Day 12 - New Orleans Garden District

St Charles streetcar

Anne Rice's house

Random house in Garden District

Spring in Garden District

Lafayette Cemetery

Street performers

Crawfish

Decided to head out to the Garden District and explore.  The way to get there is via streetcar along the famous St Charles St.  The streetcar (like our old red rattler trams) began in 1833 then became electrified in 1893.  It is the oldest continuously operated street railway line in the world, and provides a great opportunity to see the houses and gardens of the grandest neighborhoods, with multi-stories, classic verandas, ceiling fans, high ceilings, and shutters.  Mum would love this!

I found Anne Rice’s house – she wrote Interview with a Vampire, and many other books that Barb got me into during uni, then wandered along Magazine St that has lovely interior decorating shops and cafes.  I stopped for a coffee and this guy commented on my shoes.  Next thing I know he was trying to give me a foot massage, saying he was a reflexologist, and suggesting I might want to pay him for the service – very opportunistic!!

Next stops in the area were Lafayette Cemetery, founded in 1833 (there is quite a fascination with death and voodoo in the area), and Camellia Grill (a diner where the cooks throw things around, shout out orders, and generally slop food of a plate..entertaining).  I wasn’t really hungry so had my first root beer and a piece of apple pie.

Back in the French Quarter, I strolled along Bourbon St (avoid at all cost! It is titty bars and “frat” boys behaving badly – amazing contrast to the other parallel streets that are antique shops, art galleries, restaurants, cafes and gift shops), then bought a famous “Hurricane – to go”.  A Hurricane has bourbon and other stuff in it (not quite certain what), and to go means take away so you can wander the streets drinking it, just as well I say as it is so potent that it took me 1.5 hours to drink half of it.

Tonight I had dinner at Coop’s Place, so I could have a cajun meal.  I was seated up at the bar and was talking to an Australian couple from Sydney and John who lives in NO.  I had a red bean dish with sausage and rabbit jambalaya (spelling) and fried chicken – really tasty, and a couple of margarita’s to wash it down with.  John was full of information on New Orleans, and America in general which was fascinating.

Wandering back to the B&B I stopped via Frenchmen St again for jazz and to learn about the çrawfish”, a delicacy in the area.  I have arrived at the start of crawfish season, and they look just like yabbies that are boiled up with secret cajan spices.  The people in the bars love them!