New Orleans Field Trip

On a Mississippi River bend near the Gulf, the so-named Crescent City offers a mélange of American, African, Caribbean and European architecture, culture and cuisine, long-enchanting arrivals from near and far. New Orleans’ French Quarter, with ornate balconies and cobbled streets, is the most European of neighborhoods, its Jackson Square serving as a cultural hub. A streetcar ride away, up St. Charles Avenue, awaits the Garden District, known for antebellum mansions built to outshine French Quarter townhouses. Between the Garden District and the Central Business District is an area once used for distributing goods coming down the river, now known as the Warehouse/Arts District and teeming with studios and galleries. When asked for directions to city attractions, New Orleans citizenry often responds with guidance tied to “lakeside” or “riverside,” since the two big local landmarks are Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi, one relatively north and the other south. New Orleans’ most lavish event is Mardi Gras (French for Fat Tuesday, the day before Lent begins) when floats glide down St. Charles Avenue as privileged revelers aboard toss out beads and metal doubloons. Both Loyola and Tulane, with its medical school that dates to 1834, are here. As for New Orleans cuisine, just the names of local dishes – jambalaya, etoufee, gumbo, shrimp creole, muffulettas, to po’ boys -- fire imagination over what to seek out next at possibly the largest concentration of excellent restaurants in America. Even dishes from far-flung regions get their own twist in New Orleans where notions of “lagniappe” (Cajun French for “a little bit more”) prevail. Ditto for music born here, from Jazz to Cajun and Zydeco. With so much to beguile, the Crescent City graciously welcomes all, whether just passing through or planning a more leisurely stay.

Audubon Zoological Gardens
Uptown on 400 acres with more than 4,000 live oaks, this retreat with lagoons, horseback riding, and bike paths is accessible by riverboat and streetcar. Apart from trees and moss, the swamp tour provides eerie glimpses of a white alligator and other creatures, and the zoo boasts rare white tigers, along with 2,000 other exotic and indigenous animals.

Beauregard-Keyes House
A New Orleans auctioneer built this house with twin staircases and Doric columns in 1826, and novelist Frances Parkinson Keyes lived here from 1944 until 1970.

Cafe du Monde
Visitors on tight budgets can indulge in high-calorie splurges of historic proportions at Cafe du Monde, with its original coffee stand established in 1862. The riverside Cafe is open 24 hours, closing only on Christmas and when hurricanes threaten. Starring on the menu are beignets (puffy, square French-style doughnuts liberally sprinkled with powdered sugar) and piping hot dark roasted coffee with chicory (this root of the endive plant offsets bitterness and hints of a slight chocolate flavor), served black or au lait, which means mixed half and half with hot milk.

Confederate Museum
Louisiana’s oldest museum houses the nation’s second largest Confederate collection. Apart from medical instruments to make visitors cringe, Civil War memorabilia on exhibit includes flags, uniforms, and weapons, along with personal effects of President Jefferson Davis, and Generals Beauregard, Lee, Bragg and other southern leaders.

Contemporary Arts Center
Located in a 1905 warehouse, the Contemporary Arts Center combines historical architecture with contemporary works in elegant galleries, along with a cyber café, and gift shop.

Cooking Schools
Exquisite fare served even at the most humble of eateries has established New Orleans as a world-class treasure trove of dining opportunity, so it seems only fitting that the Crescent City also yields excellent cooking class opportunities.

Cruise Adventures
An expanding line-up of cruise vacations sailing under brands such as Carnival, Royal Caribbean, departs from the Crescent City on adventures from three to 11 days to the Bahamas, Caribbean, and Mexico.

Faubourg Treme
America’s oldest black neighborhood, Faubourg Treme (often shortened to Treme), comes from a French term that means “suburb,” and is named for Claude Treme, a hatmaker and real estate developer migrating to New Orleans in 1783 from Burgundy, France. For people of color to own real property during an era when slavery prevailed in America occurred only in New Orleans with any consistency.

French Quarter
Window-shop on Royal or Magazine streets, rich in antiques, or for entertainment, take in Bourbon Street for intensive exposure to jam-packed bars, restaurants and music outposts. Street vendors hawking sweet pralines add a festive air to Jackson Square where sidewalk artists show off their skills.

Hermann-Grima/Gallier Historic Houses
Built in 1831 in the heart of the French Quarter and depicting the Creole family lifestyle from 1830 to 1860, this mansion’s tours include stable, courtyard and kitchens.

Houmas House Plantation & Garden
The Bette Davis/Joan Crawford film Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte was filmed at this Greek Revival mansion (1840) fronting the original Colonial House (1790), both furnished with period antiques.

House of Broel’s Historic Mansion & Dollhouse
In the Garden District, the mansion features museum quality antiques, enchanting doll houses and elaborate Mardi Gras costumes.

Louisiana State Museum
Among New Orleans top attractions, the State Museum includes the Cabildo, Presbytere, 1850 House, Old Mint, Arsenal and Madame John’s Legacy, all housing exhibits exploring Louisiana’s history and culture.

Mardi Gras World
Mardi Gras floats, some accommodating up to 200 riders, take shape here in a year-around endeavor to build fantasies for dozens of parades leading up to Fat Tuesday. A film about Mardi Gras, exposure to Mardi Gras props, and opportunity to try on Mardi Gras costumes are part of the Mardi Gras World experience.

National D-Day Museum
Celebrating the spirit, teamwork, optimism, courage, and sacrifice of those who won World War II, the museum explores expression of these values by future generations.

New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum
In the French Quarter, this museum serves as a secluded archive for display of paintings, wood carvings, talismans and other “gris-gris” alongside mysterious mixes like “Get-Together Drops,” “Boss Fix Powder” and a root extract called “Johnny the Conquerer.” Hanging at the center is a portrait of priestess Marie Laveau, a mulatto woman reigning over New Orleans’ voodoo community until her death in 1881.

New Orleans Museum of Art
NOMA, minutes from the French Quarter and one of the Gulf South’s finest art museums, has an expansive Faberge gallery and other outstanding permanent collections.

New Orleans Pharmacy Museum
Housed in the 1823 apothecary shop of Louis Dufillio, Jr., (the first U.S. licensed pharmacist), the museum’s guided tours illuminate 19th century medicine and pharmacy.

Pitot House Museum
This rare surviving colonial Louisiana plantation house overlooks Bayou St. John, within city limits. It was the home of James Pitot, first mayor of the incorporated city.

River Cruises
Experience the mighty Mississippi aboard an assortment of riverboats with options including harbor cruises, aquarium/zoo cruises and dinner/jazz cruises.

San Francisco Plantation
In color and design, San Francisco Plantation is considered the most distinctive great house on River Road.

Tabasco Tours
For a hot, hot, hot experience, tour Avery Island where the Mcllhenny family manufactures the world famous Tabasco Pepper Sauce, while offering garden tours.

Voodoo & More
Voodoo may conjure up images of casting spells with pin-pricked dolls, yet as a religion it remains as much a part of New Orleans heritage as crawfish and gumbo, and in the mid-19th century its practice, regionally, was commonplace. Back then, throngs gathered at Congo Square (now Louis Armstrong Park) for exotic ceremonies led by voodoo priestess Marie Laveau, buried off Basin Street in St. Louis Cemetery Number 1, a popular New Orleans attraction. Admirers still lavish her tomb with flowers, devotional candles and sometimes money, and her portrait hangs at the New Orleans Historical Voodoo Museum.