dsugden - New Orleans

Thursday

Ok, so Gail (and Betony) very kindly drove us to Hartford CT for our plane to New Orleans. We duly caught this, changed at Baltimore and landed in New Orleans mid-afternoon. We flew South West airlines, having taken advantage of an early booker summer special which Gail had told us about earlier. The Americans make a lot of their new airport security measures and at Hartford these manifested themselves in a walkthrough Marilyn Monroe style wind machine. You walk in and stand still – it blows air all around you and if no bells ring you walk out again. Brilliant – Sharon asked what it was for and was told that it was a special atomizer and could detect if you were carrying illegal, noxious or explosive substances – even if these were just in minute particles. Beam me up Scotty!

Our hotel was the Maison Dupuy on Toulouse Street in the French Quarter.

This turned out to be a very comfortable and well placed hotel just about eight or nine blocks from the Mississippi River. Having sorted out a couple of initial problems with our room (smoky – got moved) we set out to explore. We later found that we had missed most of the ‘things to do’ in the French Quarter by simply walking down the wrong streets. We eventually put most of this mistake right! We ate in the hotel that night and wnet to bed early enough to eat the chocolate strawberries and bottle of wine that Gail had had sent to our room. Splendid.

Friday

We spent most of today just walking around and exploring. The heat was tremendous and the sun very very hot. We took what shelter we could in various shops where the A/C was very welcome. We started by having breakfast at La Peniche (1940 Dauphine Street on Taub). This place had been recommended for breakfast (and all the sites I’ve looked at since suggest that it is a 24 hour place with quite a reputation) and we had their special omelette with ‘sides’ of ‘grits’ and ‘biscuits and gravy’! The waiter had asked is I had any questions and I just thought “none that you can answer!” I wanted to know what grits, biscuits and gravy were and now I do! – See side bar below Katrina. The omelette was stuffed with red beans (we were to find that this was a Cajun/Creole favourite) and other stuff. Whipped cream on the top and with Lyonnaise potatoes. Sometimes it’s too much! We were only looking for a Croissant and a coffee. Sharon wasn't keen on the Red Bean texture because (apart from seasoning and technique), they seemed to be kidney beans taken from their tin; juice thickened and slapped inside the omelette. When she had the same thing this evening (doh) as a dish in itself she wasn't keen.

By now we'd walked right out of the French Quarter and had to walk down Elysian Fields. We later found out that this is called 'no man's land' as the different breeds of settler used to meet here to do trade in days gone by. We found ourselves by what we realised was the French Market (although at this stage we didn't know what this was or what it did. We saw a tramcar and decided to hitch a lift to somewhere (wherever it was going - the heat was killing us by now).

The tram turned out to be free - so we jumped aboard and found that as it ran, the draught which came through the open windows was wonderful. Its destination was City Park, which we would visit tomorrow. For now we were happy to ride on it as far as Canal Street, which separates Uptown (Central Business District, Garden Distrct etc.) from Downtown (Fresh Quarter and the rest). From here it was a short trot to a Mall where we could once more cool down for a while.

There is an enormous Mall on the river front - which we didn't find until our last day and therefore didn't visit, the one we had found was fairly small but was big enough to keep us cool. What's more, we could get an ice cold frappacino from Starbucks to really cool us down. We then found Decatur Street, which runs along the riverfront of the French Quarter and spent the rest of the afternoon looking in all the shops along there. When we next felt hunger (4.30pm ish) we called in the French Market Cafe and shared a PoBoy. See second Monday for discussion of other forms of sandwich.

We'd already booked our trips for tomorrow, but called in one of the information centres (not at all like you're used to!) to check out what to do on Sunday. The guy suggested a restaurant for that evening.

I can't remember the name of it now, but it was so popular that we had to queue outside to be seated (not for long), whereas all the other places had pletny of room. The price was the reason = reasonable. We'd called in at the Central Grocery store earlier and asked what thier choice of sandwich fillings was: He said "just the one" but in that manner that really pisses you off - so we were left uneducated. Seeing the sandwich on THIS menu that's what I had (remember Sharon had the red bean thing and didn't like it). My sandwich was called a muffuletta, which turned out to be a N'awlins favourite.

