A Picture's Worth A Thousand Words...: One Of My Most Favorite Places In The World!

The Cabildo and St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square, New Orleans.

NOLA!

New Orleans!

The Big Easy!

The Crescent City!

The Birthplace of Jazz!

Mardi Gras City!

Nawlins!

The entry into the French Market

One of my favorite places in the the world - somewhere I NEVER pass up a chance to visit...You might think, Paris ~ London ~ Moscow ~ Tahiti ~ Rio...but you'd be wrong. One of my very favorite places in the world is New Orleans, the largest city in Louisiana.

Many things come to mind when you say "New Orleans" - the Audubon Zoo, Canal Street, City Park and Story Book Land, Cemetaries and Marie Laveau , Cafe du Monde, The Morning Call (more about that a little later), Mardi Gras, Harrah's, Saks Fifth Avenue, The Aquarium of the Americas, Bourbon Street...but nothing says New Orleans, to me, more than the French Quarter, Jackson Square, and the French Market!

The New French Market

When I have the great pleasure of visiting New Orleans, I always make a stop at the Quarter - if I don't, then I don't feel like I've really been to New Orleans.

Crafts & Wares in the French Market - busy as ever!

Did you know that New Orleans had it's own smell? Especially in the French Quarter...some would say it's a dirty smell, some would say it smells of history, some would say it smells of the best Creole food there is! (Oh, don't confuse Creole food with Cajun food - they are two different animals, although they do share a few things in common.)

And, there are so many things to see and do in the Quarter. There are great antique shops - REAL antique shops! There are the unique Street Performers. You'll find them in different places, painted and frozen in some type of pose or in costume with their bucket or hat on the ground, waiting for you to place your money inside. How can you ever be bored with so much to see, do, and EAT!

Frozen Statue - Street Performer in front of Jackson Square

Transformer - Street Performer in front of St. Louis Cathedral

You can always take a horse and buggy ride through the quarter while listening to a bit of history. There are old grocery stores that I'm sure have the original fixtures! There are art galleries on every street. You can find some delicious seafood restaurants there in the Quarter, not all Creole. And, what's a stop to the Quarter if you don't stop in at Cafe du Monde for a cup of hot coffee and a plate of beignets, while street musicians play outside on the sidewalk.

Cafe du Monde

While Cafe du Monde was the oldest coffee shop (1865), it was not the only one back in the day. There was also The Morning Call. The Morning Call opened in the 1870's and that was where my great grandfather, Clofa Guidroz, worked. He worked there for many years and was forced to retire at the required retirement age. Even so, every morning he'd show up and sit on the doorstep of the Morning Call. Finally, one day his boss told him to come on back to work!

Just a short note - Paw Paw Clofa lived in the French Quarter and came home one day in 1958 to find his apartment building blocked off. He was denied entry because Paramount Pictures was shooting King Creole, with Elvis Presley, and had chosen one of the apartments in his building to be the King's apartment in the movie. Not just any apartment, but MY GREAT GRANDFATHER'S apartment! He didn't care if it was Elvis - he was tired from a long day's work and just wanted to go home but had to wait until they finished the shooting. Not only that, but he complained for many days after - they'd painted his door red for the movie! :)

To read more interesting history of the French Market and the Morning Call, click this photo.

One of my favorite things about the Quarter are the buildings and the architecture. The buildings and architecture reflect the rich history and multicultural heritage. In the Quarter, you'll find everything from creole cottages to the three story houses with their balconies coming from their Colonial Spanish days...balconies, balconies everywhere you look!

Beautiful Architecture!

Tall Three-Storied Buildings

Beautifully Decorated Balconies

And, don't forget the street musicians!

Sidewalk Musicians in the Square

The city is named after Orleans, a city located on the Loire River in France. The French Quarter and New Orleans is rich with history. New Orleans was a cultural gateway to North America, where you could find people from Europe and Africa, who brought their cultures with them, including the Creole culture. During the earliest days, English was not the prevailing language - French was. And Catholicism was the dominant religion.

New Orleans was founded May 7, 1718, by the French Mississippi Company and for the next hundred years, it was home to the French and Spanish until Napoleon sold it to the US with the rest of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.

New Orleans was the South's chief cotton and slave market. The French, as well as Spaniards and Cubans continued to arrive and make New Orleans their home. One interesting note is that Cafe du Monde at Jackson Square was Spanish in it's origins, not French.

From 1820 to 1870 large waves of Irish and German immigrants also made New Orleans their home, all preserving their dialects and making the city one of the main immigrant ports in the nation, second only to New York.

You'll find lots of "old world culture" there in the city of Nawlins...but that's part of what gives New Orleans it's sense of identity and it's charm!

For more interesting history check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Orleans.

Here are a few pictures of my sisters and me on one of our "Sister" trips to the Quarter....we had so much fun that day! We're long overdue for another trip...