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On April 9, 1682, Robert Cavelier de la Salle planted the cross on Louisiana soil and erected a plaque with the French fleur-de-lis. He claimed the lower Mississippi Valley in the name of God and the French King. La Salle then returned to Quebec but continued in his effort to enlarge New France all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Later he formed an expedition to seek out the mouth of the Mississippi River and set up a colony. Either through an error in navigation or by intent he overshot that objective and built a settlement much further west at Matagorda Bay in today's Texas. After la Salle's failure France started over with a Louisiana venture this time at Old Biloxi. Although Natchitoches is the oldest town in the Louisiana Purchase (1714) it was remote and only established as a trade post so no parish was founded there until later. The French also had little need in providing a priest for such a small settlement with the Spanish priests so close at Los Adais.

1699 Old Biloxi [Ocean Springs, Mississippi]

1703 Mobile Alabama

1716 Natchez Mississippi

1717 Los Adais near Robeline (see note below)

1720 New Orleans [St. Louis Church]

1722 La Balize near the mouth of the Mississippi River

1722 The German Coast [St. Charles; town later called Destrehan]

1728 Pointe Coupee

1728 Natchitoches

1729 Chapitoulas [original name for Metairie]
Note: Technically Los Adais was an Indian mission of the Spanish province of Tejas (part of what was latter to be known as Texas) and not part of the Louisiana Colony. The same held true for the later Spanish Presidio Church which was located only a short ways away from the mission. A strip of land some 25 miles wide on the western edge of todays State of Louisiana was disputed by Spain as part of Tejas until the Adams-Onis treaty between the United States and Spain was signed.

Pioneer Parishes of French Louisiana