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Published: January 31st 2012
Lafayette Cemetary #1
Seemingly endless tombs in a New Orleans city of the deadToday is my first day in
New Orleans.
Until 2005, the city was probably best known as a party town, a place where people drank in the streets and anything went.
After
Katrina, the city was probably known mostly as a flood zone.
The reality is now somewhere in between.
The oldest neighborhoods, the ones that tourists mostly stick to, were above sea level and have mostly recovered.
The newer, and poorer, neighborhoods were below sea level, and are still far from normal.
New Orleans is a vital place, a mixture of French, Spanish, Caribbean, and Anglo cultures seen nowhere else on earth.
I couldn’t do this trip and miss it.
Thanks to other events on the schedule, I ended up having to see it as one concentrated blitz.
I didn’t mind much, because I figured that was all my body could handle!
(FYI The title is a line in the remix of “Beautiful Day” that U2 dedicated to Katrina relief)
Garden District
Even more that Charlotte and Savannah, New Orleans is a city that looks like nowhere else on earth.
To get a better
Decaying tombs
In New Orleans, even the decay is picturesque. These tombs show the construction, plaster over bricks. idea of this city and its history, I decided to take a tour.
Most tours are aimed squarely at tourists, and are rather fanciful at best.
I chose those from the
Historic New Orleans Walking Tours, which have a reputation for historic accuracy.
No tales of Mardi Gras madness, vampires, and voodoo on (most of) these tours.
The first tour was the Anglo section, the
Garden District.
New Orleans was founded as part of the much larger Louisiana colony, France’s beachhead in North America.
Back in the 1600s, the French king realized that the Mississippi would be essential to trade.
He ordered his explorers to found a colony near the mouth.
The land around the mouth is all swamps.
They ultimately found the first solid land up from the mouth, which is all of ten feet above sea level, and Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville founded New Orleans in 1718.
The tour did NOT repeat the fact reported on almost every other, that the day was the day before the start of Lent, Mardi Gras.
The colony was a very difficult place to live.
It was surrounded
Firemen's tomb
Societies bought tombs for their members. Here is a great example by swamps.
The weather was oppressively humid.
There were mosquitoes everywhere, and they carried yellow fever.
It reached the point where the king kept his colony populated only by sending over every prisoner in Paris.
He eventually decided to cut his losses and handed Louisiana over to Spain in 1763, who wanted a buffer between their colonies in Central America and the growing English presence on the east coast.
After Napoleon came to power, he demanded the colony back in 1801, and got it.
This was a strange time in New Orleans, because it was officially French, but the Spanish officials were still in charge.
Ultimately, Napoleon needed cash to finance his war in Europe, and got it by
selling Louisiana to the United States in 1803.
After the purchase, American settlers came to New Orleans to make their fortune, mostly trading cotton and sugar cane.
The existing inhabitants, called Creoles, did not take well to this.
They were Catholic for starters, and the newcomers were Protestants.
They spoke French and followed French customs; the newcomers spoke English and followed American customs.
The Creoles banned the
Archie Manning's House
Archie Manning's house in the Garden District. I shot the photo over the fence. new settlers from the existing colony.
The Americans responded by setting up their own city next door, which ultimately became the Garden District.
Tension ran so high that Canal Street, the main street between the two areas, is still known as “the Neutral Ground”.
The tour starts in the most atmospheric part of the Garden District, its cemetery,
Lafayette #1.
New Orleans cemeteries are like nothing else in the US.
Burial is above ground, in tombs.
Part of the reason is that the marshy ground would release bodies buried in the ground with every flood, but it was also Spanish custom in their colonies at the time.
The custom carried over to the newcomers.
Most Louisiana cemeteries are vast miniature cities of gothic grandeur.
Tombs were made of plaster over bricks, because marble and other stones were far too expensive to import.
The guide explained burial customs in detail, and showed several beautiful examples of tomb art.
Most tombs are still in use.
After the cemetery, the tour explores many houses in the neighborhood.
Unusually, it has houses from both
Garden District
One of many impressive houses in the Garden District before the Civil War and afterward, because the economy recovered fairly quickly.
Many of them were built by people with Northern roots, and have northern architectural styles (Federal, Victorian, etc.).
The Italianate and Greek Revival favored by southerners are still found, however.
