Urban Hike: Esplanade to Treme

"The nature of New Orleans is to encourage the optimum development of New
Orleanians. It's an environment for a specific life-form, a dreamy,
lazy,
sentimental, musical one, prey to hallucinations (not visions),
tolerant,
indolent, and gifted at storytelling."--Codrescu

Friday, July 29

By far, the best Urban Hike we went on in New Orleans was to walk down Esplanade from the U.S. Mint to Faubourg Treme.(Faubourg means "suburb"). We had read about Treme three years ago when we visited, but hadn't the courage or energy to venture very far from the French Quarter.


Treme experienced minor to moderate flooding. There are still a few homes that have not been restored, and one in particular that has a sign on the front door warning of hazardous mold.

The main drag, Esplanade, that runs into Treme from the Quarter, is lined with Creole cottages and antebellum mansions. If you look down the side streets, however, you see the smaller houses and the ubiquitous electrical wires that we recognize from the HBO series.


















One sight I could not get enough of were the ubiquitous systems of tree roots that emerged from underground!


















Plaques on a church on Esplanade recording the names, ages, and manner of killing for murder victims from 2007 and 2008. Below: The same church uses a dry erase board to record more recent homicides.

















Degas' house was where we turned around and headed back to the Quarter.

So many awesome courtyards, and so many ways to protect from intruders. Nails!

Urban Hike: Lower French Quarter and Frenchmen Street, New Orleans

Segments from a mural on Frenchmen Street




Hike down Chartres Street throught the French Quarter--and you'll eventually reach Frenchmen Street, with its antique shops, restaurants and venues for live music. The music here is fifty cuts above the 1970's garage bands that play in the bars on Bourbon Street in the Upper Quarter. Usually, there's a Neville playing at Snug Harbor on Frenchman Street--or a street musician playing classical guitar.

One bit of advice: if you're staying in the Quarter, you don't have to take a cab to Frenchman. It's only about five or six blocks away from Jackson Square.

Lafitte's on lower Bourbon, said to be the oldest bar in the United States. It has no electricity and is lit only by candles at night (see video below). Any electric devices seen are being powered by extension cords plugged into the business next door.





The pleasure is in the details. Almost all of the houses and apartments have some kind of detail to set them apart from the others. One just has to be observant. Luckily, I was with Paul who never ceases to find the interesting detail hidden amidst the expected. Here's a gruesomely graceful hand attached to an iron fence. Brightly colored, broken bottles provide decoration and protection against would be courtyard intruders at the same dwelling.







Check out the sculpture of two nudes making love in the greenery in the courtyard of Lafitte's. The story (and there's always a story) goes: an artist created them to pay his tab in lieu of cash.


Broken glass and ceramic breasts deter would-be intruders to this courtyard!







Below: The Thai Restaurant that we ate at the last night in NOLA. Great food, no liquor license. If you go, pick up a bottle of wine from the liquor store at the corner. Actually, the food was so excellent, we didn't even mind not having drinks!

Upper French Quarter, July 2011

A languid, impressionistic stroll through the Vieux Carre is for me, the microcosm of a New Orleans vacation in July or August. One swims through the heat and humidity, making it a part of oneself-- all the while sipping cocktails, soaking up the occasional shower, architecture and stories of the abundant characters that populate the city. There is much history about NOLA to learn, but I think the best way to start the learning process is to spend at least a couple of visits intuitively meandering through the Upper French Quarter, without paying too much attention to names, dates or where you're literally existing at a given moment. You'll feel the presence and energy of the past; they become a part of your subconscious and guide you while you walk--past cathedrals, gas lights, balconies covered in vines and flowers. . . .down Bourbon Street and under the giant shadow of Jesus in back of the Old St. Louis Cathedral, where you'll finally realize that there's only a hair's breadth of difference, if that, between sinners and saints.

Photo of Jesus' shadow courtesy of wikipedia (mind didn't turn out)

Paul bought a hat at this shop in the French Quarter, just around the corner from Pirate's Alley. If you look closely, you can see the proprietor waving to us as we leave, a detail we didn't notice until we uploaded the pictures to our computer back in St. Louis. The shop had just opened, free lemonade with Jack Daniels was being served. Once again, we were thankful for being allowed to urban hike with our cocktails

Pirates' Alley, Upper French Quarter There is an Absinthe Bar, and most importantly, the Faulkner Book Store, housed in the apartment where Faulkner drafter his novel A Soldier's Pay. On our last night, we met Weston, a full-time pirate, part-time off duty bouncer at the Absinthe Bar in Pirate's Alley. The alley is named after the famous swashbuckling Lafitte Brothers, who probably didn't actually live here. But like everything in New Orleans, it's the story and its affect that matters, not the literal truth:). This door is preserved in the Katrina exhibit at the Cabildo.

What the markings mean: date and time house was checked, information about hazards encountered, whether anyone was found alive or not (lower quadrant).

For more information and reflection about Katrina, check out Southern Spaces: An interdisciplinary journal about regions, places, cultures of the American South and their global connections.

A Mardi Gras wreath of peacock feathers. This one was on display in Red Gravy, a small breakfast and lunch restaurant on Camp Street, just outside the French Quarter (in the Warehouse District

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This plaque commemorates the firebombing of the Upstairs Lounge in 1973 in which 32 homosexuals were killed. Although tragic, the bombing helped to mobilize gay rights activists in New Orleans.

Window where the Upstairs Lounge was