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Showing posts with label Marigny. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marigny. Show all posts

Sunday, February 18, 2018

New Orleans (USA) - The Big Easy

NEW ORLEANS (USA)
18 February - 22 February 2018

In many ways the US is still haunted by what hurricane Katrina did to this town in 2005. The epic failures of Congress, the Bush Administration & the Federal Emergency Management Agency , exacerbated a situation that was already diabolical.  I truly remember as a kid,  watching Great Mysteries of the World on a Saturday afternoon and in one specific show, them singling out New Orleans as a disaster in waiting. Failure to secure New Orleans, to build in redundancies, meant that the soothsayers only needed to wait for aberration of Mother Nature, in the right location, to be able to say, ‘see, we told you so’. There’s 1800 people who lost their lives that wished, I’m sure, that some of the authorities could have taken notice earlier.

Communication failures, failures of proactive management, confusion, all led to a catastrophe of such wild proportions, in a country that prides itself on being the greatest, on being earnest, on supporting the weakest and being brave. It was a big old pile of American ‘fuck’ and they, even now, need to take ownership for their failure.  Who can ever forget the images of those poor people in the Louisiana Superdrome!? Acting initially as a refuge from the devastation, it turned into a hell hole of filth and abuse. There’s no amount of covering up that can deny that failure.


St Ann Street - Treme/Lafitte - New Orleans - Louisiana - USA

St Ann Street - Treme/Lafitte - New Orleans - Louisiana - USA


French Quarter - New Orleans - Louisiana - USA

Driving around some of the wards of New Orleans, the physical scars are obvious, but, the mental scars are much deeper. A predominantly African American population was hung out to dry here, and as racist and as white supremacist  as the US was, and still is, this level of incompetence, which while not deliberate, certainly typified the lo lack of urgency afforded to those in need because consciously they were aware that these people were only black. And whilst the US openly denies that, deep inside their soul they know it to be true.


French Quarter - New Orleans - Louisiana - USA

Bourbon Street - French Quarter - New Orleans - Louisiana - USA

French Quarter - New Orleans - Louisiana - USA

French Quarter - New Orleans - Louisiana - USA


Hard Rock Cafe -  Bourbon Street - French Quarter - New Orleans - Louisiana - USA


Thirteen (13) years is a fair chunk of time between then and now. Not enough to make all the problems disappear, and not enough to hide all physical and mental scars. It has been enough however to get the spirit of New Orleans back, because more than anything now, these guys are determined and resilient.

The city has a heady mix of cultures and is a completely bewitching place. The most iconic area, and the one that all tourists are drawn to, is the French Quarter. It’s filigree cast-iron balconies tangled with ferns and fragrant jasmine are desperately gorgeous, and the mood is always fun in a hedonistic, laissez-faire type of way. The music, the parties and the gorgeous food are such draw cards, and the fun times run from dusk until dawn in both the French Quarter and the Marigny.


Marigny - New Orleans - Louisiana - USA

Marigny - New Orleans - Louisiana - USA

Marigny - New Orleans - Louisiana - USA

Bourbon Street - French Quarter - New Orleans - Louisiana - USA

Marigny - New Orleans - Louisiana - USA

Frenchmen Street - Marigny - New Orleans - Louisiana - USA

Frenchmen Street - Marigny - New Orleans - Louisiana - USA

Frenchmen Street - Marigny - New Orleans - Louisiana - USA


We stayed in an AirBnB on St Anne street, a few kilometres away from the French Quarter. In hindsight an error on our part as getting in and out of the area meant an Uber on each occasion. Also, somewhat unfortunately, during the last day in New York I was tagged by a bit of a cold that actually hit me fairly hard for the first two days in New Orleans, so much so that I spent most of that time on my back, trying to sleep off whatever it was that I had.

In the time I did have free with Inga we spent it mostly on Bourbon street, where, true as their word, the party raged non-stop.  A week after the famous mardi gras had been and gone, it seemed that most of the idea of recovery involved going out and reliving the entire experience. Bars were full, drinks were readily available and there was just no way that you could, or would want to escape the bar hopping expectation in this town.


Frenchmen Street - Marigny - New Orleans - Louisiana - USA

Bourbon Street - French Quarter - New Orleans - Louisiana - USA

Bourbon Street - French Quarter - New Orleans - Louisiana - USA

Bourbon Street - French Quarter - New Orleans - Louisiana - USA

Bourbon Street - French Quarter - New Orleans - Louisiana - USA

For me, probably the highlight was Frenchman Street in Marigny. This is an area known for its Cajun bistros,  bohemian bars, sidewalk musicians and jazz clubs.  A slow walk up the street would show the music identity of this city, it was a festival every night of the week, and that was just plain cool. I wish now that somehow I could have those sick days back because this is the area that I think we could have taken a bit more time.


Bourbon Street - French Quarter - New Orleans - Louisiana - USA

Mississippi River - New Orleans - Louisiana - USA

Mississippi River - New Orleans - Louisiana - USA

Mississippi River - New Orleans - Louisiana - USA

Mississippi River - New Orleans - Louisiana - USA

Mississippi River - New Orleans - Louisiana - USA

Mississippi River - New Orleans - Louisiana - USA


On one of our days we managed to take a tour out onto the bayou. For those that don’t know, the bayou is a body of water typically found in flat, low-lying area, that can either have an extremely slow moving stream or river, containing mostly brackish water, which in itself attracts plenty of fish and plankton. For me there’s something intriguing and mysterious about this area. It reminds me, a whole lot in fact, of an area of Disneyland that I fell in love with as a kid – I recall them having rides that mimicked these areas, and relating those thoughts to reality I have to say that Disneyland did a mighty job.


The Bayou - Louisiana - USA

The Bayou - Louisiana - USA

The Bayou - Louisiana - USA

The Bayou - Louisiana - USA

The Bayou - Louisiana - USA


New Orleans, a unique city for certain, with a melange of cultures and races that have come together to build this town and give it it’s heart, perhaps not quite in the easy going manner that you would expect, but easy enough to still live up to the well earned name of the Big Easy.