New Orleans wow!

 New Orleans

We wanted to be somewhere special for our 30th anniversary. Christine had her heart set on New Orleans, mainly because it is the setting for so many of the books she has read. We arrived to some fantastic weather and made our way to one of the oldest and most famous hotels in the city, the Monteleone. A who’s who of famous people have stayed here, including Hemingway and Faulkner, and now us! It was a gorgeous spot and did us very nicely for the four days we were here. 

Our New Orleans home (a haven for writers)

We wasted no time but got out into the streets and found ourselves a  nice little jazz club around the corner and settled in with some drinks for a couple of hours. It was a no frills spot but the music was top notch. That is what you notice about New Orleans, every busker seems to have studied at a Conservatorium!

At night Bourbon Street and the entire French Quarter is manic, with bucks and hens nights out until 2AM. During the day it is a wonderful place to wander through and check out very interesting little art galleries. 

Buskers' on every corner

The Monteleone

Its starting  to look a lot like ...

Carousel Bar

The next day we got ourselves on a guided tour of the St Louis No.1 Cemetery, the oldest in the city. Because of the constant threat of flooding and the fact that the highest point in the city is only 7ft above sea level, everybody is buried above ground. Families purchase crypts, most of which have been around for centuries. When someone dies they are put in the crypt, which cannot be opened by law for a year to ensure the body is properly desiccated. When the crypt starts to get too full, they break the body apart by pushing it to the back of the crypt so they can make room for the next family member. They can store up to 150 people this way in each crypt!   

St Lewis no1 cemetery

One of the famous crypts was that of the Laveau family, including Marie Laveau, celebrated as the VooDoo queen of New Orleans. Despite the rumours she had little to do with black magic and was just someone very practiced in the healing arts who, as a woman, got the local medical establishment offside.

Another interesting tomb was that of Nicolas Cage, who isn’t dead yet, but purchased the tomb for himself from a local family. New Orleans people count Nicolas Cage as one of their own and, indeed, he seems to be their patron saint. The saint of all weird things. 

Nicholas Cage future tomb

Marie Laveau tomb

It is fair to say that we went a bit crazy with the food and wine, eating out for breakfast and dinner at some of the best spots in New Orleans. Their food is interesting to say the least, a strange blend of French, Spanish, German, Italian and native American that they call Creole.  Magnificent, but no way you can eat it all year round. 

anniversary beverage

Broussards Thurs to Fri

Oceana (brekky) ☆

Cafe Beignet ☆

Crescent City Brew House ☆ 

Beer german style. 

(Oysters amazing plump and delicious. Grits and prawn and the Louisiana crawfish etouffee) 

Brennans (Anniversary dinner) ☆

Jacksons square and cathedral

Probably the highlight of our time in New Orleans was the walking tour of the Garden Quarter. This part of New Orleans used to be called Lafayette, named after the famous American Revolutionary War hero. It was where the finest house were built in the period leading up to the Civil War.  Our guide Dane was a brilliant entertainer, historian and terrific character.  The whole 2 hours were well choreographed. We viewed amazing houses, learnt about architectural styles and what brought them about.  Past influencers, gossip and not so charitable people, given that most of the wealth was built on slavery.  We also found out about some great books to read, and documentaries to watch on this fascinating part of the world. It is quite impressive that these old houses are still there given that renovating them generally costs several million dollars and takes on average twenty years to complete. This is mostly driven  by the fact that the entire area has been reclaimed and essentially sits on top of the Mississippi River, which flows underneath it and is constantly trying to take it back. 

Anne Rice 1989 to 2004

Sandra Bullock's house

We caught the Street Car to the garden district town a very noisy, bumpy and must do New Orleans public transport.

As per a recommendation by a friend in Sydney (🤨) we went on the Natchez steamboat up and down the Mississippi. The boat has a Steam calliope, (a steam-powered organ), steam is forced through a set of pipes to create a extreamly loud "music", think circus tunes then turn up the volume tenfold. Other than that, the information they shared, the live jazz band and the weather made this a pleasant excursion.

It was very sad to say goodbye to New Orleans and we plan on returning one day.