Many houses have beautiful
cast iron balconies, and cast iron fences.
Most have yards filled with flowers and old trees.
The area is called the Garden District because the Americans created yards and gardens in front of their houses, unlike the French and Spanish where houses were built flush to the street.
The one part of the tour I disliked is when the guide pointed out houses associated with celebrities or used as movie sets.
Should I care that Sandra Bullock owns a house in the Garden District?
One celebrity house is worth mentioning:
Archie Manning.
He bought his house in the Garden District when he was drafted by the New Orleans Saints.
Over the decades, he became as well known for his charity work as his playing, and became a symbol of the team.
When the Saints made their run to the Superbowl in 2009,
Cast Iron in the Garden District
One of the most striking houses in the Garden District. Note the extensive use of cast iron balconies his house became a pilgrimage site for fans.
So many fans rubbed the fence that parts of it broke off.
Soon enough, it was time to explore the city’s most famous section, the French Quarter.
I got there on what is probably the most famous public transit line in the country, the
St. Charles streetcar.
These cars have been running for over a century.
This is a good thing in that they are made of lacquered wood and are visually striking.
This is a bad thing in that they are hot, noisy, and give a rough ride.
In traffic, they are also slow as heck.
I ended up getting of blocks early and walked the rest of the way.
French Quarter
The
French Quarter contains a remarkable concentration of high and low culture.
Some of the most embarrassing T-shirt and gift shops known to man are here, just blocks from some of the best bookstores and antique shops in the US.
The Quarter has some of the most creative bars and restaurants in the US, next to places where the only innovation is finding new ways
St. Charles streetcar
The St. Charles streetcar, one of the most famous public transit systems in the US. to pass out.
For many tourists, the quarter is best known for
the go cup, the plastic cups used to drink beer on the street.
For people with taste, the logical beer choice is
Abita, a lager made in Louisiana that makes Budweiser and Miller taste like swill.
My French Quarter tour was also from the Historic New Orleans Foundation.
It starts with the history of the area.
The French Quarter is the area of the original French settlement, the area where the Creoles excluded later arrivals.
It has a very
distinctive architecture.
One of the ironies of New Orleans is that this architecture is Spanish, not French.
The French settlers built their houses of wood.
After the settlement burned to the ground twice, the Spanish governor decreed that the rebuilding would be done with fireproof bricks.
Many of these buildings have survived, but not all.
New Orleans went through phases of urban renewal until a preservation movement started in the 1920s.
The houses have a very distinctive layout.
They are flush to the street, for starters.
They have upper balconies,
Typical Street in the French Quarter
A typical French Quarter street. Notice the buildings made of stucco and bricks flush to the street, the balconies, and the heavy use of cast iron. This is Royal looking upriver many with distinctive ironwork, and interior courtyards.
Both of these were designed to catch the breeze and keep the house cool.
The roofs are fireproof slate.
The ironwork is now one of the city’s most famous features.
It started as a fad.
People bought ironwork premade from catalogs to show their wealth.
The trend caught on until it covered the entire city, and still does.
The tour goes though some special places.
The first of these is the Omni Hotel.
The hotel is a sixties minimalist brick, and not at all distinctive.
What makes it worthwhile is the pool deck on the roof, which has what is likely the best view of New Orleans in the city.
The deck is normally restricted to hotel guests, but the Foundation has permission to take people up.
From the top, the layout of the city becomes clear, sandwiched between a lake and a river.
The area is perfectly flat, so the view stretches as far as the heat haze allows.
It’s also obvious how New Orleans got the nickname Crescent City,
French Quarter from Omni hotel
The French Quarter from the roof of the Omni hotel, one of the best viewpoints in New Orleans. from the way the Mississippi bends around it.
While on the roof, the guide talked about Katrina.
The hurricane actually missed hitting the city directly.
What killed New Orleans was the twenty foot water surge in Lake Pontcharin the hurricane created.
The surge overwhelmed the levees on that side, and the water poured in.
Even worse, the part of the city near the lake has the lowest elevation.
The only parts spared were the old neighborhoods near the Mississippi, the “sliver near the river”.
Most of the devastated areas are still in recovery mode.
The guide points out some of them, including the famous
Lower Ninth Ward, barely visible in the haze.