Saturday

We decided to stay at the hotel for breakfast today as they had croissants (which were crap - never mistake French Quarter for 'French'). We then walked down Toulouse Street and straight onto the river front to pick up our tour.
The first of our two trips today was the Super City Tour. We’d been told that there were better tours on smaller buses (after we’d booked it) but it turned out to be pretty much what we’d wanted. The smaller tours take in the French Quarter (bigger buses are forbidden) but we’d done that on foot (done is not the word – we would still need another week to ‘do’ it!). What was very evident from this tour was the difficulties that businesses and people were working under (see sidebar). We saw huge areas of devastation and because of the route taken and the explanations given were able to better understand the problems. On this tour you see all the different areas of N'awlins and get a feel for the history of the city. Much of my comment alongside was formented on this trip.

The second trip of the day was on the Steamboat Natchez. Not only was it steam powered, but it still had the paddle wheel to propel it down the Mississippi. They make an interesting tour out of what is really a huge industrial area. Once again, you get a feel for the history of the region and the limits placed on it by the river. We'd chosen to go after lunch (which we had in a cafe on the river front - not exciting) because we didn't think the lunch on board would be up to much as it was advertised as a traditional buffet style lunch. As it happens, it looked tremendous. Hey ho!

After the Natchez we strolled around a bit more (there's so much to see and do) before returning to the hotel. we didn't fancy eating on the 'front' again (too fried or sandwichy) and Sharon couldn't seee anything she fancied at Dominiques - the hotel's good restaruant (too fishy), so we went down Toulouse a little to Hillary's. Here we had a nice meal - See my review online (if they ever post it).

Sunday

Today was our last day in the city. Sharon had got up at 7.30am, to go down to the ‘business centre’ to check in for tomorrow’s flight. With South West Airways you can check in up to 24 hours in advance and are given a letter (A, B, or C). The letter allows you to enter the plane first, second or last (50 at a time?) and as there are no seat allocations, to fight for the best ones. However, which are the best ones on a Boeing 700 series 3 + 3, when only two of you are flying?

So today, I'd hoped we could have a quick breakfast somewhere before beig picked up at the more civilised time of 10.30am, to go on the Swamp tour we’d booked.

Sharon was unbelievably slow at getting ready and I was champing at the bit to get off, get fed and get back. When a knock came on the door and room-service was there with a trolley – I told the girl she had got the wrong room and started closing the door. In the background Sharon was shouting “no it isn’t you’re right!” I was confused. What I didn’t know was that Sharon had booked a celebratory breakfast to mark our second wedding anniversary (which is tomorrow but our flight time meant that we would have to be up by 4.30am then to be picked up at 5.15am.) I was lost for words; once again she has had the foresight to book a real surprise for me. The breakfast was HUGE. We had two plates of smoked salmon and cream cheese with bagels; two plates, each with two eggs Benedict on them and a large dish of sliced fruits. A bonus of nine chocolate strawberries completed the fayre. How do you eat all that? Well, I ate the Benedict (just one of the two) and some smoked salmon. We then made a cream cheese bagel for Sharon and a smoked salmon bagel for me – for lunch and had the fruit with (for) tea.

Our one hour trip out to the Pearl River Swamp [see side bar too] took us through some awful devastation and even on the swamp we were able to see signs of destruction. However, the swamp-guy seemed to be unmoved by that aspect of it all as they had still not had enough water this year to keep the swamp healthy. He did show us several huge tracks of land (open water with just water-top vegetation) which had apparently been woodland until Katrina blew through! Nevertheless, the trip was interesting and we learned lots about the flora and the fauna – not to mention seeing lots of alligators.

We have been very lucky with the weather throughout. It had rained in N'awlins before we were picked up, but not after and not again until we'd finished our journey on the swamp. We were eating lunch on the Cajun Encoutners balcony before it started again. That evening we went for a short walk around Decatur Street (shopping), picked up a bottle of wine and a snadwich, before returning to the hotel to eat dinner on the balcony overlooking the pool and the fountain. Delightful.

Monday

The taxi we had booked for 5.15am did not turn up so we had to phone another - but we still made it in plenty of time. All in all I think we both enjoyed this short break in Louisianna and both realise that there is still so much to do there (both socially and economically - AND personally)

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Katrina Comment

It's difficult not to comment on what we saw in New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina (swiftly followed by Hurricane Rita) hit the area just less than a year ago - August 29th 2005. And you can tell.

