Deep South Road Trip #2

Thursday 12th April

We awoke early – I slept fitfully and I think Mia slept a little better despite having the less comfortable bed.  Mia had chosen the option of the downstairs sofabed so she wouldn’t have to climb the spiral stairs after a late night although I don’t think she considered the fact that the bathroom was also upstairs!  I was very happy with this however as it gave me the chance to unpack.  Once we felt more settled in we took a walk down into the French Quarter and the Festival.

We didn’t choose the most scenic route and ended up walking alongside a 6 lane highway and under a massive underpass (called the Basin, definitely not somewhere to stray late at night).  However we did walk right through the middle of the French Quarter and down Royal St, past many art shops (I could spend a fortune here!).  We chose Pere Antoine’s for breakfast where we both had eggs, bacon and toast.  Mia chose the more sensible accompaniment of fried potatoes whereas I thought I’d better try the local “grits” at least once.  Definitely a one off.  I don’t really feel the need to eat wallpaper paste again!  The rest of the food however was delicious, the service excellent and we sat watching people start to mill around for the parade that marked the start of the festival.

We walked up St Ann St to find a good position on the parade route.  It wasn’t too busy and the parade wasn’t due to arrive for a while so we popped into Boutique de Vampyre, a shop with special interest to Mia who loves stories of the undead.  The hostess was very lovely, explaining that a lot of the articles were made specifically for the shop.  Some of the items were simple and fun but made with care and love.  I bought a small votive which contains a charm and Mia bought a hand carved small leather notebook (fully expecting to return for further shopping on our last day!)

We could hear the Second Line parade in the distance when we came out.  The streets still weren’t overly busy – plenty of people around for atmosphere but we could get a front row spot.  This was largely brass bands marching through the short distance along Bourbon St and then down St Ann St to Jackson Square.  There were also quite a few of the local hotels in the line.  The whole French Quarter Festival is heavily sponsored by local businesses and international chains to keep it free entry.  The festival was started to try to encourage more tourism outside of Mardi Gras season and to support local bands and musicians and is now in it’s 35th year.  We really enjoyed and felt it showed a lot of the heart and soul of New Orleans.

Once the parade had passed we tried to circumvent it by walking to Jackson Square a different way but we didn’t quite achieve it!  The parade arrived at the same time as us and the square was very busy so we ducked into St Louis Cathedral for a quick look around.  It had some nice touches but I often find modern cathedrals less interesting than older ones.  They are certainly less opulent as a rule although his one did have a blinged up statue of the Madonna and Child which seemed to just have two sparkly crowns plonked on their heads!

The streets were a little quieter when we came out.  Jackson Square is surrounded by local artists selling their wares so we walked around to do some window shopping while listening to the music coming from the stage inside the square.  We both would love to take an original piece home as a souvenir.  We then went into the square and started on the frozen cocktails that would keep us inebriated for the next few days!  We watched the Preservation All Stars, gradually making our way closer to the stage.  There were quite a lot of chairs around (my fellow Glastonbury goers will know how irritating that can be!). The atmosphere was terrific though and plenty of people were dancing to the jazz band and cheering the elongated solos.

Once the band finished Mia needed another cocktail and I decided to start on the incredible range of food on offer.  This was brilliant for me as I was getting the chance to try lots of dishes from lots of local restaurants.  It was time to be brave and sample shrimp and alligator cheesecake.  “Cheesecake” turned out to be similar to quiche and alligator, unsurprisingly, tastes a bit like chicken.  I also had a pineapple snoball – shaved ice drenched in pineapple syrup.  We got chatting to a couple from Chicago who, like us had booked a trip without realising the festival was on.

There was a lot more to explore so we headed out of Jackson Square towards the Mississippi.  Near the river we got chatting to a pair of guys from Boston, Shane and Hunter.  We had a great conversation about language and they walked with us towards one of the riverfront stages but we felt they were getting perhaps a little too close from comfort and left them to watch another band while we went to the bar.  I made the executive decision that we should get the refillable bottles – they make great momentoes and they also worked well as water bottles (honest!)  I was grazing food again (a shrimp Po-Boy, the New Orleans equivilant of a sub sandwich).  Again we got chatting, this time to some locals which was brilliant.  The guy had toured the world singing gospel and his daughter had just joined the Navy but it was her friend who did most of the talking and insisted on getting a photo with us.  We knew people would hook onto our accent – we keep being told that people love our accent and I always say that I loooove their accent too!

None of the music was particularly taking our fancy so we walked back along the river towards the French Market.  We were still getting our bearings in the new city and as it was the first day of the festival there was still only a limited amount on.  From the French Market we walked all the way back up Esplanade Avenue (about 30 minutes) to our cottage.

