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| Off Jackson Square. |
New Orleans. A town for lovers of food, cocktails, music and so many other forms of hedonism that will not be mentioned on this very respectable blog. In March, K and I spent 6 days in this humid, intoxicating city and we loved every slightly intoxicated minute of it. Readers may be surprised that I skip over the cocktail and bar details in this post. Don't fret. Since New Orleans is such a mecca of mixology, I am devoting an entire post to my favorite cocktails and bars in the city. Because in New Orleans, the motto isn't "It's Twelve O'Clock Somewhere", it's "laissez les bon temps rouler! (which spoiler for my next NOLA post, basically means drink anytime and anywhere you want, its perfectly acceptable and in fact even encouraged!).
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| I'd live here! |
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| The Central Business District "American Side" |
New Orleans is a city of contrasts. Divided by Canal Street, our tour guide on the Confederacy of Cruisers bike tour told us, there is a French side and an American Side. The city was so divided that the streets have different names on the different sides of Canal Street lest the stinky French junk up the American side in the old days of New Orleans. And although, K and I spent the majority of our time on the "French" side of the city (which includes the French Quarter and Faubourg Marigny neighborhoods), we did journey over to the "American" side. The Garden District, Uptown and the more "up and coming" area of Ferret are much more typically Southern than the rest of New Orleans, which feels more like a Caribbean or Spanish city. Instead in the Garden District, the architecture of the antebellum South is on full display with porches made for lounging and columns made for impressing the neighbors. K and I spent a morning wandering around gawking at the big houses and perusing the shops on Magazine Street. We also took the rickety streetcar all the way to Audubon Park and strolled (maybe with our go cups!).
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| The bayou. |
New Orleans is a city of neighborhoods In, fact, in many ways, New Orleans isn't made up of individual neighborhoods but of even smaller microcosms, blocks. From one block to the other, more than any other city I've been in, you can be in two radically different places. For example, our hotel was the lovely, but small Hotel Royal which is one block off of Bourbon Street. Royal Street is elegant, full of charming galleries and courtyard restaurants and beautiful balconies. Bourbon Street is my idea of hell. Yes, I may love to drink a cocktail (and I may love even more to carry it around as you can in NOLA!), but drinking can and should be civilized and Bourbon Street is anything but. And although, K and I enjoyed walking down the street to enjoy, how shall I put it, the amazing tapestry of human existence(?), Bourbon Street was not our New Orleans. Instead, we took our to go cups and ran off as quickly as possible to the quieter, almost eerie streets of the French Quarter that are lit by oil lamps and the occasional sounds of music drifting from a bar and strolled in the warm spring air each night before retiring to our room. The Faubourg Marigny was perhaps even more full of charm, with tiny shotgun houses of every different color and music coming out of all the tiny bars and restaurants. New Orleans is a 24 hour city so at any time of day there are people out wandering but the streets (with the exception of Bourbon) are never too crowded and New Orleans is a city made for walking or biking the flat, picturesque blocks.
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| Jackson Square on a foggy day. |
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Next vacation I am only taking
pictures at the magic hour! |
New Orleans is a city of characters. In fact, everywhere you go in New Orleans, you meet someone interesting, from bartenders to tour guides to the person next to you enjoying a beer in the early afternoon. I can't go on in this post without revealing a major reason K and I went to New Orleans. K is obsessed with the HBO series Treme, while I am more of a casual viewer. After watching it for three seasons, K was convinced that New Orleans was his dream city, full of tough, charismatic, noble people. And he was partly right. During our bike tour, in the Bywater neighborhood, at Marie's Bar (the very definition of a dive) bar, we met one of the true characters of New Orleans, a grizzled musician (with first hand experience about the aforementioned Treme, much to K's fanboy joy), who in the span of 15 minutes, professed his love of fois gras and told us that "New Orleans is a city of one way streets, two way men and three way women." It was quite an afternoon to say the least. We also met colorful (and bearded!) bartenders who knew just how to make your drink and turn on that lovely southern charm. And I can't fail to mention our bayou tour guide who was full of stories about being a fireman, chef and shrimp boat captain (yes, I totally thought of Forrest Gump, sue me. K probably thought of Treme.) all while showing us the eerie beauty of the back country of Louisiana.
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| The stunning sign for Armstrong Park. |
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| My friend John (and his friend Paul Sanchez) |
New Orleans is a city of music. I am a complete neophyte when it comes to New Orleans music and readily admit it. That said, again from Treme, I have completely fallen for the dulcet tones of John Boutte (who has been featured on Treme multiple times). He has a voice that reminds me of a classic fifties singer, a little scraggly, a little high and completely unique. Every week, Monsieur Boutte plays at a club D.B.A. on Frenchmen Street. Of course, the week we there, he wasn't playing. Instead, he did a question and answer session and concert at the beautiful Ogden Museum of Southern Art (speaking of Treme, the Ogden had a beautiful installation of costumes from the show). As K and I waited for the show outside the museum, we watched John (you'll see why I feel like I can call him by his first name in a moment) walk up and saw all the people in line just say "Hi John!" and it made me realize how in New Orleans, the amazing musicians of the city are not put on a pedestal, just regular citizens of this rugged city. What I enjoyed most about hearing him at the Ogden instead of at a club is that it was almost like a cathedral, the acoustics for the songs were beautiful and his voice just soared, and although he only sang about seven songs, it was as close as a religious experience as I have ever had. Unforgettable. That isn't to say that K and I didn't experience NOLA music in other ways, we did spend a night on Frenchmen street, watching the lovely throwback Linnzi Zoroski, whose voice was straight out of a Fox (thanks for the clarification K) musical and we heard some lovely street musicians as well. But one of the highlights was Class Got Brass which was held in the charming Louis Armstrong Park. Class got Brass featured performances by the awe inspiring high school students of the city and K and I went for the rehearsals before (and got caught in a second line!) which were so much fun and so inspiring to know that the musical legacy of the city continues to live on.
Of all the lessons I learned in the eternal city of New Orleans, the most lovely was one of lagniappe. Lagniappe just means a little something extra, from an extra swig of liquor to a few extra crawfish at the French Market, Lagniappe is that extra bit of kindness that you can expect in New Orleans. Like so many trips, our week in New Orleans was a little bit of lagniappe that makes life surprising and profound.
Julie