We first noticed the difference at the airport - many of the refreshment stations were closed or looking like they needed some TLC. Although we are no experts in US airports, we had just come through Hartford and Baltimore airports and found a wide variety throughout each concourse.

Then, the taxi journey into town was a bit bumpy (but not, we were to find, as bumpy as some roads around here). As you will see alongside, we were in the French Quarter, which remained largely undamaged (compared to everywhere else) - yet there was still much evidence of disrepair (could be neglect?).

Many businesses seemed sluggish yet many more were advertising for staff. The reasons for this became evident as time passed. 250,000 people were displaced by the hurricane – approx 100,000 (my figures – I think I heard it on TV) are still to return. This Diaspora will have long term effects on the economy of the region – but most importantly it will affect the nature and profile of New Orleans. www.epodunk.com/diaspora

wikipedia.org/wiki/diaspora

typepad.com/what_will_happe.html

Q: Why don’t these people come back?
A: Because there is nowhere for them to live and nowhere for them to work.

I suspect that this is a Catch 22 situation.

The Mississippi River to the South of the city and Lake Pontchartrain to the north form a watery circle around the city. See more here. The river is itself above sea level and the land to its north drops away towards the lake – which is at sea level. The locals assured us that the river levees did not breach. However, as we drove up the east coast of Lake Pontchartrain to the Pearl River Swamp huge tracks of land remain uninhabited. Houses of the rich, the middle class and (mainly) the poor were all still empty after a year. The Malls, the petrol stations, the drive in food shops, the schools and the churches, which service these areas were likewise empty and still forlorn.

Social

http://www.fflic.org/node/10

The driver who took us to the swamp told us of friends who just refuse to come back – they are working elsewhere and can manage (they are better off?) so why bother? His own tale of insurance company misdoings was that he had no claim because the water came into his house (only three foot – but nevertheless) via the door. To claim it would have had to enter through an upper storey!

As I said earlier- there was much here to provoke thought and it may well be that mishandling of this disaster may yet come back and bite the US Government’s arse.

Food

GRITS - as I say in the text (Friday) you are better trying it than listening to me! However - grits are/is a 'meal' made with some white tapioca-like grain (probably corn) that tastes of nothing. It doesn't even have the texture of porridge going for it. I tried adding Tabasco - no! Sugar - no! Grape Jelly - no! ketchup - yuk! hey ho. .

BISCUITS and GRAVY - the 'biscuits were fine, they were just plain scones. But the gravy doens't even understand the meaning of the word. When I was young and mum wanted to stop my funny runny tummy she made a sauce with Arrowroot. This is the nearest thing I can think of to describe 'gravy'.

Cajun food

Much of the food available sounded delightful to me. Unfortunately Sharon is not a fan of shellfish or too much meat. Most of what was then available was deep fried – which we try to avoid (hard to do in America). I had Gumbo at the hotel and thought it was really good. Unfortunately, I didn’t’ get the chance to try a different one because everywhere we went I was spoiled for choice and had to try something new (see Grits story). Gumbo should have Okra in it - but mine didn't seem to have (might have had though!). A popular combination of flavours seeems to be Chicken and Andouille. Now, in France Andouille is a disgusting sausage made from intestines - but here it seems to be a Cajun style Chirizo. It's great to travel isn't it? See confirmation (ya'll) of this statement.

I had Jambalaya twice because the first one wasn’t that well prepared – neither was the second! It can’t be easy to keep rice perfect when you’re doling it out to thousands of tourists. Still – could try harder! Jambalaya is a sort of bastardised Paella

We searched high and low for a good Cajun Blackened Catfish – but when we found it it was worthwhile. Blackened Catfish seems to come served with garlic mashed potatoes – everywhere.

Bourbon Street

Trains

One thing I haven’t mentioned yet is the train! In between Decatur and the (“Mighty Mississippi”) river are a number of train tracks. One set takes the tramcars (shown above) and another is for the regular freight trains. The first of these we watched go by (sounds boring but you have to wait for them to go by to get to the river, the ferry, the tour bookers etc.) took 15 minutes to pass! Others which I timed (because we were sat somewhere – whatever) took between 8 and 10 minutes. At 4 miles per hour (they may have been ever so slightly faster) – that makes the first train over a mile long!!