We drove successfully into New Orleans across the Miss Bridge, right to the Convention center. It is HUGE, there was no way that we would find a visitor center in there, so we parked the van ($12 for up to 4 hours) and started walking.
I really love those little incidents that just happen in the States, ‘Vignettes of Serendipity’ I think I shall call them. Well today we had three of them.
Incident number one. We started by walking up Convention Center Boulevard and then onto Poydras St, which is parallel to Canal St. The street crossings are a bit tricky here, so we were waiting on a little traffic island for a break in the traffic, when this female stands in the middle of the street, pretending to blow a whistle, stops the traffic and ushers us across. We are all laughing. There are three of them and us two. Well we started walking up Poydras St and before you know it we feel like we are old friends with these people. We are swapping family histories and Betty was telling us she has just bought a property in Natchez and we had a great time. They worked in the courthouse on Poydras St, so they told us a good place for lunch – the Commerce. These people were so nice, it was just lovely to meet them in the middle of New Orleans.
We duly found the Commerce. Well you would have missed it if you didn’t know exactly what you were looking for. It was a good old fashioned diner (not the right architecture, but the atmosphere was there), Sally and I shared a beef Po Boy and coffee. It was a great place, full of local people.
We continued our exploration and crossed over Canal St (I always remember Canal St as it was the place where the news interviewers stood and watched the flood waters coming up the street during Katrina). We walked along Chartres Ave, right into the middle of the French Quarter, a narrow street full of old houses, all with their characteristic wrought iron balcony, lots of cafes and restaurants. Lots of side streets, again with the houses having balconies. We continued until we got to Jackson Square, where the street opens out into a small park. Here there was a typical New Orleans jazz band playing, sax, trombone, suzaphone (like a tuba, but it wraps round you) and an assortment of percussion. It was great just to stand and watch them. We moved on. We looked at the street artists.
Incident number two. I noticed that there were a number of people who sat at card tables, covered with ornaments, a bit like a table top sale, so I started looking at some of them. One lady had a number of very nice rocks and crystals. She was heavily tattooed. I started talking to her, only to find that in fact she was a Tarot Card reader, who would read my future in her cards (apparently the standard charge is $20.00). She was not at all pushy, so I stood and we talked a bit more. She told me that the things on the table sort of said something about the person doing the reading. She obviously felt that these stones and crystals said something about her. I noticed one polished rock had an ammonite embedded in it. So I pointed it out to her saying how much I liked it. She asked what an ammonite was, so I explained about it being a fossil many millions of years old. I also pointed out a belemnite which was in the same rock. She was amazed, she had had this rock for years and never noticed the fossils! She wanted to know how old they were, so I started explaining how the fossils got there. I then talked about her other crystals, she had some nice calcite, a big black quartz crystal and some hornblende. So I said that having read her rocks that would be $20.00 and we all had a good laugh.
We moved on round Jackson Square, feeling that it was time for a coffee, when we saw Café Du Monde in front of us. Large building, looked like a one time market (slave market perhaps?), open on three sides, lots of small tables crammed in, lots of people, lots of white powder. That could only mean one thing – Beignets. Oh Yes. This café only sold one item of food – beignets, fresh with piles of icing sugar. Sally had coffee, I had hot chocolate, so that I could dunk them in the chocolate, then back into the icing sugar, then into my mouth. Oh they were scrummy.
Incident number three. Lady at the next table, sophisticated looking, perhaps Japanese, sitting alone. We start talking and amazingly she plays the clarinet in the Philedelphia Orchestra – she is on a break from rehearsals as she is performing in the Star Wars extravaganza. She was fascinating. I never cease to be amazed at who we meet in America.
After our excellent afternoon coffee we walk back to the car. Our short, quiet introduction to New Orleans turned out to be a really good day. Our impression of New Orleans is that it is an exciting place, lots of things happening. It doesn’t seem to depend on tourism for its existence (which I felt Nashville and parts of Memphis did).
Looking forward to going again tomorrow. This time we will take the Ferry! And look at Bourbon Street.
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