The second place is Jackson Square, in the heart of the French Quarter.
It’s named for Andrew Jackson, who became a hero by
winning a battle against the British near here in 1812.
His army was a ragtag conglomeration of Creoles, American settlers, local Indians, and French pirates.
On the back side of the square lies the oldest Catholic Church in New Orleans, the
St. Louis Cathedral.
It was the location of a famous
Mississippi River from Omni Hotel
The Mississippi River from the roof of the Omni Hotel. midnight Lent mass, until it was cancelled because too many people showed up blind drunk.
Next to the church is the Cabrillo, the seat of Spanish government.
There was no separation of church and state in those days.
The Cabrillo is now a history museum.
The center of the square has a statue of Andrew Jackson on horseback.
On the pedestal are carved these words: “The union must and shall be preserved”.
They were added by Union General Beast Butler in 1861, after New Orleans was captured early in the Civil War.
Many descendents of people who lived in the city at the time have still not forgiven him for it.
On either side of the square are two long buildings, the Pontalba Buildings.
These were built as apartment housing by an eccentric widow, whose husband made their fortune selling land in the Garden District.
Local boosters claim they are the oldest apartment buildings in the world.
Apartments here now rent for thousands of dollars a month.
Since one building is now owned by the city, guides can’t resist pointing out that they are
St. Louis Cathedral
St. Louis Cathedral on Jackson Square in the heart of the French Quarter. This is one of the most photographed scenes in New Orleans probably the most expensive government housing in the country!
The third place is the
Ursuline Convent.
The Ursine sisters were invited by the French king to set up New Orleans’ first school in the early 1700s.
The school still exists.
Their church was spared by both fires, so the building is now the oldest in New Orleans.
Devout Catholics claim the sisters’ prayers for mercy are what caused the fires to stop only one street from their church.
The wooden building is whitewashed, so from the outside it looks like just another church building.
The final site is the location of the former
Orleans Ballroom, home of the Quadroon Balls.
Quadroon was the Creole term for a young woman who was partially black.
It became fashionable among Creole men in the years before the Civil War to use quadroons as mistresses.
Many patrons paid quite well for their services, and even bought them houses.
Their wives looked the other way.
The Orleans Ballroom is where the encounters took place.
One member of this profession, Henirette Delille, became sick of the lifestyle,
Andrew Jackson statue
Statue of Andrew Jackson in Jackson Square, New Oreleans. The inscription added by a Union general during the Civil War is just visible on the base. and decided to become a Catholic nun.
She founded the first order of African American nuns in the world, the Sisters of the Holy Family.
She deliberately set her convent across the street from the ballroom.
Eventually, she took over the ballroom itself.
It was thus possible to sin on one side of the street and beg for forgiveness on the other.
French Quarter Nightlife
After the tour, the sun was setting.
It was time to revel in the French Quarter’s legendary street party.
I wanted to experience it the way the locals do.
They know how to find worthy entertainment within the drunken tourist hordes.
One important
word of warning: New Orleans, like all big cities, has parts that are safe all day and night, others that should be entered only if one knows what they are doing, and still others that are deadly.
In New Orleans, these different parts have unusually close proximity, and it’s very easy to get in serious trouble by wandering down the wrong block.
In an often cited example, parts of the French Quarter are only three blocks from one of the
Ursuline Convent
The Ursuline Convent, the oldest building in New Orleans, and the only one remaining from the original French settlement. city’s most notorious housing projects.
I made sure to enquire which parts are which from my host, and carried a map with them discreetly marked out.
I also carried the numbers of local taxis, and the address where I was staying that night.
First up, I wandered back into Jackson Square.
The square often has
music groups that play for tips.
Jimmy Buffet, of all people, started out this way.
Some of the groups are surprisingly good, especially jazz ensembles from local universities.
Sure enough, I found one.
They played energetic horn driven jazz that got the crowd going.
I gave them some cash.
A taste of the scene:
After jazz, I wanted dinner.
New Orleans has some of the
best restaurants in the country.
Many of them specialize in
Creole cooking, recipes descended from the earliest French settlers.
Most of
them will also require a
second mortgage to afford the bill afterward.
I ate in one of the exceptions, the
Gumbo Shop.
