French Settlement, LA

French Settlement is a Livingston Parish village on the Amite River, settled in 1800 by French, German, and Italian immigrants. The river was the original road in, and the settlement grew around cypress sawmills, trapping, shingle-making, farms, and a steamboat port. Four houses in the village are listed on the National Register of Historic Places: the Decareaux, Deslattes, Guitreau, and Lobell houses. Today Louisiana Highway 16 crosses the Amite at French Settlement, where a former swing bridge was replaced by a concrete bridge in 2025. French Settlement is a Baton Rouge-area village whose name is only the first layer; its river history is a much more mixed Louisiana story.