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New Orleans
This morning we headed down to Café du Monde so that we could try the famous beignets—fried squares of dough served with mounds of powdered sugar. Not exactly the most “nutritious” breakfast, but we were in New Orleans and had to see what others were raving about.
As we started off on our walk, we could see the tall buildings of downtown New Orleans.
We admired the old buildings in the French Quarter. Many had beautiful balconies and doors.
Near Café du Monde was a sign about the founding of New Orleans. We learned that French explorers Bienville and Iberville first identified this area as an Indian portage route from Lake Pontchartrain and the Gulf of Mexico in 1699. In 1718, Bienville established the city of New Orleans, which he named after the Duke of Orleans in France. New Orleans is also called the “Crescent City” because of its location in a bend of the Mississippi River.
We were surprised to find a very long line of people who had, like us, heard about the wonders of beignets. We joined in and waited a looonng time in the thick, 94 degree heat.
While in line, we appreciated the view of the beautiful building across the street.
We were also entertained by this man, singing songs and strumming his guitar.
Once inside and seated, we ordered a few plates of beignets, along with some frozen coffee drinks and cold chocolate milk.
The verdict on the beignets? Genevieve said, “They were sweet and tasted sublime.”
Sebastian’s took a bite and said, “Heaven!” He only ate a small one, which gave him a dashing powdered sugar moustache.
I thought that they were quite tasty, although I think my system went into hyper-shock with all of that sugar so early in the day.
After breakfast, we wandered across the street where the gates to Jackson Square had been unlocked. The Square was very quiet.
Where were all of the people? While the Square was very pleasant, it was definitely not the hotbed of activity that we had been expecting.
Across the street from the café, we found Trisha and her mule Mudbug.
They offered various carriage tours of New Orleans. We decided to take an hour-long “historic and cemetery” tour.
Trisha was from New Orleans and has been a tour guide for three years. She was full of interesting tidbits about the various buildings that we passed.
She noted that the St. Louis cathedral is the oldest continually operating cathedral in the United States.
Near Jackson Square is a statue of Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, who claimed this area for France.
We passed Johnny’s restaurant, which Trisha said served the best “po boys” (subs or hoagies on fresh French bread) in New Orleans.
We also passed Pierre Maspero’s, which in 1788 was the site of one of the city's many slave exchanges. Thousands of slaves were bought and sold in New Orleans.
The Louisiana Supreme Court building recently underwent $30 million in renovations.
Antoine’s restaurant is the oldest restaurant in the city.
The Hermann-Grima House was once owned by a prosperous Creole family and is now a museum complex that accurately depicts the lifestyle of a Creole family in the years from 1830 to 1860. In New Orleans, the term “Creole” refers to a broad cultural group of people of all races who share a French or Spanish background.
Trisha explained that when the homes here were initially built, there was no air-conditioning. The homes were built elevated off of the ground, with vents along the base to allow the hot air to escape from under the house. Here is a house with vents:
The houses were also built with interior courtyards that were generally 10 degrees cooler than in front of the home.
We stopped at the St. Louis cemetery, which was built in 1789. This was the cemetery that was next to our RV park.
Because New Orleans sits below sea level, any buried caskets would float to the surface during the rainy season, so all burials had to occur on top of the ground in tombs. The tombs were often referred to as “oven vaults” because in the hot weather, the air inside gets to 600-900 degrees. In essence, a tomb provides for a slow and gradual cremation.
Across the busy street was a small church that was built during one of the yellow fever epidemics. Those who died of yellow fever were not allowed inside of the main church, St. Louis Cathedral, so this smaller church was built. The cemetery used to extend to the back door of the church, but the city decided to build a street on top of a portion of the cemetery.
Inside the entrance to the cemetery was a pointed tomb that used to mark the center. Because of the new road that covered half of the tomb area, this pointed tomb is now at the entrance.
The burial process for the tombs was as follows: The body would be placed in the tomb in a wooden coffin for one year and one day. After that time, the tomb would be opened, and the wooden coffin would be taken out (if anything was left). The bones and ashes of the person would be shaken into the tomb to allow space for more bodies to be added. One tomb often held many bodies. This family tomb, for example, was started in 1837 and holds 15 family members, including one who died as recently as 2004.
We saw the tomb of Marie Laveau, the Queen of Voodoo. Her practice of voodoo blended together beliefs from the Roman Catholic tradition with practices from African religions. Many people still come to leave items at her tomb and draw 3 “X” marks on the side with the belief that Marie will grant their wish.
There were several very large “societal” tombs in the cemetery. The largest was the Italian tomb, which was built by the archdiocese to hold the remains of Italian immigrants who died and didn’t have any place else to be buried. The tomb was built to hold 10,000 bodies and is 20% full. Trisha said that the large tombs were built with a big hole inside that the bodies are pushed into.
New Orleans was founded as a Catholic city. The Protestants didn’t arrive until after the Louisiana Purchase was signed. The cemetery contains Protestant tombs in the back—these are called “step” tombs because of their method of construction.
Here is the tomb of a Protestant mother and child who died during a yellow fever epidemic.
We saw many different kinds of tombs in the cemetery.
We saw tombs that needed a little TLC.
And we saw tombs that had been beautifully maintained.
Above the tombs, we could see the taller buildings hovering next to the French Quarter.
