The ethnic attributes and adaptive strategies of the francophones of southwestern Louisiana are summarised, placing emphasis on the historical transformations that these have undergone. This formal description of the population is contrasted with, one, the images that are promoted by the local francophone élite and, two, the manner in which Louisiana is perceived from Québec. Both images place emphasis on the transplanted nature of the population, its Acadian and ultimately European origins, and hence a certain kinship with French Canada and "la francophonie mondiale". The tacts, however, point to a distinctive and separate Creole culture whose only affinity in "l'Amérique française" lies, perhaps, with the Métis of the Canadian West. The systematic denial of this reality is attributed, on the one hand, to the Americanisation of the local élite and, on the other, to the "continental vision" of Québec and the ideological significance of this vision to the modem Québec nation.