The French Quarter

2024-03-28
New Orleans, LA

Today was our chance to see the French Quarter. I think that a lot of people don't go beyond the Quarter for their entire New Orleans vacation. After all, it has plenty of food and entertainment, and no shortage of alcohol. However, we like to move a bit more when we're on vacation so we went out early to see the sights. We started heading up Bourbon Street just a bit behind the (well-needed) street cleaner. They should really throw a parade for those guys.

Breakfast was at a local landmark: Café Du Monde. They only take cash and they pretty much just serve beignets and coffee. The former is something like a doughnut, but a bit denser and covered in enough powdered sugar that you couldn't eat one of these wearing black and expect to go out in public after. I suspect that beignet shops are the only customers for snow shovels in this city, just to move the powdered sugar. The coffee has chicory in it which makes it a little more bitter than usual.

We wandered through the French Quarter looking at the architecture. The houses were primarily "Creole Cottages" which are single-story with a steeply-pitched roof. They are a distinct blend of Caribbean and French Canadian design. There were also plenty of "Creole Townhouses" which often house businesses on the bottom floor.

We worked our way to Louis Armstrong Park for a stroll, then we headed off to the local cemetery. This particular cemetery had a large opaque fence around it, unlike several that we passed in the cab on the way from the airport. You might think that the fence is to keep out people who are just dying to get in, but it is really so that they could charge you for a tour. Being tourists we considered it, but we opted not to wait around for three hours for the next available tour. Cemeteries in New Orleans are interesting because the ground is so wet that bodies will float up and out so they need to build crypts above ground. This particular cemetery also has a large pyramid which is where Nicholas Cage will be buried. Apparently he's not quite dead yet but no point waiting to the last minute.

Then we worked out way back to Jackson Park to visit the Presbytery since it was now open for the day. I should note that Café Du Monde is also just outside of Jackson Park, but we covered about ten blocks each way to Armstrong Park and the cemetery and back. We took completely different routes to see more of the town.

The Presbytery houses a state museum with the first floor dedicated to Katrina and the second floor about Mardi Gras, with an emphasis on history and costumes. The Katrina section had a mix of factual stuff and personal stories. There were lots of images of the flood damage as you'd expect, and of course props to the resiliency of the people such that coming to visit today you wouldn't realize how bad it was hit.

The second floor had some costumes that had been used in previous parades. Since we are from outside the city, we think of things like the Mummers Parade which happens in one place and time every year. New Orleans boasts 300 parades in a year, on many different days and different routes. They start with a "Krewe" of people (aka "crew") that decide they want to hold a parade and then with enough time and effort they can make it happen. Of course, the biggest parade is on Mardi Gras and I think most of these costumes are from that parade (but not from the same year).

We strolled through Jackson Square. It is named after Andrew Jackson, and boasts a large statue of him in the middle. Interestingly enough, the sculptor didn't know that most horse statues have at least three feet anchored for stability, so for this statue he balanced the weight on each side of the two mounted hooves.

We strolled along the mighty Mississippi. We got to see the Natchez starting its water wheel, which is fun if you're an engineer. There is still a steam engine in there, although there is also an internal combustion engine so it's not clear to someone that couldn't be bothered to actually take the tour what is powering what. There was also some barge traffic moving around. The river is mostly commercial and it's cool to see stuff working.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped and had Po' Boys for late lunch since it's a New Orleans thing. Conveniently you can get them at pretty much every restaurant. Rolls appear to be the differentiating factor according to some more frequent tourists. I feel like Po' Boys are even more standardized than cheesesteaks. For cheesesteaks pretty much the only thing that is standardized is the roll.

Later on that evening we went to the Bourbon House for a drink. They have at least 100 different bourbons, and I tried Angel's Envy which I enjoyed. Val went for more of a Bourbon Street cocktail; something with a few more ingredients. While we were sitting there, we ended up in the middle of a bar fight.

It began as these things often do; the guy in the couple to our right received the appetizer he ordered. It was some sort of crab dip, and it had bits of claws sticking out of it. He vehemently disapproved of that style of dish and asked one of the bartenders to send it back. However, in his inebriated state, he did it in a rude way, which the bartender claimed he had been doing all along. So she gets one of the guys from the kitchen. He informs the customer that he is acting inappropriately, and the customer responds that the cook is a pansy (perhaps stated in stronger words).

It should be said that the cook was only a little taller than the drunk, but was built like a linebacker and probably had 80 pounds of muscle that the patron did not have. I presume he missed this either because of his beer goggles, or because he was trying to impress his date (who, to be fair, had seemed pretty bored).

The cook came out from behind the bar (the doorway was two stools to our left) and someplace behind us the altercation started. It didn't last long; by the time I had turned around, the drunk was on the floor in the doorway to the kitchen and two dishwashers were holding the cook back from doing any additional damage. When then drunk was escorted out, his bloody nose and mouth indicated where he had taken the brunt of the cook's ire.

Due to the altercation, I ended up getting my bourbon for free, although I didn't ask for it. I felt like I had gotten value, both in the libation and the show. We left unscathed, although the people to our left and right (past the patron in question) both got jostled and insisted that they shouldn't have to pay. Feeling bad for our bartender - who was as uninvolved as we were - I tried to make up for some of his lost tips.

Feeling like we would fit in now that we drank alcohol, we went out and wandered Bourbon Street for a while. It was more crowded than on Wednesday, with at least some people on the galleries throwing beads when they could get a girl to acknowledge them. The bar seemed pretty low to acquire beads; they pretty much just had to look up and say "huh?" Also, the music didn't seem as good as the previous night, although at least we didn't see any poor bands playing to an empty house today.