts, picture albums, arrowheads, and children’s toys from the early 1900s, among many more items.
Each piece tells the story of the couple that lived in the house – their struggles, trials, triumphs, faith, and the family they raised as the years progressed.
Another interesting and informational set up at the festival was the booth for Berthelot’s Ground Red Pepper. According to the booth’s informational poster, the seeds for the peppers have been in the Berthelot family since the early 1900s and have been cross pollinated by McCoy Berthelot to add some heat to the peppers.
The board provided information on the temperatures, seasons, and conditions to grow the peppers as well as how they turn them into jellies and ground pepper spices. The key is to let the peppers dry out. Early on, peppers were strung up and left outside to dry, then they were put on screens under sunlight to dry, and in more modern times they are dried in a greenhouse or inside for a few days then put into a dehydrator to finish the process.
Livingston Parish Fire Protection District 8 also had a booth discussing their millage renewal up for vote on November 3rd. Along with the firefighters and volunteers, displays of firefighting gear and three real firetrucks were set up near the entrance of the festival detailing the prices and uses of each part of their gear and trucks for those interested in learning more about the subject.
The Creole Festival is an annual celebration, so for those who missed the opportunity to attend this year – don’t worry, there will be plenty more opportunities in the future!