One can guess from the name what they specialize in.
I had chicken gumbo, which tasted like
Jackson Square Musicians
It wouldn't be New Orleans without jazz. This group hails from a local university. spicy Creole chicken soup.
It was very good.
The room is also worth looking at, because the restaurant is located in an old townhouse.
The courtyard architecture is clearly visible.
After dinner, I accidently discovered one of the Quarter’s local secrets.
As noted above many people come here to drink beer to go.
Most get their beer from bars, and the prices are high.
One of this area’s deeper secrets is that liquor stores also sell beer in plastic cups, and the prices are much lower.
The variety tends to be bigger to boot.
For me, the novelty wore off before I finished the drink.
New Orleans is considered one of the best live music cities in the country, so I wanted to hear some more.
The trick lies in finding it.
One of the clichés of this city is that all tourists go to the bars on Bourbon Street, which is where bad cover bands go to die.
Locals know this full well, and head to the dives on Frenchmen Street, on the eastern edge of the Quarter,
Checkpoint Charlie
The band at Checkpoint Charlie, one of New Orleans better music bars. instead.
These bars book the best local rock and jazz bands available, and most of them have no cover.
I ended up in a bar called
Checkpoint Charlie , which had guitar driven rock.
The band was pretty good.
After Checkpoint Charlie, I ended up in Oz.
Oz publicly presents itself as one of New Orleans more intense gay nightclubs.
Locals know that in practice this is a façade designed to scare off narrow minded people.
The club really attracts
people from across the spectrum of race, gender, and sexuality.
They are united by only one thing, the love of a great dance groove.
In a city legendary for nightlife where anything goes, this club may be the purest distillation of that spirit.
Do be aware that the gay side of New Orleans culture is on full display here, so if it makes one uncomfortable, don’t bother.
Personally, people respected my boundaries (and I respected theirs) and I had no issues.
Pat O'Brien's
My final spot of the night was the one bar no visitor to New Orleans leaves without seeing,
Pat O’Brien’s.
It
started as a speakeasy, and now
Pat O'brien's flaming fountain
The famous flaming fountain in Pat O'Brien's courtyard claims to have the highest alcohol sales in the country.
The knock against it is that it attracts tourists by the bus load, and locals won’t be caught dead there.
Pat’s dirty little secret is that locals do, in fact, go there; only they go as a nightcap after partying somewhere else.
By the time I wandered in, the local part was in full swing.
The bar has three separate sections.
The first is a lounge.
It’s nothing special by New Orleans standards.
The second part is an outdoor courtyard.
This area has the famous flaming fountain, thanks of the miracle of natural gas.
The gas jets to the top of the water in the fountain and burns.
The final part is the most famous feature of all, the dueling piano bar.
Two talented pianists play and sing lounge versions of popular songs.
Most songs are the expected standards (Billy Joel, Elton John, etc.) while others made my jaw drop (“Single Ladies” by Beyonce).
The audience can request music of course, where “request” means “accompanied by at least a ten dollar bill”.
The biggest response of the night was to a request to “show all those tourists how we party in New Orleans”.
The pianists proceeded to play the
Superbowl remix of “When the Saints go Marching In”, and half the crowd broke out in “Who Dat?” chants.
Pat O’Brien’s is famous for inventing a cocktail called the
Hurricane.
It’s now served in bad bars across New Orleans (and some good ones) but it was invented here.
The drink consists of high proof rum mixed with fruit juice.
Have more than a few of them, and a patron will likely not remember what happens afterward.
They also produce a nasty hangover thanks to the combination of sugar and alcohol.
I was very careful around this stuff.
I took a taxi home at the end of the night.
For some reason, finding taxies near Pat O’Brien’s is never a problem. 😊
I stayed at the
Garden District Bed and Breakfast.
It’s located in a hundred and fifty year old house.
The building is deeply atmospheric.
The rooms are furnished with the expected antiques.
They are cooled with
French Quarter late night
The French Quarter street party, long after the sun went down. old but effective air conditioners.
The bathrooms are tiny and really old (mine had a cast-iron tub!)
I could imagine Edward Degas staying here during his
New Orleans visit a century and a half ago.
The relative lack of modern features means the place has surprisingly affordable rates for this neighborhood.
I enjoyed it.
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