The French Quarter
We’re going in and our destination is the French Quarter which we will reach by taking the shuttle from our campground all the way into town. The shuttle left at 9:00am, so, naturally, that meant that we were running out of the trailer at 9:00am and booking it down the lane to the front office so that we didn’t miss our shuttle. I’m exaggerating of course, but that’s probably what it felt like to Mum. Sorry Mum. The shuttle ride was about 45 minutes long, so the air had warmed up slightly by the time we got to the French
Quarter. Only slightly however and it was very windy and, being me, I’d forgotten a sweater. So I had to borrow one of Mum’s because she brought two. Lucky for moi. Today was going to be a walking-around-and-eating-at-a-lot-of-places day and we decided to start our taste-bud tour at the Café du Monde, the oldest café in New Orleans. Well if you have read Mum’s blog, you will know that the state of the café was not good. It was packed and dirty and loud and overall very touristy. Plus the coffees weren’t warm. The beignets were good but you can get those most
anywhere. What I’m saying is, if you ever find yourself in the French Quarter of New Orleans, please save yourself some pain and don’t go there. After that positively lovely experience, we meandered back to a different café, Café Beignet, that we had passed on our way to the Café du Monde, one that looked quite a good deal quainter and cleaner. We grabbed some drinks there and sat down for a while to eat the lil’ tart Mum bought. After we finished up there, we decided to do some walking along Royal Street and even a couple blocks along Bourbon Street. Thankfully, it had been sprayed down already. While we were walking, we noticed a large arch up one of the streets with
the word Armstrong on it and we decided to walk down to see what it was. It turned out that it was the New Orleans Jazz National Historic Park, with some sculptures and such commemorating the history of jazz. Mum then mentioned the French Market which is where we decided to go next. They had some cool stalls there and I bought a new pendant, a black rose set into an ornate frame. It’s very pretty. By then, it was around lunch time so the boys went up ahead of Mum and I to Mr. B’s while we meandered down and went in a couple more shops. They had some cute vintage dresses and such, as well as a Labyrinth t-shirt which was unfortunately in every size but mine. Dad called us after a bit to let us know that
Mr. B’s wouldn’t seat us unless the entire party was present so Mum and I had to hurry on down there. We got seated right away and ordered four bowls of chicken and andouille gumbo for our lunch. The gumbo was quite delicious with lots of meat and spices and I quite enjoyed it. After we payed, we headed back the way we came to Jackson Square. While we were there, we decided to pop in to St. Louis Cathedral, which borders the square, to check it out. It seems like going to a church or cathedral in every major city has
become sort of a thing we do. It was very nice and very ornate. Apparently it’s the oldest cathedral in North America, which is pretty neat. They had speakers playing Gregorian chants, which reminded me a lot of dwarves and elves singing in the Lord of the Rings. It was also interesting to read the signs in the cathedral, because some of them were in English, some were in French and some were in Spanish. It was cool being able to read and understand most of them, even the Spanish ones. Thanks to French and Spanish for being so similar. By the time
we finished up at the cathedral, we were getting pretty tired so we decided to just pop in some more stores but stay around the area. Isaac and I both bought masks at one of the stores and Dad and I ran into a street magician who’s show we had seen in Chicago. Kind of a neat coincidence. For the last hour or so before the shuttle came back to pick us up, we sat at a little pub and had some more food. Mum and Dad both got another bowl of gumbo and I ordered the french onion soup. That stuff’s always great, especially if they bake the cheese on properly. It was a long day and it was dark by the time we got back, so it was a small supper and then bed. Peace out m8s.