Garden District

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Geo: 29.9567, -90.0687

We took the streetcar from Canal Street into the Garden district which was originally named Lafayette but was later incorporated into New Orleans. The name later on was used by another city in Louisiana. We joined a tour group with a very well informed and entertaining tour guide. The tour began in the Lafayette cemetery. Legend says that people are not buried under the ground. This is not entirely true. Most of the graves look like ovens and are exactly that. The bodies decompose rapidly and the remains are removed from the coffin and allowed to settle into a pit allowing more burials into the same structure. The coffins end up in a dumpster. There are "timeshare" plots where bodies may be stored temporarily until the graves can be opened for another body. Basically it is a very "green" operation. The plaques on the front of the graves are often used to trace the genealogy of a family.

We then toured the garden district which has many gracious older homes. Up until 1970 some of these homes were stratified with multiple living units or mixed use with retail. This has been stopped and these grand old houses are zoned single family so the properties basically start at a million plus and work their way up from there. The tour was 2 hours long and mixed with some colourful anecdotes about both buildings and the residents over the years.

Po-Boy sandwiches (like subs) were originally made at the end of the day with leftovers on french bread for the poor boys.

We walked part of the way back along Magazine Street and then took a bus since we had purchased day tickets - $3 each although I found out later that seniors travel for 40 cents.

New Orleans relies on tourism as the main industry and the wages are lower so prices for average housing, transportation and taxes are very reasonable. The guide told us that people from northern states are selling and buying very nice homes here and still have money in the bank.

The climate is very temperate now but during the summer every day is over 90F. Today the temperature was about 20C and windy at times.

We met a younger couple on the bus who strongly recommended a restaurant called the The Joint in Bywater so we have figured out how to get there by bus hopefully. If we have problems we will just get a cab.

The Joint was definitely an excellent recommendation. It is a family type restaurant of the Diner variety. Basically a smokehouse with ribs, chicken and brisket on the menu. The place was pretty much full when we got there around 6pm. Definitely an interesting bus ride to and from because the neighbourhood is in transition and we had several blocks to walk from the the bus stop.

Tomorrow rain and thunderstorms are expected so I guess we will decide on our itinerary when we see what is happening.

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Photos

Lafayette Cemetery
Association Grave

Lafayette Cemetery
Society Grave

Lafayette Cemetery
Burial

Lafayette Cemetery
Family Grave

Lafayette Cemetery
Timeshare Grave