A day in New Orleans (Sunday 26th February)

Day in the French Quarter of New Orleans.  Set off at 9.00 a.m in the free shuttle bus from New Orleans West camp-ground.  Driven by Scott, who runs the site with his wife and son.  Went by the scenic route, with commentary from Scott – who was at great pains to tell us that he wasn't a tour guide as tour guides have to have a license.  We drove along part of the River Road, alongside the levee and, later on, through part of the Garden District.  We saw a variety of housing, from clap-board homes to grand ante-bellum houses on Charles Street.  The Charles Street houses had very narrow frontages because they were built at the time when buildings were taxed according the the frontage, so they were built to extend a long way back from the road.  One house had marble steps to the front door, which reputedly cost more than the rest of the building.


One of the other passengers was a woman celebrating her 65th birthday by going to one of the many casinos in New Orleans.  Gambling in casinos and on slot machines seems to be much more commonplace and acceptable over here.  Later on, a woman in her 60s,  who worked in the Visitor Centre at Thibodaux spoke of visiting a local RV park every now and again to play the fruit machines, because it was good fun. 


Scott dropped us off at the steamboat dock, close by the French Quarter at around 10.00 a.m and said he'd be there to collect us at 5.30 p.m.


Scott had recommended coffee and beignets at the Café du Monde on Decatur Street (the street nearest the river).   Beignets are a Louisiana speciality -  small deep-fried pastries dusted with lots of castor sugar.  The queue for Café du Monde stretched around the front of the building so we settled for strong black coffee in the Market Cafe further along the river front.  We found a small branch of  Café du Monde in the Mall later on and sampled the beignets there.


We explored the market, then some of the streets of the French Quarter. Also recommended by Scott was the Court of the Two Sisters on Royal Street, which had good food and live traditional jazz music at lunchtimes. We found it, but decided not to go back to eat there as it was very busy and looked pricey.  We returned to the Market Café for lunch.  Anna had her first crawfish etoufeé here and Paul had a fried crawfish Po' Boy (his second Po' Boy, of several). 


It was a cold, sunny day, which turned into a cold drizzly day by mid-afternoon. Anna had backache and a cold.


We stayed at New Orleans West for a second night.