This is a drawing done by a French priest who was pastor at Little Red Church in Destrehan of the Trepagnier Plantation House. There were sugar cane fields for miles surrounding this house.
The Trepagnier Plantation was expropriated, along with several others, by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers to build the Bonnet Carre' Spillway.
Fr. Paret sketched almost all the plantations on the east bank of the River in St. Charles Parish from Montz to St. Rose. Montz, at the time, was the largest community on the east bank of St. Charles Parish until the Corps expropriated all the plantations to build the Spillway.
Fr. Paret did his drawings shortly before the Civil War, in 1863, and left for France a few years later. His art work was found in the family home in France after his death, well preserved and is now valuable history for Louisiana.
Long before the popularity and availability of cameras, Fr. Paret did his drawings as a bird's eye view, perhaps from atop the small levees built along the Mississippi River at the time.
His drawings of Little Red Church, interior and exterior, show the conditions under which he performed his religious duties.