New Orleans, Louisiana — Activities
New Orleans Culture
New Orleans is one of the most ’European’ cities in America, drawing cultural influences from its early Spanish and French settlers (the Creole) and French migrants, exiled from Nova Scotia in the 18th century - the Cajuns. Further cultural layers are revealed in the Indian and African influences, Dixieland jazz and the rich and terrifying legacy of voodoo, brought to the city by Haitian slaves.
The biggest cultural event in New Orleans is the annual Mardi Gras, celebrated here like nowhere else on earth. Given that the French Quarter is like an ongoing outdoor party any time of year, one can only imagine what it is like when the extravagant floats and costumes are paraded through the streets and the whole world has descended in search of a good time. There are, however, plenty of choices for those in search of more sedate cultural offerings.
Listings are available from the daily newspaper Times-Picayune (website: www.nola.com/entertainment), the free monthly publication Offbeat (website: www.offbeat.com), as well as from free weekly Gambit and the monthly New Orleans Magazine (website: www.neworleansmagazine.com). Inside New Orleans (website: http://neworleans.cox.net/cci/entertainment) is an up-to-date and savvy Internet site, while Gambit’s affiliated online outfit (website: www.bestofneworleans.com) also posts weekly cultural events and performances.
Tickets are available for purchase from the venues or from Ticketmaster (tel: (504) 522 5555; website: www.ticketmaster.com), which levies a surcharge per ticket.
Music: The much-lauded Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (tel: (504) 523 6530; website: www.lpomusic.com) performs at various venues. The New Orleans Opera Association will be performing at McAlister Auditorium on Tulane University’s Uptown Campus, and then at the Mahalia Jackson Theater of the Performing Arts, 801 North Rampart Street, in Armstrong Park (tel: (504) 529 36 00; website: www.neworleansopera.org) when it reopens in January, 2009. This theater, and the Louisiana Superdome(tel: (504) 587 3663; website: www.superdome.com) located on Sugar Bowl Drive, are two of the several venues that stage large-scale concerts. In addition, the New Orleans Arena, 1501 Girod Street (tel: (504) 587 3663; website: www.neworleansarena.com), is another popular venue for concerts.
Theater: Numerous theaters throughout the city offer everything from avant-garde works to the classics, with a healthy amount of Tennessee Williams, who lived much of his adult life in the Big Easy. The March Tennessee Williams Festival(tel: (504) 581 1144; website: www.tennesseewilliams.net), usually takes place in the French Quarter but the headquarters is located at Le Petit Théâtre, 616 St Peter Street, French Quarter (tel: (504) 522 2081; website: www.lepetittheater.com). The theater claims to be the oldest continuously running community theater in the USA and shows a range of musicals and drama. Musicals, plays and multimedia events are also staged at the two-auditorium Contemporary Arts Center, 900 Camp Street (tel: (504) 528 3800; website: www.cacno.org).
Dance: The New Orleans Ballet (tel: (504) 522 0996; website: www.nobadance.com) performs from September to May at Tulane University’s Dixon Hall. The Mahalia Jackson Theater of the Performing Arts, 801 North Rampart Street in Armstrong Park (tel: (504) 218 0150) is the usual venue for the ballet and will reopen in January 2009.
Film: The Big Easy is perennially popular as a movie location and some of the better known films shot there are Easy Rider (1969), JFK (1991), Dead Man Walking (1995) and, of course, The Big Easy (1987). Other movies include Passion Fish (1992), Storyville (1992), Interview with a Vampire (1994), The Apostle (1997), Runaway Jury (2003), The Skeleton Key (2005) and in 2006, All the King’s Men, Last Holiday and Failure to Launch. For more details, check the website www.filmneworleans.org.
To see these and other movies, there is no shortage of screens. The biggest is the Entergy IMAX Theater in the Aquarium of the Americas, 1 Canal Street (tel: (504) 581 4629 or 1 800 774 7394; website: www.auduboninstitute.org). Canal Place Cinemas, 333 Canal Street (tel: (504) 581 5400), shows first-run films, both art house and mainstream, while real film buffs will of course want to check what’s on at The Film Buff’s Institute, 6363 St Charles Street (tel: (504) 865 2152; website: www.loyno.edu/filmstudies), which runs during term time at Loyola University, and also shows independent and art house films.
Literary Notes: The first literary note to strike visitors is to see that there really is a streetcar named ’Desire’, which prompted the title of the 1947 play by Tennessee Williams. Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Faulkner wrote his first book, Soldier’s Pay (1926), while living in New Orleans in the 1920s. Another title inspired by the city is Dinner at Antoine’s, the 1948 novel by Frances Parkinson Keyes. It is still possible for one to dine at the restaurant Antoine’s, 713 St Louis Street.
Writers Truman Capote (1924-84) and Lillian Hellman (1905-84) were both born in New Orleans, as was the strange and sad writer John Kennedy Toole. Toole committed suicide in 1969, partly because he had been unable to find a publisher for his one great novel, A Confederacy of Dunces, finally posthumously published in 1980.
