Saturday, 11th July 2009 – New Orleans.

Happy Bastille Day! Being in the French Quarter and all, we were confronted with seas of red and white and heavy drinking early in the day! It was very festive indeed! We headed down to the markets for a look around and picked up a few cute souvenirs. There used to be a lot of fresh fruit and veg but those stalls haven’t returned since Katrina, so it was mainly just touristy stuff.

We also went for another little look around town. This is the St Louis Cathedral.

And the French Quarter at it’s cutest!

We walked around town for a little while but it really was quite busy so we decided to go for a drive and try and have a look at where Katrina hit. A little morbid? Maybe, but I was really interested, as, thus far, we hadn’t really seen any evidence of it. But we knew we were in the “wrong part of town.” This proved to be futile as we really had no idea where to go, so we gave up and drove back to the hotel, dropped the car off, and went searching for lunch.

It was another gorgeous hot day so we opted for a seat outside, looking over Bourbon St. We stuffed ourselves with delicious ice-cold beers and yummy seafood.

We were substantially stuffed and content after another late-lunch so we went back to Lamonthe House, had a wee nap and then hit the pool for the afternoon.

The foyer at Lamonthe:

You may notice, and be surprised/disappointed that I haven’t mentioned any Jazz as yet. Well, there was always music playing in the streets or you could hear it blaring out of the bars, but we never actually went to a venue to sit and listen. Weird, I know, but we were just in such a relaxed state that we let life take us wherever it pleased, and I don’t think our bodies were used to eating and drinking so much in the afternoon so we were just pooped by about 6pm! It was a really relaxing time for us though, and we LOVE New Orleans!