The village of Nouvelle Bourbon was established in 1793 by order of Baron Carondelet, Governor of the colony of Upper Louisiana "to put the new settlement under the special protection of the august sovereign who governs Spain, and also that the descendants of the new colonists may imitate the fidelity and firmness of their of their fathers toward their king."

[5] The purpose of the settlement was to establish a number of French royalist families who had settled at Gallipolis in southeastern Ohio, but had become dissatisfied there.

[6] The colony of Upper Louisiana on the west bank of the Mississippi River was divided into two districts: the Ste.

New Bourbon was a planned tripartite (three-part) French village, divided into three sections, with the village at the core of the settlement containing square lots called a terrain or an emplacement which typically contained a residence, a household garden, a small orchard and barnyard animals, a barn (grange) for grain, a cabin (cabane) or shed (appenti) for corn, and perhaps a slave cabin and a horse and cow milking stable.

The commons (parc) served as a multi-use piece of land, and would be used to provide herbage for cattle, wood for fuel and fencing, and berries and fruit.

Genevieve on the bluffs overlooking the Le Grand Champ bottomlands along the Mississippi River, and is located within Ste.