We showered and changed and then headed back out for a night on Bourbon St.  Quick and cheap eats were the order of the evening.  Willie’s Chicken Shack is a bit of a chain but does great fried chicken along with frozen cocktails.  We hit a couple of bars but were starting to feel the effects of a long day in the sun drinking sugary cocktails.  First up was a bar with a soul band with terrible sound levels (loud backing vocals never sound good).  Upstairs was a bar playing more dance music but we mainly went up to get some photos from the balcony!  We called it a relatively early night getting the 10:30pm bus back but as that wasn’t for 20 minutes we very briefly stopped at Famous Door where a rock band were playing.  Much more our style!

Friday 13th April

We had a restaurant booked for lunch so headed towards the Garden District to take in a different part of the city.  Our bus could have taken us all the way but when I found out there was a Felicity St here I had to stop for a few snaps!  We strolled down Jackson and Saint Charles Avenues towards LaFayette Cemetery No.1.  You can see where the Mardi Gras parades come down Saint Charles because there are strings of beads hanging from the trees (it is a tradition for those on the floats to throw the beads to the spectators).  It’s a beautiful tree-lined street with some gorgeous houses and the classic streetcar running through the middle.

The cemetery itself was interesting enough.  I always like to imagine the stories behind the graves, especially as many of these are family graves.  Many movies and TV series have been filmed here but there didn’t appear to be anyone particularly famous.  We still had some time before our lunch appointment so we had a browse around a local photo gallery.

Lunch was at Commander’s Palace, famous for it’s 25c martinis.  The food was fantastic (Mia had beef and cheesecake, I had lamb and soufflé).  However the service sometimes felt a little bit rushed and I was slightly disappointed that our martinis didn’t come in martini glasses.

We had to take the streetcar at least once so we took the oldest running one all the way down St Charles Avenue to Canal St (kind of an equivilant of Oxford St in London).  From here we made our way back to the cottage on the bus to change for the evening.  It’s not too often I’ll find myself dressing up for the day and then dressing down for the evening!

Back out and down to the Riverfront for more of the festival.  More alcoholic slushies and an excellent soul / funk band called Chocolate Milk.  They were clearly a local favourite as the crowd knew a lot of the words and were very excitedly singing along.  However the locals obviously also know of the nightmare of leaving after the show has finished and gradually filtered out towards the end.  Great news for us – we got closer and closer to the front!!!

Chocolate Milk finished around 9pm and we started off planning on NOT going to the tourist trap of Bourbon.  We had a drink in another French Quarter bar but were drawn back into the seedy side.  I think we both knew that Famous Door from night before was worth spending more time in and we were right.  As we arrived they started on Proud Mary (so excited to have heard that in New Orleans!).  The band were tight with a couple of fantastic vocalists and very talented musicians all round.  We had foolishly imagined we would get the last bus and did almost leave at one point but What’s Up by Four Non Blondes hooked us in for another couple of hours.  We left at around 2am, grabbed a slice of pizza (which many passers by spied enviously!). and walked all the way back to our digs.

Saturday 14th April

We knew from the weather forecast that this was not going to be a great day.  We had expected rain but it was just grey and humid when we left the cottage.  We had booked onto a 9:30am tour of St Louis Cemetery #1 and when we arrived at our meeting point our guide Elizabeth told us that the whole Southern area was on tornado watch and that sadly the festival had been cancelled for the day. However the tour would go on and she hoped to have it completed before the rain started.

The tour was a terrific insight into a lot of New Orleans and Louisiana history.  Elizabeth is a native New Orleanian and speaks passionately about her city.  We saw two possible sites where the remains of voodoo queen Marie Laveau may lie.  The Italian monument is very beautiful – much more so than Nicholas Cage’s pyramid shaped monstrosity (let’s just say he’s clearly compensating for something).  The detail of how bodies are placed in the above ground tombs, how quickly they decompose and how they are “bagged and tagged” when the tomb is opened for the next incumbent were morbidly fascinating.  It was also amazing to see the wall tombs and how they marked the way the ground is sinking by about 3 inches every 100 years – the bottom row was half submerged.

As we left the tour the wind was starting to whip up and the rain was just starting to fall.  I sensibly brought my waterproof jacket with me but Mia only had her leather jacket to protect her so we spent most of the rest of the day skipping under as many of the balconies as possible.  We had to try the world renowned beignets at Café du Monde.  There was a queue but it moved forward quickly.  We were shown to a table that hadn’t been cleared and then seemed to wait an age for the table to be cleared and someone to serve us.  The first part almost certainly more time consuming than the first; the mountains of powdered sugar on the beignets gets everywhere!  It was worth the wait though.  The beignets – kind of the original “cronut”, a puff pastry donut – were warm and delicious.

