new orleans

We spent 2 days in New Orleans. The city, French Quarter and Garden District were relatively unscathed by Katrina (mostly broken windows and damaged trees - no flooding), so the history and character of those areas remains intact. We stayed at a wonderful old hotel in the French Quarter and did lots of walking! We caught a street car up St Charles Ave past some fabulous old houses, Loyola and Tulane Universities to Audubon Park & Zoo. We were impressed with the quality of the displays at the zoo, especially the "Louisiana Swamp" section where we walked on a wooden boardwalk over a re-created swamp complete with alligators and water birds. We did an evening "Ghost Tour" of the French Quarter which gave us lots of history on the city, the old buildings and the tragedies that have occurred there - although we didn't see any ghosts! We then headed for some lighter amusement taking in the colour, lights and sounds of Bourbon Street where we spent a couple of hours listening to good old-fashioned live jazz. (Sadly most of the clubs on Bourbon St now have live rock or hip-hop music instead of jazz). We also enjoyed the local foods like Crawfish Etoufee, Red Beans & Rice, Seafood Gumbo and of course Cafe Au Lait and Beignets at the famous Cafe Du Monde.