A birds eye view looking South down Rue Lavaud (name of the street).
The Comte de Paris and its companion ship the Aube, captained by Commodore Charles-Francois Lavaud (French) arrived in the Bay of Islands in the North Island on 11 July 1840, where they discovered that during their voyage the British had claimed Banks Peninsula. The French arrived in Akaroa Harbour on 18 August and established a settlement centred on the present-day site of Akaroa.