Trisha and Mudbug waited outside the cemetery until we had finished walking around.
Next to the cemetery were red brick apartment buildings sitting on what used to be the Storyville district, the former brothel area.
Trisha explained that there were initially a lot of prostitutes in New Orleans. The French were having trouble populating the city because of its reputation for being a swamp with mosquitoes and heat, so many people were kidnapped and brought over from France—including many prostitutes, criminals, and persons of “questionable character.” As more wealthy people arrived and built homes here, the new arrivals complained about the prostitution, so the city created the Storyville district for the prostitutes to live and work. The brothels were finally shut down in 1917.
Mudbug led us back into the heart of the French Quarter.
Trisha instructed us that the proper term for outdoor balconies that have poles going all of the way to the street is “galleries”.
Balconies were often built as exterior hallways so that the residents wouldn’t be taxed on that space.
We passed St. Andrews, where the Creoles would come to fight each other in a duel or battle to the death.
This little dog could travel along splendidly with his rear set of wheels:
Trisha pointed out one building as being famous for its “quadroon balls.”
She told us that “quadroons” were very beautiful women who were 75% “white” and 25% “black”. White men in New Orleans commonly took a quadroon mistress, and they came to the balls to meet a woman; they would sign a contract stating that they would take care of the mistress and any children that they had together. The wives of the men eventually got laws passed prohibiting a mistress to wear jewelry in public, and later to appear in public without covering her face. If a wife caught a mistress breaking any of the rules, she could have the mistress whipped in Jackson Square.
Many of the homes that we passed had smaller homes in the back for the kitchen and slave quarters.
Across from the Café du Monde are some apartments that have a 10-year waiting list for people to rent.
After our carriage tour, we wandered along the outer edge of Jackson Square, where we saw this man painted in silver.
The hot air felt like an invisible blanket. We wondered how the silver man could survive with his skin covered in make-up and thick clothing.
We decided to visit the Presbytere Museum, which is one of the two Louisiana State Museums located next to St. Louis Cathedral. The museum had some wonderful displays concerning the history of Mardi Gras in New Orleans.
The term “Mardi Gras” literally means “Fat Tuesday” in French. Many Catholics, and some Protestants, view the days before Easter as a time of penance called Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday. People often choose something to “give up” during Lent (i.e., chocolate, sugar, alcohol). Fat Tuesday is traditionally the last day to celebrate and enjoy whatever will be given up the following day.
The celebrations of Mardi Gras, however, are not limited to the single day before Ash Wednesday. Instead, they begin on January 6th, which is the 12th day of Christmas and the day that the three wise men are believed to have visited baby Jesus. The time frame between January 6th and Mardi Gras is called “Carnival.”
New Orleans has developed a reputation for having outlandish Mardi Gras celebrations—parades, parties, and crazy informal spectacles. There is no written evidence regarding when the first Mardi Gras celebrations occurred here after the city was founded in 1718. However, by 1781 the Spanish leaders were trying to control Mardi Gras celebrations by prohibiting slaves and free persons of color from wearing masks and feathers during Carnival.
The city had fairly simple masquerade balls in the late 18th century. These evolved into more elaborate balls, lavish parties and informal street processions. Groups of people, called “krewes,” began forming to conduct their own private celebrations, and many of the krewes started organizing their own parades. They built elaborate and colorful floats and tossed items called “throws” (candy, beads, and trinkets) to the onlookers.
The Zulu krewe (the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club) was formed in 1909. The Presbytere Museum had a large exhibit containing historical information and many colorful costumes from the Zulu krewe.
The museum had an amazingly detailed wood relief carving of the floats in the 1902 parade of the Rex krewe, with the theme “Quotations from Literature.”
We then visited the Cabildo Museum, on the other side of St. Louis Cathedral. This museum had several floors of exhibits on the history of Louisiana, including the original Native Americans, the French and Spanish settlers, slavery, the Civil War, and musicians from Louisiana.
Here is a beautifully crafted reproduction of the 3-D globe entitled “Celestial Globe” that was created by Vincenzo Maria Coronelli in 1680.
The Cabildo had a special exhibit about the music of New Orleans. Here is the piano used by Fats Domino, recovered in the floods after Hurricane Katrina.
The exhibit had lively music playing, and the children showed off their “fancy” dance moves.
Outside were some old cannons, including an antique cannon that was used in the Battle of New Orleans.
We walked back to the RV with our heads stuffed full of information and historical “facts.”
We passed this silver couple strolling the other way.
A view down Bourbon Street:
I just love the old buildings, with the intricate architectural details.
A close-up of the tilting ironwork:
The kids and Ben then cooled off in the pool, while I caught up on my writing.
Genevieve and Sebastian both had fun making finger designs in the waterfall.
We had a leisurely dinner in the RV. We had planned on walking back to the French Quarter to catch a jazz show tonight, but the rain started pouring right before dinner. The lightning flashed and the thunder boomed. The rain fell so fast that the ground outside our RV couldn’t drain it quickly enough, so the water started accumulating. Sebastian and Genevieve were watching out the window, and Sebastian asked, “Are we going to have a flood?” (He had heard us talking earlier about the flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina.) “Oh, no,” we assured him.
The rain continued. The children were happily playing together, so we decided to have some “down time” tonight. Genevieve and Sebastian ended the day by creating some wonderful drawings for us.
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