Abbeville is a city in and the parish seat of Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, United States, 150 miles (241 km) west of New Orleans, Louisiana. The population was 11,887 at the 2000 United States Census. Abbeville is in the heart of'Cajun Country,'and is home to many restaurants that specialize in the authentic tastes of the region.

Abbeville is the principal city of the Abbeville Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Vermilion Parish. It is also part of the larger Lafayette, Louisiana-Acadiana Lafayette-Acadiana combined statistical area.

History
The land that was to become Abbeville was purchased by founding...

Abbeville is a city in and the parish seat of Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, United States, 150 miles (241 km) west of New Orleans, Louisiana. The population was 11,887 at the 2000 United States Census. Abbeville is in the heart of'Cajun Country,'and is home to many restaurants that specialize in the authentic tastes of the region.

Abbeville is the principal city of the Abbeville Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Vermilion Parish. It is also part of the larger Lafayette, Louisiana-Acadiana Lafayette-Acadiana combined statistical area.

History
The land that was to become Abbeville was purchased by founding father P??re Antoine D??sir?? M??gret (P??re is French for Father ), Order of Friars Minor Capuchin missionary, on July 25, 1843 for $900. Megret named the town after his home in France. There were two people living on the land at that time, Joseph LeBlanc and his wife Isabelle Broussard, whose former home Father Megret converted into a chapel. The chapel burned in 1854, and St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church now stands at the same location.

Father Megret modeled his original plan for the village after a French Provincial village. In a map he made in 1846, the town was 38 to in size. It was bounded on the north by St. Victor Boulevard, on the south by Lafayette Boulevard, on the east by'the sisters of Charity,'and on the west by Bayou Vermilion. At this point in time the town was called oAbbville?. It is not clear exactly when or why the transition to'Abbeville'took place. There were two theories as to why this name was chosen. One is that it was a combination of'Abbe'for Abb?? M??gret and'ville'for town " thus Abb??'s town. The other is that it was named for Abbeville, France, which some believed to have been the birthplace of P??re M??gret. Some support for the second theory could be found in the fact that the town in France is pronounced'Abbville'by the French. However, in 1995, Fr. Jean Desobry discovered in the diocesan archives of Amiens the dossier of Fr. Antoine Jacques D??sir?? M??gret, who was born on May 23, 1797 at Abbeville dans la Somme and was to become founder of Abbeville in Louisiana. He also found that on February 12, 1844, the pastor gave to his American town the name of the town of his birth.

:'The residents find this name especially fitting because of the French word abb?? which means father added to the French word ville [which means town]. Their Abbeville is truly la ville de l abb?? [the priest's town]. '