Grand-Pré (French for "great meadow") is located on the shore of the Minas Basin. It was an area of tidal marshland. The first people who lived in the area in 1680 were Pierre Melanson dit Laverdure and his wife Marguerite Mius d'Entremont. They had five young children. They came from the nearby Port-Royal. It was the first capital of the French settlement of Acadia ("Acadie" in French).