New Orleans Trip 2026, Day 3

 The Vieux Carre

Today, we visited the French Quarter or the Vieux Carre as it was originally called. And it was every thing we remembered. Music, raunchiness, great food, and interesting architecture. The only thing missing was the pee smell wafting up from the hot sidewalks. Once again, we had great weather, so no problems there. And to be fair, our visit was maybe too early in the day to experience that special smell. 

Here are a few of the things we saw as we walked around the French Quarter before our visit to the New Orleans (NO) School of Cooking this morning.

The classic NO picture, St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square. 

Many of the buildings have a distinctive look, but are a blend of influences: Spanish, French, Creole, Victorian, and American. Most people say they look European.

A lot of the streets were barricaded to make them pedestrian malls.
There, we saw three different groups playing Dixie Land Jazz...

We also saw dancers...

And painters/artists.
And many other clever people trying in various ways to earn some money from tourists.

There were no shortages of weird and/or risque shops.

There were also restaurants galore of every shape and size, but we didn't visit any of those because we had signed up for a class at the NO School of Cooking. There were various options, but we went to the 2 1/2 hour demonstration class. We had been there a couple of times when we lived here and this was one of the things we wanted to revisit. 

And it did not disappoint. Along with the cooking demo making crab and corn bisque, shrimp creole, pralines, and bananas foster, we got a very entertaining history of New Orleans and the surrounding area. And did I forget to mention that we got to eat everything that was cooked? They certainly know how to flavor their foods here.

There was a mirror above the stove so we could see what was going on in the pots.

After the cooking school lunch, we did a 2 hour riverboat cruise. It was interesting seeing the barges, ships, and wharves in and along the Mississippi River. BTW, the last time we were on a riverboat cruise on the Mississippi we learned that a hurricane had changed its path and was headed for New Orleans. We had to hurry home and start preparing. We got a lot of wind and rain, but not the devastation that could have happened.

We rode on the City of New Orleans. The boat can hold 1000 passengers, but I don't think we had quite that many.

New Orleans is an important port, and we saw barges...

and ships...

and working factories and wharves.

On the way home, we drove down the street we used to work on and saw more high rises than before. However, the building I worked in is still the highest one in the city with 51 stories.

It was a long, but good day.

Until next time...