17 January – New Orleans

We caught the shuttle into New Orleans and bought day tickets to the hop on hop off city circle tour bus. We took a stop off at the Garden District for a walking tour.

The Garden District is the best preserved collection of historic mansions in New Orleans, and also the most expensive. The area was once a huge market garden that was sold off in quarter block lots – so each city block had 4 allotments. Some people purchased 2 or more of these lots to build some very impressive homes. The area is home to celebrities, sports people, and film stars. We saw Sandra Bullock's home, John Goodman's, and one that had been owned by Nicholas Cage.

We also stopped in to one of the cemeteries for a look around. It is one of the better known cemeteries thanks to Hollywood. There is a vacant plot that is used to set up prop grave sites for movies.

We got back on the bus and one of the next stops was the Mardi Gras World, one of the warehouses that builds the floats. The bus circled around the building, stopping at the doors so we could look inside at the floats under construction. The floats are commissioned by clubs, or Krewes as they are known. To be in a Krewe you must be invited to join, then pay an annual fee of at least $3000 and up to $30,000. On top of that you have to purchase $2000 of beads and trinkets to throw from the float, plus tickets to the balls, and it is a very expensive exercise! Some of them seem to operate like secret societies. They have elected Kings, Queens, Dukes and other court positions.

We hopped off the bus at the corner of Frenchmen st, where the locals go to eat an listen to jazz. We quickly found a venue with live bands and settled in to relax and listen. 

Too quickly it was time to head back to the shuttle back to the RV. On the walk back we passed the statue of Joan of Arc, gifted to New Orleans by the French. Locals call it “Joanie on the pony”.