The most recent literary resident is the ’vampire novelist’, Anne Rice, whose fans come from all over the world to see her city. Her best-known work, Interview with the Vampire (1976), was made into a film in 1994. She now lives in California but her New Orleans home, Rosegate, is at the corner of First Street and Chestnut Street in the Garden District.
New Orleans Tours
Walking Tours
There are numerous walking tours available, covering different themes on life in the Big Easy. One of the best options is Historic New Orleans Walking Tours (tel: (504) 947 2120; website: www.tourneworleans.com). Tours include a ’Cemetery Voodoo Tour and Haunted Tour’, a ’Weekend Jazz Walk’ as well as architectural and historical tours of the French Quarter or Garden District. The tours take about two hours. Departure points vary depending on the tour - the French Quarter tour departs daily from Bourbon Café Beignet, 311 Bourbon Street, while the Haunted Tour sets off from O’Flaherty’s Pub, 508 Toulouse Street. Walkers should check the website for details and arrive 15 minutes before departure time - reservations are not necessary. Save Our Cemeteries is a group leading guided cemetery tours (tel: 1 888 721 7493 or (504) 525 3377; website: www.saveourcemeteries.org).
New Orleans Culinary History Tours (tel: (504) 427 9595; website: www.noculinarytours.com) focuses on the evolution of Creole and Cajun cuisine while visiting certain French Quarter restaurants.
Free history tours (limited to 25 persons) of the French Quarter leave daily from the Folklife and Visitor Center of the Jean Lafitte National Park, 419 Decatur Street (tel: (504) 589 2133; website: www.nps.gov/jela). Tickets are distributed on a first-come first-served basis, from 0930. The tour covers about 2km (1 mile).
Friends of the Cabildo are volunteers who do French Quarter tours every day at 1000 and 1330 except Monday (tel: (504) 523 3939; website: www.friendsofthecabildo.org). Tours depart from 1850 House Museum Store, 523 St Ann Street, on Jackson Square.
Bus Tours
The French Quarter is not really suited to bus tours, however, several companies offer tours of the rest of the city and beyond. Gray Line (tel: (504) 569 1401 or 1 800 535 7786; website: www.graylineneworleans.com) has a range of tour options, covering the city and beyond, generally taking two hours. Tours depart from the Gray Line Lighthouse Ticket Office or Information Booth, behind the Jax Brewery in the French Quarter.
Other Tours
Royal Carriages (tel: (504) 943 8820; website: www.neworleanscarriages.com) offers horse-drawn carriage tours of the French Quarter. The drivers are often great entertainers. It is possible to hail a carriage anywhere, but many park and await custom at the south side of Jackson Square.
New Orleans Paddlewheels, 610 South Peters (tel: (504) 529 4567 or 1 800 445 4109; website: www.neworleanspaddlewheels.com), operates several boat tours, departing from the Aquarium of the Americas Dock, South Peters. The Cajun Queen Riverboat runs 90-minute harbor cruises, while the Creole Queen Paddlewheeler runs a ‘Battlefield Cruise’ to the spot where Andrew Jackson defeated the British. In the evening, the Creole Queen offers a two-hour dinner and jazz cruise, with or without dinner. The New Orleans Steamboat Company (tel: (504) 586 8777 or 1 800 233 2628; website: www.steamboatnatchez.com) is the other main operator, with several harbor cruises during the day and in the evening. Tours depart from the French Quarter, Woldenberg Park.
See the city by air with Southern Seaplane, Inc. (tel: (504) 394 5633; website: www.southernseaplane.com) who do Cajun, adventure, bayou and city tours via bi-plane.
The bayou is part of the Louisiana charm and a swamp tour is a must. Most are done on the Northshore, on the other side of Lake Pontchartrain. Dr Wagner’s Honey Island Swamp Tours in Slidell (tel: (985) 641 1769; website: www.honeyislandswamp.com) probes the Honey Island cypress swamp. A resident naturalist is available to answer wildlife questions about the flora, fauna and various reptiles that frequent the swamp. Two-hour trips with New Orleans Louisiana Swamp Tours (tel: 1 888 307 9267; website: www.louisianaswamp.com) on 16-passenger airboats, depart from the dock on Bayou Road, off Highway 301, 37km (23 miles) from the French Quarter. Round-trip hotel pick-up is arranged.
Gray Line (tel: (504) 569 1401 or 1 800 535 7786; website: www.graylineneworleans.com) also offers several unique excursions. The ‘Southern Comfort Tour’ explores the history of spirits as it visits famous New Orleans watering holes. The spirits on the three-hour ‘Ghost Expeditions Tour’ are other-worldly. Every evening, participants depart from Jax Brewery to explore ‘haunted’ properties and are given instruments to study paranormal phenomena. The Hurricane Katrina Tour gives an eyewitness account of the devastation wrought by the 2005 storm.
