Abbeville

Abbeville is a town in and the parish seat of Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, United States, 150 miles (241 km) west of New Orleans. It is the principal city of the Abbeville Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Vermilion Parish. It is also part of the larger Lafayette–Acadiana Combined Statistical Area. The population was 12,257 at the 2010 census. Abbeville is a trade center for agricultural products, especially rice and seafood and provides services for the oil and natural gas fields in the Gulf of Mexico. Formerly called La Chapelle, the land that was to become Abbeville was purchased by founding father Père Antoine Désiré Mégret (Père is French for 'Father'), Capuchin missionary, on July 25, 1843 for $900. Megret named...