French Quarter

French Quarter

 

Beautiful old french buildings

Walk around Jackson Square

A very hectic Bourbon Street with everyone preparing for Mardi Gras

Café De Monde, serving coffee and beignets since 1862.  There was a line of tourists out the door and down the road so we decided to leave for a coffee really early. The coffee and chicory was nice but really, I don’t know what the fuss was about, There were plenty of other courtyards serving coffee and beignets.

Gumbo, Jambalaya,, Southern style fried chicken, Po Boys, drive through daiquiris, Kings cake. The Kings cake is a Bundt cake, and buried inside is a tiny, plastic baby Jesus figurine. The gold represents power, green faith, and purple for justice. The tradition is that whoever gets the baby is King or Queen for the day and usually has to buy next years cake or host the next Mardi Gras party.

 

 

 

Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve

 

Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve

Site of the battle of New Orleans,

Jean Laffite National Park is named after a privateer and smuggler who stopped his illegal activities to fight and smuggle for the United States in defense of New Orleans in the War of 1812.

The Bayou walk was fantastic, the government shut down was still on, and so the park center was closed.  We parked outside the gate and walked in, It was so beautiful and quiet, we only saw one other couple, maybe that is why we saw so many animals on our walk.

 

Banksys “Girl With Umbrella".

 

Banksys “Girl With Umbrella".

New Orleans used to have quite a few Banksy art pieces but most of them have been destroyed, the one remaining was walking distance from our camp site so Jo and I decided to walk over for a look.  The street art stencil was done around the time of  Banksy’s stint in New Orleans in 2008, before the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

It was well worth the walk.