Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Famous for
Drive-thru margaritas
Official state reptile
Alligator
Driving distances
New Orleans to Lafayette 137 miles, New Orleans to St Francis-
ville 112 miles
TOP OF CHAPTER
New Orleans
New Orleans is very much of America, and extraordinarily removed from it as well.
'Nola' is something, and somewhere, else. Founded by the French and administered by
the Spanish (and then the French again), she is, with her sidewalk cafes and iron bal-
conies, the most European city in America, yes. But she is also, with her
vodoun
(voo-
doo), weekly second-line parades (essentially, neigborhood parades), Mardi Gras Indi-
ans, jazz and brass and gumbo, the most African and Caribbean city in the country as
well. New Orleans celebrates; while America is on deadline, this city is getting a cocktail
after a long lunch. But if you saw how people here rebuilt their homes after floods and
storms, you'd be foolish to call the locals lazy.
Tolerating everything and learning from it is the soul of this city. When her citizens as-
pire to that great Creole ideal - a mix of all influences into something better - we get:
jazz; Nouveau Louisiana cuisine; storytellers from African
griots
(West African bards) to
Seventh Ward rappers to Tennessee Williams; French townhouses a few blocks from
Foghorn Leghorn mansions groaning under sweet myrtle and bougainvillea; Mardi Gras
celebrations that mix pagan mysticism with Catholic pageantry. Just don't forget the in-
dulgence and immersion, because that Creole-ization gets watered down when folks
don't live life to its intellectual and epicurean hilt.
New Orleans may take it easy, but it takes it. The whole hog. Stuffed with crawfish.
