Tourist trap it might be, but New Orleans French Quarter is a worthy addition to any travelers itinerary. You can truly indulge every sense in ‘The Big Easy.’ By day it’s a walking town ideal for unhurried strolls and meandering conversations. By night it morphs into a party machine oiled by drinks like the Hurricane Cocktail, Hand Grenade and Rainstorm.
I have no idea why New Orleans is called ‘The Big Easy,’ but it’s a fitting description as far as I’m concerned. It’s hot, loud, noisy, and bursting with vivid color and vibrant life. For those reasons, and a few others, New Orleans has fast become one of my favorite places to visit in the United States.
After cutting short my scheduled time in Houston Texas due to large swaths of the city being damaged and left without power in the wake of Hurricane Ike, I arrived earlier than planned in ‘The Big Easy.’
Thanks to Californian beach sand my camera expired just as the plane began the final approach to New Orleans Louis Armstrong International Airport. I wasn’t overly worried about being without a camera, after all I’ve been here before and shared pictures from New Orleans in two other posts [1] [2]. However, as anyone who enjoys photography would tell you, the process of taking pictures is in many ways as enjoyable as sharing them. So naturally I was delighted when Susan lent me her little digital Olympus with which all these pictures were taken.
As Susan and I wandered around the colorful streets of the French Quarter I would look up at the various windows and balconies wondering who lived behind those shutters and doors and who might have lived there in the past. Much like the weathered buildings I saw in Croatia, I felt like almost every one of the buildings we walked past would surely have stories to tell and secrets it could reveal. If I were to live in such a place I think I would try to learn as much as I could about those who had lived there before me.
I should perhaps explain that in the picture above, the ghost figure drawn in the small white frame isn’t art in the traditional sense of the word. It’s graffiti scrawled on a disused notice-board on the side of a building. Something about it appealed to me though. It didn’t seem overly out of place in a place called ‘The Big Easy’ and I wondered if its similarity to Edvard Munch’s classic painting ‘The Scream‘ was intentional.
While I wasn’t really thinking about this when I took these photographs, I’ve noticed that I assign a significant value to the pictures I share on my blog. Perhaps that’s because these snapshots become the landmarks of my life in a way that a random print in a soon-to-be dusty photo album could never be. Sometimes it’s the words that bring the pictures to life for me, but I’d like to think that even when they’re speechless these pictures still say something.
—
No scarf required
The perfect day
Wrote the following comment on Oct 22, 2008 at 12:25 pm
And more reflection pictures! :-)
I love the picture of the single window with the shadow.
Wrote the following comment on Oct 23, 2008 at 2:13 am
Bella, with comments like that, you’re obviously a racist, what have you got against Obama :-D
Wrote the following comment on Oct 23, 2008 at 5:39 am
↑↑ WTF??
Wrote the following comment on Oct 23, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Its a JOKE Doug, and a self depricating one at that. Did you miss the big smiley?
FFS!
Wrote the following comment on Oct 23, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Great pictures as ever Simon.
As for Wilvo’s “joke,” I don’t get it. I mean I don’t even get how is could be funny? I’m looking at that single window picture (which is beautiful by the way) and wondering where Wilvo’s ‘humor’ is coming from.
Wrote the following comment on Oct 23, 2008 at 9:03 pm
I guess if you have to explain a joke it ain’t funny :-/ it’s a joke relating to the palintology post were I made an arse of myself. .
Wrote the following comment on Oct 23, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Oh right, I see. Well yeah, I didn’t read those comments so I didn’t get it. I think I mainly just look at the photocentric posts.
Wrote the following comment on Oct 24, 2008 at 5:13 am
I didn’t miss the emoticon wilvo, I just didn’t get it. British humor perhaps?
Wrote the following comment on Oct 24, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Hey Simon,
Susan sent the link to your blog for us to see. Wish I could click on the pics and open them. I’d like to get a copy of the one of all of us at GW Fins. Surprised not to see you comment about the beads from the Burbon St balcony episode! mk
Wrote the following comment on Oct 24, 2008 at 6:17 pm
i figured he was referring to the shadow comment.. and i didnt stay around for all of palintology. either way, made me laugh.
anyways, nice layered pic. very where’s simon, in the tradition of where’s waldo.
Wrote the following comment on Oct 24, 2008 at 7:00 pm
You know Mary Kay, I thought about writing a longer post, but in the end I wanted to just let the pictures do the talking. I should have mentioned the balcony though, and heck I should have said that it was you, Russ, Susan, and myself in that pic too! Doh! Sorry :-)
Wrote the following comment on Oct 25, 2008 at 7:40 am
I too liked that picture of the window. I also went back and read those two older posts you mentioned. ‘The perfect day’ sounded great. You were fortunate to have a local expert to show you around that’s for sure.