It was becoming clear that today was not going to be worth “waiting for the rain to ease” (I believe about 3-4 inches fell during the day).  It was definitely a day for museums!  First up was the 1850 house.  Set in one of the Pontalba buildings that flank Jackson Square, this is decorated and furnished in an authentic 19th century style and would have been one of 16 apartments on each side of the square.  You could also see the servants quarters and kitchen area and there were brief histories of three of it’s former residents.

After a nosey in the shop we moved round to the Presbytere.  Built next door to St Louis Cathedral, this was originally intended to house the priests but it was never completed to serve that purpose.  Eventually the US government completed the building and it was used as the Louisiana state court for a time before becoming a museum.  It houses two exhibitions.  We started with “Living With Hurricanes: Katrina and Beyond”.  The stories of how the storm built, how people evacuated and survived in the immediate aftermath were harrowing but tempered with the inspiring acts of heroism as people with any sort of boat rallied to save as many people from their roofs as possible.  The rebuilding process is still ongoing even 13 years on.

The other exhibition in the museum is about the famous Mardi Gras.  I don’t know if it was tiredness (largely in my feet!) but I found this one oddly a bit muted.  It didn’t really seem to convey the joy and spirit of the festival but it had some interesting information about the origins of the parades, krewes and balls.

We needed something to eat.  We intended to have a snack but I really wanted to try Johnny’s Po Boys, supposedly the best in town and, if I’m honest, I knew it would be a full meal in one.  This tiny place makes the submarine sandwiches fresh and has a small seating area.  I ordered Johnny’s Special which had roast beef and ham and Mia opted for meatballs but we swapped half so we could try both.  It was definitely a 4-napkin sandwich!  Delicious and very filling.  In a weird coincidence, one of the guys working there grew up near RAF Lakenheath, very close to where my grandparents lived.  I did a genuine double-take when he asked if Essex was anywhere near Mildenhall!

We weren’t sure what to do with the rest of our day / evening.  The rain was definitely dampening our spirits a little along with our general physical tiredness following three days on our feet.  Although our cottage wasn’t a massively long way away we knew we didn’t want to go back and head back out again.  We were wet and generally just wanted to not be on our feet any more so despite the early hour we took the bus back.  We spent the evening resting, writing the diary and packing for our first real drive tomorrow.

Sunday 15th April

The day dawned clear but a lot cooler.  We finished our packing, tidied up the cottage and checked out around 10am.  Mia was first to drive feeling it would be best for her to get used to the newness while in town on a quiet Sunday morning.  The combination of the bigger, newer car, her first time in an automatic and driving on the “wrong” side of the road made her feel like a learner again!

We both found driving mostly not too difficult and the car is very comfortable.  There’s loads of local radio available to listen to, particularly country and religious stations.  We had one quick loo / changeover stop, then another where we picked up a piece of fried chicken to keep us going – the Indian owners insisted on me also trying a samosa!  Eventually we made a proper stop for some food – we’d become obsessed about finding a Wendy’s!  It was actually pretty good too.

We decided to fill up the car with gas before arriving as we didn’t want to mess around the following day.  It was all rather confusing as I couldn’t use the pay at pump due to it asking for a zip code.  It turned out I needed to pre-pay for the fuel.  Having no idea how much it might be he put a $50 prepay on – it was only $25 in the end so I went back in for a refund.  Mia had her priorities straight and bought a couple of bottles of wine.

We arrived at Meadow Lake Lane in Chelsea around 5pm.  This was a real retreat, no TV, no internet.  There was a distinct chill in the air and our host was bringing some firewood over as we approached.  He was a really lovely man, explaining everything we needed to know.  The cabin was absolutely gorgeous and our host appeared to have thought of everything with notes and instructions everywhere and breakfast ready for us in the fridge.  I was wishing we’d grabbed more snacks at the gas station but we still had some sweets from our flight so we decided against going out again (our Wendy burgers had filled us up enough!). Instead we wrapped up warm and went for a brief wander to the lake to take a few photos and breathe in the fresh air.

Back in the cabin we got the fire lit, the wine open and settled in for a game of Trivial Pursuit.  It was clearly an American edition with some questions leaving us baffled even when we had read the answers.  I called it a draw when I was falling asleep chasing a yellow wedge with Mia desperately hoping for an easy green wedge question.  Mia had the main bed in the roof and I had the sofabed this time.  It was lovely to snuggle in for sleep in front of the burning embers of the fire.