Mardi Gras Reborn
By: Joe Volz Source: AARP.org Date Posted: 2007-02-08 13:39:00-05:00
New Orleans has made a rousing comeback from Hurricane Katrina, and Mardi Gras has once again returned, complete with jazz music, beads and gleaming gold, purple and green parades.
The parade schedule began February 9 and ends on Mardi Gras itself, Feb. 20. It's still a huge event, showing the world that a city whose motto is "let the good times roll" will keep them rolling.
The French Quarter
The Vieux Carre (French Quarter), which survived Katrina relatively intact, maintains its usual charm and excitement—despite being only a few blocks wide. Bourbon Street, with its lively bars, antique shops, fortunetellers and voodoo tour guides, is also back to life. Musicians play jazz in nightclubs and on the streets. Restaurants such as Arnaud's, the famous old French restaurant, and the Gumbo Shop, which serves authentic Creole food are serving guests. The Old Absinthe House has been a landmark for almost 200 years.
All the restaurants, expensive or not, welcome guests and numerous hotels in the French Quarter and elsewhere are open for business.
Jackson Square is the heart of the Vieux Carre and only a stone's throw from the Mississippi River. It's named for Andrew Jackson, the general who fought the last battle in the War of 1812 in New Orleans.
War-hero Jackson, who later became President, is memorialized by a statue on horseback in the square's center. It stands just in front of the late 18th century St. Louis Cathedral, where Catholics worship and visitors sightsee. Look for the statue-like mimes painted in white, who only move when you drop a coin in their hands. Or, ask an artist to paint your portrait (for a price). They all ply their trades near the cathedral and the Pontalba apartments.
Surrounding the park along the edges of Jackson Square are the Pontalba Buildings, which are among the city’s oldest apartments, built between 1849 and 1851.Visitors to the square may be able to hear—literally—actors portraying Tennessee Williams’s “A Streetcar Named Desire” character Stanley calling out longingly, “Stella, Stella!” while she looks down at him from behind a wrought iron balcony. Each March the city hosts a Williams celebration and performs one of his plays. (By the way, there is no such streetcar but there are plenty of others still rolling down St. Charles Avenue through the Garden District.)
No one should leave the square without stopping at the Café du Monde, first opened in 1862, to savor the city's unique hickory-flavored café-au-lait and beignets.
All that Jazz
New Orleans is, of course, a music capital and during Mardi Gras the city bounces to the beat of great Dixieland jazz. The sound of music is really in the air. While world renowned musicians like portly Pete Fountain perform magic with the clarinet, the streets are jumping, too. In front of Brennan's Restaurant, which, by the way, serves 18 different types of egg dishes, a crowd of 400 gathered late one night as a woman and her makeshift band played jazz as well as any of the big names.
Honoring the Past
Many other delights await the discerning visitor to New Orleans. Match your sightseeing to whatever time you have available. You could take a guided tour of the famous writers who have spent a spell in New Orleans. Or sign up for a tour of the fascinating "City of the Dead," the St. Louis Cemetery built above ground because the city is so close to the water line that nothing buried in the earth remains their permanently. Also learn how it is that one tombstone and plot can house the deceased members of a single family from an entire century. Finally, be sure to ask your guide to tell you the stories of some of the fascinating people buried in St. Louis Cemetery. Homer Adolph Plessy is one. He was the plaintiff in the 1896 Supreme Court case, Plessy v. Ferguson, which established the principle of “separate, but equal” schools for African Americans and whites. This segregation decision was not overturned until Brown v. the Board of Education in 1954.
New Orleans remains a delight even in its reduced form, with fewer open restaurants and hotels. For those with a curiosity about Hurricane Katrina's damage, Gray Line Tours offers a bus tour. As part of the narrated tour, passengers are taken past an actual levee that was breached and through neighborhoods such as Lakeview, Gentilly, New Orleans East, and the Ninth Ward—all flooded as a result of the breach.
Before heading for New Orleans, though, make sure you check online at http://www.neworleansonline.com/ to find out just which hotels and restaurants are open. It's more important than usual to book reservations before you leave home.
More Links
Gray Line Tours: Hurricane Katrina
Books
Find these and other geat books at Borders.com
New Orleans, Mon Amour: Twenty Years of Writing From the City
By Andrei Codrescu, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2006. The author includes several reflections on post-Katrina New Orleans.
Why New Orleans Matters
By Tom Piazza, HarperCollins, 2005. The long-time resident and cultural critic gives an impassioned defense for restoring post-Katrina New Orleans. He wrote the book after escaping the city to live in temporary exile in Missouri.
The Unofficial Guide to New Orleans: (Unofficial Travel Guide Series)
By Eve Zibart, with Bob Schlinger, Wiley, John & Sons, 2003.
Haunted New Orleans: Ghosts and Hauntings of the Crescent City
By Troy Taylor, Whitechapel Productions Press, 2000.
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