Naw-Lins

May 18, 2016

Tuesday morning we packed up and headed for New Orleans along I10. We stopped for gas along the way at the one-of-a-kind Tiger Truck Stop.

featuring a roadside attraction, a live tiger.

They also offered some not so lucky alligators.

Our semi-trusty GPS carried us accurately to our the Place d’Armes hotel in the French Quarter in the early evening. The hotel consisted of five or six old buildings joined into a common central court and filling the block.

This was not your OSHA-issue place; Bricks and steps and small drainage channels to be stepped over left in place from when the buildings had been merged were testament to its age.  Our room was big and had a full walk-in closet. The hotel is a block from Jackson Square, the heart of the French Quarter. Acting on the bellman’s advice we headed to dinner. I turned the wrong way out of the hotel, looked for what we thought was his recommended spot and ended up at Tableau, a touristy French Creole open to the square.

We sat at the bar and ordered what has to be a classic tourist dish combo; jambalaya, crawfish pie and chicken gumbo along with a side of black beans and rice. It was tasty though a little too spicy for our palates. We topped it off with a bread pudding… good but not as good as Doug’s, of course.

After dinner, still lost but having some sense of direction we walked around the block containing the Saint Louis Cathedral, a beautiful, spired church from the 1700s. This dramatic shadow display was breathtaking as we stumbled upon it.

(That’s a camera anomaly in the lower left corner, not The Ghost of Tourists Past… or is it!?)

The next morning we walked down a block to Cafe Du Monde, an iconic New Orleans cafe on the riverfront known for café au laits, chicory coffee & beignets since 1862. A must-stop for tourists and a memory-stop from previous visits with Lady Anna.

As is our practice in cities where our time is limited, we signed up for the hop-on, hop-off city bus tour and climbed on. The skies were overcast so we sat outside on the top.

The views were rather sobering. Though the French Quarter had been above the hurricane Katrina floods, much of the rest of the city still has not recovered. There remain boarded buildings and empty lots in many neighborhoods.

GG hopped off at Harrah’s Casino.

I stayed on through the Garden District and back to the start by Cafe Du Monde. I stepped across the street to the French Market, a three block long site that began in 1791 as an Indian trading post and has survived to today. I picked up a beer and a smoked salmon sandwich and wandered through. Unless things have changed, the Indians thrived on trading t-shirts, cheap jewelry and aromatherapy products.

I got back on the next bus and went around again. A different narrator and slightly different route gave more information.

But the real reason I went around again was I was enjoying a day of just sitting and being entertained. Also I wanted to go back through the Garden District and see the St Charles line streetcar. Lady Anna graduated Tulane University and lived in the district for several years. It’s a district of beautiful older homes of several prominent styles and generations.

After the bus tour I decided to check out Bourbon Street, a street in the heart of the French Quarter known for its bars and strip clubs, It’s where we see the televised revelry of Mardi Gras.
Have you ever gone into a large bar the morning after a big celebration? With the smell of old beer and the sun streaming in and the lights on showing every blemish? That’s Bourbon Street in the afternoon daytime. Homeless and semi-homeless sitting in doorways selling cheap beads or offering up harmonica entertainment along with trash cans awaiting pickup and a few mournful notes coming from a couple of bars belie it’s nighttime party atmosphere.

Dinner. I had planned on dinner at Brennan’s. Brennan’s was a favorite of Lady Anna’s. Apparently it is also the favorite of every other visitor. The earliest reservation was to be ten PM. Too late for us.

We wandered to the Orleans Grapevine Wine Bar & Bistro a block and a half away. It turned out to be a great find. We sat on the patio and enjoyed wine and items from the petit fare menu; GG had black angus medallions sauteed in marsala, mushroom cream sauce served with an asiago grit cake and I had pan seared scallops wrapped in bacon, served on a bed of mushroom wild rice with blackberry beurre blanc.We followed it up by sharing a key lime pie dessert.Nice setting, nice meal, attentive waitstaff. Just what I wanted for the evening.

Following dinner we walked to Bourbon Street to see it in action. We had both been there in the early eighties and wanted to re-set our memories. It’s still a fun nighttime scene. There is music from every bar and doorway. The streets are closed off and there are mimes and acrobats and artists willing to perform for a dollar in the hat. The French Quarter is an open-carry zone… not guns, alcohol. So the street is filled with tourists and conventioneers wandering the street with cups of beer, hurricane margaritas and fishbowls… whatever is in them seems to be particularly effective. The crowd seems to be about three to one, men to women, compared to our joint recollection of five to one “back when.” Gone though are the topless maidens beckoning from the balcony swings.

Next morning… time to go. The free hotel breakfast was minimal so we returned to Cafe Du Monde, this time sitting outside. As we awaited our order we heard a lone trumpet playing the strains of the doxology Praise God from whom all blessings flow… almost chilling in the early morning calm. The sound came from a street minister outside on the sidewalk promoting his CDs raising money for his church’s shelter (maybe.)  He followed up with Amazing Grace.

It was a heartwarming way to enjoy the start of the day and a memorable ending to our stay in this unusual city. We packed up and headed out of town for Destin Florida, our next stop. We chose off-interstate routes hoping to see more local color.

-Geezer