New Orleans
Featured Cities
It's been called the most European city in North America, and a stroll down any French Quarter avenue reveals the statement to be accurate. Wrought-iron balconies cast lacey shadows on the flagstone sidewalks below. Slate rooftops reflect the springtime sun as a cool breeze spirits you along. Take a moment to regard a street vendor's colorful works of art. Head over to Café du Monde for a café au lait and hot beignets dusted with powdered sugar. Enjoy your snack on a nearby park bench overlooking the mighty Mississippi River. Be sure to save room for later. You have reservations at Emeril's Restaurant at 8 o'clock sharp. This is New Orleans. Feel free to fall in love.
It's true that New Orleans took a hit from Hurricane Katrina, but many of the things that people love to see and do in the Big Easy are alive and well and open for business. So what does that include? For starters, the architecture will amaze you. From the magnificent hundred year old mansions along St. Charles Avenue and the Vieux Carre's colorful Creole cottages with their lacy iron balconies and secret gardens to the gothic spires of St. Louis Cathedral and the haunting marble tombs of the above ground cemeteries, the landscape reads like an epic novel, full of mystery, adventure, heartbreak and romance. Dig deeper with a visit to any number of museums, where you can learn about Marie Laveau's voodoo spells, Jean Lafitte's pirate treasure, the Battle of New Orleans, and of course the jazz. It's been said that jazz was born in New Orleans because you simply can't do this city justice with words alone.
New Orleans has long been a haven for musicians, writers and artists. This thriving arts community is yours to discover in the galleries of the Warehouse District and the eclectic shops on Magazine Street. The Warehouse District is also home to the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, with the largest and most comprehensive collection of Southern art in the world. Across the street we recommend the very moving National D-Day Museum, and just down the block is the New Orleans Children's Museum. In the City Park area is another must-see ñ the New Orleans Museum of Art, with its permanent collection of Fabergé eggs, expansive sculpture garden and Botanical Gardens, filled with rare and wonderful specimens of native plants and flowers.
You can get to know New Orleans in a number of ways. Take walking tours through the French Quarter and Garden District. Take a horse and buggy through the narrow brick streets of the Vieux Carre and Jackson Square where you'll find fortunetellers, portrait artists, street performers, and shops filled with every kind of antique and collectible you could imagine, from Confederate dollars to alligator claw backscratchers. You can also get another view of the city, with a ride on an authentic six-story, paddlewheel steamboat.
In July 2006, when streetcar service resumes along the St. Charles line, you can ride a streetcar around the city to the Audubon Zoo. Families should be sure to check out the Zoo, and also the Aquarium of the Americas when it reopens in summer 2006.
If all this sightseeing makes you hungry, you're in luck. New Orleans is famous for many things and at the top of every list is our food. Every meal is a feast, from beignets at breakfast to thick gumbos and even thicker po-boys at lunch to pecan-crusted trout and bourbon-soaked bread pudding for dinner and…well, you get the idea.
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There is so much to see and do in Louisiana. Here are a few ideas to get you started.