VADOULOU

       

We have had a morning of pampering. Doug went out to find a barber for a wet shave—apparently closing his eyes in case the barber was using a cut-throat razor! Mine was more infinitely more pleasurable, a manicure followed by a pedicure. My finger nails are always at their best at the end of a holiday. I don’t know how long this will last once household chores & gardening come into the equation again. 

After lunch we have packed our bags ready for the off tomorrow & our marathon trek home. Tonight, however, we have one last treat in store. We are going on a paddle steamer (the genuine article it seems) for a 2hr Jazz cruise along  the Mississippi. Along with the Jazz there will be a buffet table & drinks to sooth us along. 

We went out tonight heading for Bourbon St, which is where it all happens. It is always busy during the day,together with Royal St which runs parallel, but at night it is positively jumping. Obviously all the tourist flock here to promenade, eat & drink. We hit on a bar where the music was just starting, a live group playing blues & they were good. Afterwards we slowly walked back to our hotel but were struck by the number of sex joints, something we haven’t really seen in prudish America. Some of the advertising made me laugh e.g. ‘Real Drag Queens’—-oxymoron or what!!!

There is an Italian restaurant in the entrance to our hotel so we had a pizza. All the wines by the glass were listed by name & grape & were Italian & the waiter had a puzzled look when I asked if any of them were Sicilian. Not sure he knew where Sicily was.

Last day tomorrow, packing to do.

  

I was beginning to think that we may not get to see too much of New Orleans!
On the drive down from Natchez, all the in & out of air-con, humidity and sleeping without open windows finally got to my throat. That, plus the trip to the medical drop-in centre, coupled with some pretty fierce storms, was meaning that we weren’t getting out and about as we’d hoped. Last night, I slept a full 12 hours & didn’t feel much better this morning. But we went on the walking tour of The French Quarter at lunchtime, and it was very good. At least now I feel as though we’ve arrived in New Orleans, and that there’s far more to it than Bourbon Street.
I’ve got the Satchmo voice now, ironically! What a wonderful world.
I’ll keep taking the pills and we’ll see what happens.
And the museum where we ended the tour had a little section on rocn’n’roll and Fats Domino, which brought the trip to a suitable end. And now for some jazz tonight.