Author: Louise Riley

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 had to publish the first bit ‘cos our wifi ran out & we had to renew. This is the one & only place that we have had to pay for wifi!!

Katrina—apparently Katrina did not hit the coast as expected at the mouth of the river (all the floodgates were shut) but hit to the East and forced lots of water into the lake to the north of the city. As New Orleans is built on swamps, which are pumped out into this lake, it is an area that has hundreds of drainage ditches. The flooding occurred when the volume of water became too great & the drainage system ditch walls collapsed and 80 to 90% of the city was flooded. And they were unable to pump the water out until all the walls were repaired. The French Quarter was not under water but our hotel which is on the other side of the main road, Canal St, was. It was really interesting to hear the story from a local but must have been horrendous to go through. 

Libby showed us buildings of architectural interest & gave us the stories behind them. General Andrew Jackson (later President Jackson) was a local hero since it was he who was responsible for the defeat of the British. Napoleon sold the territory to America when he was a bit short of cash but the French legacy lives on in many of the street names & architectural styles. French toast is a popular dish here (have never seen it in France) as are beignets & there is a café which makes & sells only beignets & café crème. We could actually see the production & cooking of said doughnuts & the café was full of people consuming them. 

There are some beautiful buildings & some of the balconies are very attractive. After the tour we managed to find one such balcony for a bit of light refreshment. I will post some photos from today.