Riding Tour of New Orleans

Normally we walk the city. With Carol's foot still acting up we search and find an alternative.  It's a van tour that will take us to parts of New Orleans we've never explored. Our driver, Justin, is personable, knowledgeable, and often humorous. The tour begins across the French Quarter waterfront before delivering us to the Katrina ravaged Ninth Ward with its long narrow "shotgun" and "double barrel (duplex) homes. Homes were taxed not on square footage but on their width. They are quite colorful.

 

 

 

There are numerous signs of the height of the water damage; usually on telephone poles or the walls of abandoned buildings. Justin claims vans aren't allowed into the section of the Ninth Ward that was most hard hit; perhaps the devastation is still too politically unpalatable.

We exit the van at one of the city's largest cemeteries. With most of New Orleans underwater, bodies are placed in tombs where in the New Orleans's heat the decompose.  One year and one day later the ashes are removed and placed in a special chamber in the tomb along with those of the family that passed before them. The place is somewhat a reminder of Recoleta in Buenos Aires.

 

 

The names on that one tomb are of ALL the people buried at that tomb. The ratty wall above represents the tombs of the poor or the "hood" as Justin calls it.

The next stop is City Park and Morning Call café for a toilet and beignet stop. We park next to the sculpture garden.

 

Next we pass through some of the wealthier neighborhoods that were also hard hit by Katrina and get a good view of the pumping stations, canals, levies, and Lake Pontchartrain.

After a high speed run along the expressway past the Superdome, a tour of the Garden District along St. Charles street concludes our tour.

CJ's found a concert in the old church on Jackson Square.

 

 We attend it and head for our dinner selection.  Finding a total of zero people in the dining room at seven, we decide to eat at the Bon Ton Café and its an excellent choice; an authentic Louisiana restaurant.