New Orleans
Picture a city where the party never ends, where “the good times roll” and the music pulsates on every corner of the French Quarter and beyond. New Orleans. Raw, real, randomly chaotic.
We crammed a lot into our two days there. On Monday, March 10th, we drove into town and had dinner at Le Bayou on a balcony overlooking Bourbon. We watched a parade of humans, some with dogs, some dressed in Mardi Gras colors- gold, green and purple, and some in hardly any clothes at all. For young girls, the custom is to wear extremely short skirts and very skimpy tops- even on a chilly Monday night.
We ate muffulettas with a couple beers for dinner. Muffulettas are similar to Italian subs on a round sesame seed bread with lots of Italian cold cuts and an olive salad.
Next day, we headed to Cafe Beignet, before our three hour city bus tour. We split three beignets (not nearly enough). Beignets, of course, are puffy square shaped pastries deep fried and dusted with powdered sugar. Yum.
The bus tour was amazing. We covered most of the city, including the French Quarter and the Garden District. Our driver was a New Orleans native whose knowledge of the city was broad and rich. We learned about the different influences of the city: French, African, Spanish, Creole, Cajun, and even Vietnamese.
We saw the locks and levies put in place on the Mississippi so another Katrina cant happen again. But consensus is it will eventually and that someday the whole city will be under water.
Music is such a big part of the city: New Orleans style jazz, rhythym and blues, zydego and famous New Orleans artists like Fats Domino, Louis Prima, the Neville Brothers and Allen Toussaint, who wrote songs like “ Southern Nights” “Lady Marmalade” and “Right Place, Wrong Time” and of course, the one and only Louis Armsrong.
Then there are the festivals. There is Mardi Gras, but there are other parades and festivals almost every week. Even a funeral is an occasion for a parade with the family walking behind the casket, while a band plays somber dirge music until the spirit of the deceased is released when the music becomes more festive. Others who happen to be present on the street can join the parade as second stringers.
The Garden District boasts the most beautiful houses and some famous residents own them. Sandra Bullock, Harry Connick Jr, Beyonce and the late Ann Rice, just to name a few. It also has some beautiful cemeteries with burial mostly above ground in crypts or mausoleums. Some wealthy families pay for perpetual care, otherwise the graves fall into disrepair, crumble and eventually are taken down.
There you have it: The Big Easy.
