This
is going to be a relaxed day, just nosing around the French Quarter
of New Orleans, which at night metamorphosizes into the neon-lit jazz
centre of the world ( or so it seems!)
It's
really hot – probably about 30ยบ
– though we are told that it's usually much hotter than this in New
Orleans at this time of year. We get up late and have full English
breakfast (2 fried eggs, bacon, fried potato and tomato) - at this
hostel it's available from 9 am to 1 pm. It's delicious.
We sit outside in the shade and get talking to various young
people from different parts of the world. They are interested
in our trip and we love to hear their experiences too.
We
catch the "street car" - a red trolley bus/tram which will
take us to the French Quarter. The architecture here is very
French, with lots of wooden slatted blinds and verandas spilling over
with geraniums and flocks. There is a jaded air about this area
- vibrant, but slightly run down, as if it has seen better times. We
pop into an art gallery and have a long chat with the man there -
some of the paintings on display are his. He is black, and most of
the paintings are tell of life from a black perspective - a family
gathering, hip hop, famous black musicians, a schoolroom of black
children - which I particularly like. There's a black Jesus
ascending into Heaven, surrounded by black cherubs.
The
centre of the French Quarter is Jackson Square. Here there are
more (mainly black) artists, people waiting to draw your portrait,
and to read your future by tarot cards, or through voo-doo magic.
There are a few street musicians, but most of these will emerge
as dusk settles.
We
pop into a cool air-conditioned cafe/bar for lunch – bliss! - then
into a CVS, the big name in pharmacies in USA. We're surprised to
find it sells much more than pharmaceutical goods – for example,
pecan nuts, and ice- cream, and, not so surprisingly, beauty and
household products -a bit like “Boots” in the UK. We buy
mosquito protection spray, as tomorrow we're going by boat on a trip
to the “Louisiana swamps”, where we expect to see alligators.
There are numerous alligator toys, t-shirts etc in the shops in New
Orleans.
We
wander through the French Market in late afternoon – it's a myriad
of colours, selling local seafood made into “crabcakes”
, jewellery, clothing, toy alligator
head-masks. As we reach Frenchman Street, we hear jazz music
emanating from a dimly-lit restaurant, the “Maison”.
We only intend to stop for a drink, but end up having an
early-evening meal, as we are enjoying the music so much. When the
band take a break, Reg has a chat with the lead singer, who sports a
trilby hat and earrings in both ears, and plays guitar. There's also
a trombone player, someone on the trumpet, and on a “washboard”.
As
we walk through the streets of the French quarter to catch the
street-car back to our hostel, dusk settles and this area of New
Orleans suddenly seems to burst into life. Pedestrians throng the
neon-lit streets, and there is jazz music everywhere, flowing from
inside restaurants and bars, and from street players. There are even
cars trying to get through really slowly, but the police are starting
to redirect traffic to make these inner streets pedestrianised.
There's a group of black young men playing the drums in the street;
several gold and silver painted “living statues”, including a
young woman with nothing on at all above the waist except irridescent
blue paint. A man with a dog dressed in a hat, bootees and
sunglasses holds up a sign saying,
“Money
for weed needed please”.
“At
least he's being honest,” I
quip to Reg.
New
Orleans French Quarter at night – neon-lit, noisy, good-humoured,
with the aromas of food being cooked mixing with the slight whiff of
stale sweat. I say to Reg,
“Is
there anything else I should say about New Orleans French Quarter at
night?”
“Just
that anything goes,” says
Reg. “Hedonistic. Did you
mention the nearly-naked ladies?”
“What
does hedonistic mean?” I
say. Reg looks it up.
“It's
the belief that pleasure and self-gratification is the most important
goal in life.”
New
Orleans French Quarter at night is an experience I will never forget.
No comments:
Post a Comment