First we did a walk to the French Quarters and stopped at Jackson square with view on the St.Louis cathedral.
Of course we had to visit Cafe Du Monde, but the line was way too long so we tasted our NOLA beignets in Cafe Beignet, the other corner of Jackson square. They were yummy!
And then ready to explore little part of the Mississippi River on the Nantchez River steamboat.
We saw a lady playing the orgel with steam pipes. You could hear it all over the French quarters.
New Orleans is East of the River, is 100-240 feet deep, NO is 100 miles inland from the ocean, 10th largest port of the world, surrounded by bayous, Cajun food. We could visit the Engine Room (steam driven paddle boat) and we tasted the Mississippi cocktail 😜
In the afternoon we had a 3-hour private tour of New Orleans. Our guide was fantastic and we saw areas we wouldn’t have seen and we also learned a lot about NOLA. We learned about Canal Street, that on one side was for the French and on the other side was for the Americans and that the streets change names at Canal Street.
He showed us the Hard Rock Hotel building which collapsed 3 weeks ago and still 2 people are missing.
Our guide took us to the Warehouse District, where all the floats for Mardi Gras and everywhere else, like Macy’s Parade, are made
We were in Garden District, where huge houses are and where we saw houses of Sandra Bullock, Nicholas Cage, John Goodman, Bejonce, and many more.
We visited Basin St. Station, where we saw on a map how and which areas were flooded after Katrina. This was a huge train station and only the luggage area is converted to a museum
We drove trough Ward 9, the area totally flooded when a barge broke a levee(dyke). Some areas were flooded 12 feet in 6 hours. Today, 14 years later, several houses are still boarded, several open spots. We also saw the houses Brad Pitt helped rebuilding.
We were in Musician Village. Music instruments found in the flooded water are now hung on poles.
The house in which Fatz Domino recorded his music is now a laundromat, still memorabilia were hanging there.
We took pictures of Fatz Domino’s house, so Jose c could show could show it to Bobby Setter.
Our guide also drove through Botanical Garden and City Park. At that time we were in overflow and ready to go to our hotel.
In the evening we walked through the French Quarters again looking for a good restaurant. We finally decided on the Tableau, extremely good! The oysters were to die for ( we added with a pipette some soyasaus)
We witnessed also the typical musical parades, one was just for the music (escorted by a police on motocycle with a big cigar), one parade was for a wedding. Fun fun!!
2019canyontrip 