No trip to New Orleans is complete without spending some time at the French Market, strolling along the Moonwalk along the Mississippi River, or at Jackson Square.
The Square has been the focus of the French Quarter since the Civil War days, when war widows sold family paintings to support their family, and local vendors sold their crafts and wares. Today, the atmosphere is still colorful and lively with artists, street performers, fortunetellers, professed psychics, clowns, and craftsmen. The going rate for a brief tarot or palm reading is $10 to $15.
Indulge in the revelry or grab a muffuletta sandwich, a bag of Zapps chips, and a Dixie beer at Central Grocery. Then pick a shady bench, and treat yourself to some of the best people-watching on earth.
By the way, if an enterprising young man walks up and wants to bet you $5 he can, "tell you where you got ‘dem shoes you have on," just laugh and tell him, "You got ‘em on your feet." It’s one of the most popular local tricks pulled on unwary tourists.
No single brief visit to a city as diverse as New Orleans can be complete. One trip whets the appetite for more. There are swamp boat and airboat tours into the boggy bayou nesting grounds of alligators and other Louisiana wildlife. Plantation tours reveal a bygone era of the Old South. The National D-Day Museum follows the events and campaigns of World War II. The New Orleans Zoo is one of the top-rated zoos in the country, and the Audubon Aquarium offers 50 exhibits of more than 15,000 marine species. AND, there's always the shopping. New Orleans is a shopping paradise. After a dozen visits, I still discover new experiences and shopping and dining treats on every trip. I predict, like me, you will return again and again to the Big Easy nestled in the crescent of the Mississippi River.
Visit me often for updates and entries on other unique New Orleans adventures.