Six Hours in the French Quarter

We were passing through the area so we decided to stop and visit the French Quarter in New Orleans. Neither of us had ever been there, so we went exploring. We parked our RV at the Pontchartrain Landing RV Park and took an uber to the city. First off, for those rvers out there, the rv park was nice. It had all the amenities, was situated on the harbor, has a restaurant (although slightly pricey) and the people were nice. There is a shuttle that runs from the park to the French Quarter but, it only runs certain times of the day. It was a gravel rv park, dusty and the road leading to it is in really bad repair but, worth it anyway. The French Quarter is a short ride from the park.

Once in the city we started to explore. There is a flea market in the French Quarter called the French Market. You could spend hours here. I would not recommend going on a weekend, week days will be less crowded and more enjoyable. Here you can get all the souvenirs you desire. Be careful tho, some booth operators are a little paranoid of shoplifters and watch your every move. We did find a couple of really nice booth operators who even gave helpful advice for places to go. (Both were photographers and when they saw my camera they said to go to the end of Canal St and take the ferry over. The area on the other side is one of the oldest parts of the city and most beautiful to see and the view of New Orleans from the ferry is an iconic shot. I did not have time to do as they suggested on this trip but, maybe one day. ) The market also has some cajun food, so grab some lunch and sit and rest a while.

When we saw all we wanted at the market we started walking through the streets finding little art shops to go in and admiring all the beautiful balconies full of potted plants. Of course, we walked down Bourbon St where my husband put one of our EHAMIOTAID stickers (tell us if you ever see it there). We wound up in the big square with the St Louis Cathedral. And then over to Cafe du Monde. I had to have some authentic beignets.

Now, let me tell you about Cafe du Monde…it is a tourist attraction. There were super long lines on both sides. It is open 24 hours and seemed to always be bursting at the seams. It is an open air seating arrangement with powdered sugar all over the ground, tables, chairs, well….everything. The pigeons fly in and eat on anything that was dropped. You pay with cash because you would not want your card to get lost in the crowd. And it smells…like soured milk. We were there on April 1st and it was smelly. I don’t even want to imagine what the heat of the summer would magnify that to. However, the beignets were delicious and so was the cafe au lait (I had the frozen). Now, we sat in the mess but, I think a more relaxing event would be to get the beignets and coffee to go, go find a nice park bench outside of the tent and sit in the quiet and watch the city pass by.

At this point we walked some more down by the statue of Joan of Arc and back to the market. This was about 5 hours in and we were starting to feel tired. Wondered around for a while longer while we were waiting for the uber prices to come down and found a neat little place that was selling metal work signs, pink flamingos, etc. Someone’s art no doubt.

Below are a few New Orleans Cajun recipes I photoed from some post cards we collected. Enjoy! 🙂 And the explanation of the Fleur de Lis.