New Orleans is not a big city, but it does have an extensive and dynamic history that can overwhelm the first time tourist, but there are many venues for visitors to successfully experience one of the most captivating places in the world.
Gray Line Tours has a long list of commercial tour packages that cover every conceivable angle of the city’s historical highlights. Smaller tour groups focus on the city’s literary, gay and lesbian, and jazz heritage. Remember that unless you prefer self-exploration, you do not need a car to check out the wonderful highlights outside the city, like splendid plantation homes and hot n’ sweaty swamps, because most tour operators make hotel pick-ups. Non-profit organizations, including Friends of the Cabildo in the French Quarter and Save Our Cemeteries in the Garden District, also lead comprehensive tours, where your reasonable ticket “donations” help to preserve and restore the locations that you visit.
French Quarter
You may want to start your New Orleans journey where the founders started their journey: Jackson Square, where the Mississippi meets the city’s former political center. Once you squeeze through the street psychics, street performers, and street artists who make a living on the outer rim of well-groomed Jackson Square Park, you can tour the Cabildo, where the official transfer of the Louisiana Purchase took place, and St. Louis Cathedral, the oldest cathedral in the United States.
To get a feel for 18th- and 19th-century living, head to the lower part of the district, toward Esplanade Avenue, and take a tour of the Old Ursulines Convent and Madame John’s Legacy, the city’s oldest buildings. Many of the streets in this section of the Vieux Carre have residences of historical and architectural significance. Keep the Gallier, Herman-Grima, and Beauregard-Keyes houses in mind.
On the quaint Pirate’s Alley, next to St. Louis Cathederal, Faulkner House Books, where acclaimed novelist William Faulkner lived and worked on his first novel, sells many beautiful first editions of his books, along with other rare Southern works.
In the afternoon, visit the Quarter’s various museums, which focus on all the major local cultural curiosities. An interesting and somewhat amusing route might start with the Musee Conti Wax Museum on Conti Street, then the Historic Voodoo Museum on Dumaine Street, and the Germaine Wells Mardi Gras Museum above Arnaud’s restaurant on Bienville. Mardi-Gras paraphernalia and memorabilia are also on display, along with an impressive jazz exhibition, at the Old U.S. Mint on Esplanade Avenue at Decatur Street.
Central Business District/Warehouse District
Heading in the direction of Uptown, check out the Piazza D’Italia, an odd modernistic architectural exercise that is best known as the site of St. Joseph’s Day services and a brief cameo in the film The Big Easy. After two minutes at the Piazza, cruise down Magazine Street to Julia Street, an area recently dubbed the Arts District in honor of the many galleries here and the Contemporary Art Center, which honors local artists with exhibitions and performances.
Further along Magazine Street, two major museums pay tribute to soldiers of different eras: the D-Day Museum directly on Magazine Street and the Confederate Museum on Camp Street, which is home to the nation’s second largest collection of Confederate memorabilia. One block away is Lee Circle, site of the 60-foot-tall Robert E. Lee memorial statue, another important tribute to New Orleans’ Confederate past.
Garden District
This is a gorgeous area of the city, lush with crepe myrtles, magnolia trees, and jasmine bushes. A stroller’s paradise, but watch your step: the sidewalk, with growing roots of ancient oak trees busting through its cement path, makes walking an unsteady business. Although house tours in this area primarily focus on the exteriors, a guided tour that highlights and explains architectural subtleties is your best bet for making the most of the area. Structures of particular note for their beauty and cultural significance include 2900 Prytania Street, home to Great Gatsby author F. Scott Fitzgerald from 1919-1920; the Louise S. McGhee School on 2343 Prytania; and 1239 First Street, residence of novelist Anne Rice and muse for her best-selling book, The Witching Hour.
Fans of Rice’s gothic novels will also enjoy Lafayette Cemetery #1 at Washington and Coliseum Streets, which was featured in the movie version of Rice’s Interview with a Vampire and, more recently, in the movie Double Jeopardy.
Uptown
For the ardent Anne Rice fan, Uptown offers something a little more intimate: St. Elizabeth’s Orphanage on Napoleon, which is the only Anne Rice residence open to the public. From there, hop on the St. Charles streetcar and cruise through an astonishing outdoor showroom of oak trees and mansions, including the Georgian revival de la Houssaye House, which is also known as The Wedding Cake House.
Don’t miss Audubon Park either, the 365-acre public green laid out in the 1890s by John Olmstead, son of the architect of New York’s Central Park. On the Magazine Street side of the park, near the river, lies the acclaimed Audubon Zoo, home to thousands of different species and their respective environments, including a 6-acre recreated swamp.
Downtown/Mid-City
Louis Armstrong Park and the historic Congo Square are both good starting points for a tour outside of the French Quarter. These two attractions also require the utmost caution, however, as attacks on tourists have occured here in the evenings and night. The Faubourg Treme, nearby, is the nation’s oldest African-American neighborhood. Here, find St. Augustine Church on the corner of Gov. Nicholls and St. Claude, and down the street, the Villa Meilleur African-American Art Museum. Continuing down Gov. Nicholls, catch a bus on Esplanade Avenue and head away from the Quarter. St. Louis Cemetery #3 is on the right side of Esplanade Avenue, just before Bayou St. John and City Park. City Park is home to the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Botanical Gardens, and, during the winter holiday season, a superb festival of lights, entitled “Christmas Under the Oaks.”
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