I'm learning this wonderful Robbie Robertson song - really a folk song in rock'n'roll disguise, about French Canadian emigration to Louisiana. (Check out the rhyming scheme - brilliant!) I'd like to know: what, where and when was the Treaty signed; where are the Plains of Abraham and what went down there; and can someone provide a translation of the French lines at the end?

Acadian Driftwood (Robbie Robertson)

The war was over and the spirit was broken
The hills were smoking as the men withdrew
We stood on the cliffs and watched the ships
Slowly sinking to their rendez-vous
They signed a treaty and our homes were taken
Loved ones forsaken; they didn't give a damn
Try to raise a family, end up the enemy
Over what went down on the Plains of Abraham

/= Acadian driftwood, gypsy tailwind
They call my home the land of snow
Canadian cold front moving in
What a way to ride, oh what a way to go =/

Then some returned to the motherland
The High Command had them cast away
And some stayed on to finish what they started
They never parted, they're just built that way
We had kin living south of the border
They're a little older and they've been around
They wrote in a letter, Life is a whole lot better
So pull up your stakes, children, and come on down /=/

Fifteen under zero when the day became a threat
My clothes were wet and I was drenched to the bone
Been out ice fishing; too much repetition
Make a man want to leave the only home he's known
Sailed out of the Gulf heading for Saint Pierre
Nothing to declare, all we had was gone
Broke down along the coast, but what hurt the most
When the people there said, You'd better keep moving on /=/

Everlasting summer filled with ill content
This government had us walking in chains
This isn't my turf, this ain't my season
Can't think of one good reason to remain
We worked in the sugar fields up from New Orleans
It was ever green, up until the floods
You could call it an omen, points you where you're going
Set my compass north, I've got winter in my blood /=/

Sais tu, Acadie, j'ai la mal du pays
Ta neige, Acadie, fait des larmes au soleil
J'arrive, Acadie, teedle-um teedle-um teedle-oo
J'arrive, Acadie, teedle-um teedle-um teedle-oo

Cheers,
Michael