Sonya’s Blog - Day 227 - The French Quarter

This campground has a free shuttle to the French Quarter everyday. It leaves at 9 AM and then will pick you up at 5:45 PM. You can also catch the shuttle into town at 5 PM, but you are on your own to make your way back to your RV - this is for those that want to experience Bourbon Street. We probably won’t be doing that.

We had booked ourselves onto the shuttle for this morning. According to Natasha we had to get up so EARLY, but she would never get up if she didn’t have to. We managed to make the shuttle for 9 AM with a lot of drama in there. We had to drop off our key at the front desk because one of the owners will walk dogs for $5 per walk - a heck of a deal. With Kizmet taken care of, we felt secure in going to explore the French Quarter.

Blake and I had been to New Orleans years and years ago (about 20 or so). It was a very first vacation together, one of the stops on a cruise we took. I disliked the cruise (as I don’t love boats and didn’t feel great while we were at sea), but I loved our ports (Cayman Islands, Playa del Carmen and Cozumel (ok, didn’t like Cozumel so much) and New Orleans. My favourite part of the actual boat experience was cruising up the Mississippi because it is so smooth and gentle there is none of that rocking nonsense. We only had about 6 hours to explore New Orleans when we came last time, but luckily the cruise ships dock right beside the French Quarter, so that is what we explored.

We were back, with kids in tow. I thought it might look different due to Hurricane Katrina, but it didn’t. It didn’t seem like a lot had changed. I am sure some of the businesses have and all that, but no stark changes that we noticed.

I had looked a few things up to do. It was very chilly out and both Natasha and Blake had not brought sweaters with them, silly! I had worn a sweater and a coat, because I hate being cold, so I sacrificed myself and gave Natasha my sweater. She was very grateful:) We walked around for a bit and then decided to warm up with a hot drink. Everything I read had said we had to check out Cafe du Monde for a coffee and a beignet. Blake had also talked to his sister, Val, last night and she said we should check it out. It is the oldest coffee shop in the French Quarter, has been there since the 1800’s. Well, it is very busy. I guess not so busy because we found a table right away, although it was not cleared yet. When it is really busy you can wait hours for a table, my advice is don’t do this, it really isn’t worth it. I waited for about 20 minutes just to use the bathroom, because there are only 2 and they are co-ed. This did not impress me, just sayin’. (Then I found out, later in the day, there is a shopping complex about a block and a half away with a huge bathroom, lots of stalls and much cleaner). When I got back our coffees and beignets were on the table, but we only had 3 chairs and nobody was going to help us find another one, Blake finally did. The staff seemed very rushed and unhappy and the place was less than clean. The coffee was okay (not very hot though and a super tiny cup) and the beignet was fine, super messy though. There was so much icing sugar on them, like they just dumped it on there with a measuring cup or something. It got everywhere. Here is a picture:

I just didn’t get all the hype, I thought it was terrible and would never go back. We had passed a super cute looking cafe on

the way to Cafe du Monde and I wished we had stopped there instead. We felt super rushed because of all the rushing around us and we sure didn’t stay long as there is no ambience in that place. Plus, nobody is french and I expected a little french. If you come to New Orleans, I would skip Cafe du Monde, I just have nothing good to say about it.

Since our coffee was so tiny, we decided to head back up Royal Street to the other cafe we had seen. It was called Cafe Beignet. It is very narrow and long, looks like it was built in a carriage way that had been closed in. The washrooms were much cleaner and not co-ed, so already it was better. Plus, it wasn’t crazy busy. Our coffee’s were hot and much larger and overall it was a much more relaxed and pleasant cafe. I am not saying it was the greatest cafe I had ever been to, but it was much better. Plus, we love Royal Street in New Orleans. It is such a great street to walk up and down and so much more pleasant than Bourbon Street (in that there are no drunks passed out on the street and it doesn’t smell like pee and vomit - they do spray down Bourbon Street each morning, but it still smells off).

We then wandered down Royal Street and checked out some of the shops. We did walk down Bourbon Street for a block, it was cleaned up by this time and starting to get busy. It’s a bar street with some raunchy shops along it as well - not really my thing. On the cross street we saw a huge arch that said Armstrong (a few blocks up_ and thought that might be commemorating Louis Armstrong so we headed up the cross street towards that. It was a park commemorating Jazz in New Orleans, called the New Orleans Jazz National Historic Park and was run by the National Parks Service. We had a walk around and checked out some of the art work. Here is a picture:

We then headed to the French Market to check it out. Lots of stalls, flea market style. We had a good look around and bought a few things.

We decided it was time to have some Gumbo for lunch. Blake had read that the Mr. B’s gumbo was really good and they had the dark roux style, which we like. We had to walk all the way back up Royal Street to get to the restaurant, so off we went. The boys ran ahead, because when we called there was a 20 minute wait. Natasha and I went into a few shops on our way, but then Blake texted me and said they wouldn’t seat him without the whole party present so we had to hurry to catch up.

We were seated as soon as Natasha and I arrived. We all wanted a bowl of gumbo, so that made the order easy. They had a seafood gumbo and a gumbo ya-ya and we all got the gumbo ya-ya. It was super tasty with a nice dark broth (roux). We all enjoyed it, although it was a bit spicy for Isaac. We then ordered the ice-box lemon pie for desert, and it was also very good.

After lunch we headed to Jackson Square to check out the famous cathedral. St. Louis Cathedral was open for the public to look around, so we headed in. It is very grandiose. Here are some pictures:

What did we do after this. We wandered around some more, up and down other streets to check it out. The kids both wanted some masks, so we popped into quite a few stores to check out the selection. They both bought one and were happy with their choices, hopefully they will put pictures on their blog posts.

Since we had only had a small bowl of soup for lunch, we decided to stop and have another quick snack before we had to catch the shuttle back. We headed into a pub/restaurant for something quick. Blake and I both had the gumbo again, it is always different so we wanted to give it a try. It was good, but not as good as Mr. B’s.

We then walked over to catch our shuttle back to the RV. We were all tuckered out and were ready to head back. Kizmet was so happy to see us when we got back, oh the excitement. We talked to the lady that walked her and she was really good. A bit unsure at first, but then excited as soon as she grabbed the leash. She is a good girl, our Kizmet. Blake and I took her on a long walk and then came back to make a late supper (it was 6:45 or so by this time), good thing we had that last snack before heading back.

Sonya