Three Lions Jazz-style Please?

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One of our missions for today was to try and actually find the French Market (see A Constant Race Against The Rain), but first we had booked to go for a Mississippi cruise on Natchez Steamboat. The boat was actually called The City of New Orleans, so I'm not sure what has happened there? Also I didn’t see a lot of steam, not that it matters, but our Steamboat Natchez cruise was on the diesel ship City of New Orleans. I'll just call it a paddle-wheel boat as that is at least accurate. Like I say, none of that matters.

A warning for anyone who has booked the paddle-wheel boat online, you will need to get your online receipt changed for actual tickets otherwise you will need to queue all over again - not that we would do such a silly thing, obviously. And that queue was extremely hot as, just our luck, we ended up standing just at the point that was not sheltered from the sun (suddenly yesterday's rain seemed really quite inviting).

There was the obligatory "event photo" before we boarded, so we'll look forward to not buying one of those later.

We had a dilemma. Do we sit inside with the air-conditioning or outside with the view. Given how hot we were, we opted for the inside and at least we can take it in turns to go outside when we want to. That turned out to be the right decision as that is where the jazz band was. It was actually very relaxing, listening to the live jazz in the cool whilst going up and down the Mississippi River for a couple of hours.

There was a distraction though. Back home in England it was the final of the Women's European Football. Whilst there was, understandably I suppose, no coverage in the US, we were getting a running commentary on the group chat with my work colleagues. England won 2-1 in extra time against Germany by the way - a football relationship which has an awful lot of history. A fantastic result and a real example to the men's football where (for anyone who is not English) the last comparable result was in 1966 and also against Germany. Go Lionesses.

We debated asking the jazz band to play Three Lions, however the chances of them knowing what that is were very remote. Sweet Caroline maybe?

The jazz stopped for a while for some commentary. New Orleans is known as the Crescent City, due to the shape of the river. Half of it is six feet below sea level and the remainder is only three feet above. There are 1,200 miles of levees (walls) to protect the city. It does make you wonder why that location was chosen given how long the Mississippi River is (something to look-up later)? The Mississippi is the third largest river in the world according to the land area drained.

After the cruise, we went for a walk to see the sculptures in the Woldenburg Riverfront Park (which we could see from the boat is raised on stilts above the river) and then we ended up at the Riverwalk Outlet Shopping. We stopped at the Café du Monde for their famous coffee and beignets, which are sugar-covered, doughnut-like pastries. It is not the original Café du Monde, which is near the place that isn't the French Market and we remembered had a huge queue, but we don’t expect that matters.

All these things not mattering obviously means we're already getting the chilled New Orleans vibe. They are very chilled, except when they are behind the wheel of a car. We have seen quite a few arguments and the use of horns would rival New York. They are quite patient when trying to cross Bourbon Street at night though as that can take a long time.

We then headed to the French Market and eventually, success, we found it, although it wasn't easy. We spent some time browsing and noticed that everything we had purchased yesterday was actually more expensive in the market, so it all worked out from the best then.

The other thing that we missed yesterday, due to the rain, was the Louis Armstrong Park so we headed there. It was starting to look like we might not go again, this time due to the heat, but we were determined and we knew that it would only be a short walk to the cool of the hotel afterwards. I'm not sure what to say about it as it commemorated the man who (quote) "bought the spirit of New Orleans to the world", but it all looked a bit rundown to be honest and we noted that we were the only people walking around. We could see what looked like waterjets and there were a lot of lights (not least the entrance that we had previously seen brightly illuminated) so perhaps it comes alive at night and we are not seeing it at its best. It also wasn't helped by our rushing due to the heat.

We walked to the hotel to finally cool-down in the air-conditioning.

In the evening, I indulged the photography a bit. We went to Jackson Square for some pictures of what turned out to be a fantastic sunset and then we went to Canal Street to get some night pictures of the trams. Next we went for something to eat on what would be the last assault on our senses on Bourbon Street. The street was actually a lot less crowded than other nights (it's Sunday), but was still lively my any other standards. We found somewhere that served Creole, which is the local New Orleans dish and is a mix of the historical influences on New Orleans from Spain, France and a few other places for good measure. We really enjoyed it.

Footnote: Louis Armstrong Park was closed at night.

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Photos

Jazz
The Jazz band on The City of New Orleans paddle-boat.

Paddle Boat
The back of The City of New Orleans.

French Market
The main part of the market, although the surrounding shops are all a part of it.

Art
One of the sculptures in the Woldenburg Riverfront Park.

Café du Monde
Treating ourselves to some some coffee and beignets.

Louis Armstrong
Statue in Louis Armstrong Park.

Jackson Square
Sunset over Jackson Square and St Louis Cathedral.

Canal Street
Evening view of Canal Street and the tram.

Shrimp Creole
A dish with influences that match the historical influences on New Orleans.