Yesterday was a beautiful day here. Most are, I have to say, but yesterday sported a brilliant, deep blue sky and lovely sunshine without temperatures or humidity levels soaring too far up the thermometer. It made for a great walk around the city. I decided to walk through two streets parallel to Bourbon which I had traversed before but had done so without the camera and then head towards Jackson Square.
I set out at around eleven and wandered through Dauphine Street which is much less touristy than the others around it. It has pretty corners and several beautiful balconies with the iron work not only painted in black but, in some instances, in soft, pastel colours. Wrought iron balconies are my weakness here. In Italy it was the lamps if you’ll recall. It must be something about iron, then. They are really stunning, with the filigreed parts reminding me of iron lace, and in some streets it’s literally one after another so you’re permanently walking looking up and, after only two weeks here, I have accumulated a rather large number of balcony photographs. Many are decorated with baskets of ferns or flowers and it makes the streets, when viewed through the camera lens, resemble vintage postcards. I find myself having to fight the urge to climb onto one and do a Juliet impersonation 😉
At a certain point I turned towards Jackson Square which is almost like a hub in the French Quarter. Here you can find the Cathedral of St. Louis, the statue of General Andrew Jackson, a small but rather lovely garden, the Cafe du Monde and you can look over the Mississippi river if you just cross the road.
The Cathedral is thought to be the oldest, continually running Cathedral in the US and the first church in its location was built in 1718. Since then there have been several rebuildings and extensions until it stands as is today. To look at it today in such pretty sunshine it was reminiscent of a fairy tale castle. It is a lovely church because of its simplicity – inside it is peaceful and rather plainly decorated (although the ceiling does have some beautiful artwork on it) and I quite like this deliberate lack of adornment. I sat there for a while.
Outside the cathedral’s main doors, as you look out, you can see a small garden which has the statue of General Andrew Jackson. He was the seventh president of the US and was renowned for defeating the British at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. Although he was in favour of states having their own laws and rights, he was very much a believer in federal law and, engraved on the statue’s plinth is the statement: “The Union must and shall be preserved.”
A walk around the Square and a quick cross of the road brings you to the shore of the Mississippi. It’s easy to forget while you’re bang in the middle of the French Quarter that New Orleans has a shoreline! I spent a little while sitting on a bench looking out at the bridge in the distance and the rather large tankers sailing past. At some point I need to organise a ride on a Mississippi steamboat.
To make my way back to Canal Street I walked up Chartres Street and found a little restaurant to sit in for a late lunch where I ate the most amazing duck and pears poached in red wine warm salad. OMG it was delicious! Happily full I then began my walk back to Matchbox 3.0 clicking away at yet more balconies 🙂
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Losing Sight of the Margin 