New Orleans and Plantations

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National Geographic Driving Guide: Texas and the South Central

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Other cities in the United States can argue about who has the greatest this or the most that, but when all the slogans have been written and all the press releases released, there’s still only one New Orleans. Only one place can be the most cosmopolitan, provincial, urbane, small-town, sophisticated, earthy, multicultural gumbo of a metropolis in North America. What other city was christened for a scandalously debauched French duke, promoted by a crooked Scotsman, and governed for a time by a Spaniard named O’Reilly? In New Orleans, the spirit of laid-back hedonism presides over the second busiest port in the country. In New Orleans, people walk around on dry land 6 feet [1.8 meters] below sea level. In New Orleans, you practically need to learn a second language to get around: Uptown, downtown, riverside, and lakeside replace the points of the compass, a median is neutral ground, and a sidewalk is a banquette. And if you think all that’s complicated, just try to pin down exactly what Creole really means.

After exploring New Orleans, this drive travels up the Mississippi River to visit a selection of gracious plantation houses—reminders of the vanished Old South, and peaceful counterpoints to the bustle of the city. CONTINUED

- Jackson Square
- Old U.S. Mint
- Hermann-Grima Historic House
- Audubon Zoo
- New Orleans Museum of Art
- Destrehan Plantation
- Houmas House Plantation and Gardens

(Continued From Top)

Jackson Square

In the French Quarter

Photograph © Danny Lehman

Many residents of New Orleans (Visitors Bureau +1 504 566 5011 or 800 672 6124) who live uptown (southwest of Canal Street) will quite readily tell you that they never go to the French Quarter (Bordered by Canal, N. Rampart, and Decatur Sts. and Esplanade Ave.), believing it too commercialized and touristy. Of course, every tourist wants to see the Quarter first—and well they should. Also known by its French name, Vieux Carr� (Old Square), this district of fewer than 100 square blocks on the north bank of the Mississippi centers on land where the city was founded in 1718. Today it’s a mixed residential and business neighborhood, full of historic buildings, museums, hotels, music clubs, and restaurants of all description. Though the city extends far beyond its boundaries, to millions of people around the world the French Quarter is New Orleans.
Jackson Square (Bordered by St. Peter, Chartres, St. Ann, and Decatur Sts.) is the place to start your investigation of the Quarter. Originally a French military parade ground called the Place d’Armes, the square was renamed in 1856 for Andrew Jackson, the hero of the 1815 Battle of New Orleans. (His equestrian statue here was the first ever erected with only two of the horse’s hooves on the ground.) Across Chartres Street is the grandly towered St. Louis Cathedral (+1 504 525 9585), the country’s oldest active cathedral; the building’s present appearance dates from 1850.
Flanking the cathedral are two historically significant structures, now locations of the Louisiana State Museum (+1 504 568 6968 or 800 568 6968. Closed Mon.; Adm. fee). The Cabildo, dating from about 1795, served as a government building throughout early New Orleans history. The 1803 ceremony transferring the vast territory of the Louisiana Purchase from France to the United States took place in a second-floor room here. Mus eum exhibits trace the history of Louisiana and include a death mask of Napoleon Bonaparte (who sold all that land to the U.S.). On the other side of the cathedral, the Presbyt�re was begun in the 1790s as a residence for parish priests (though none ever lived here) and now displays varied artifacts from Louisiana’s past as well as changing exhibits.
As you look out from the cathedral, the twin structures on the left and right of the square are the Pontalba Buildings, completed in 1850 by the wealthy Baroness Pontalba as luxury apartments and shops. You’ll find another location of the Louisiana State Museum, the 1850 House (523 St. Ann St. +1 504 568 6968. Closed Mon.; Adm. fee), in the “lower” Pontalba Building; its rooms are furnished with authentic items from the mid-19th century, re-creating a middle-class New Orleans residence of the antebellum years. A Tourist Information Center (529 St. Ann St. +1 504 568 5661) offering advice about both New Orleans and Louisiana is located nearby.
Across Decatur Street stands a 24-hour restaurant that’s become a true institution of the Quarter: Caf� du Monde (800 Decatur St. +1 504 581 2914) is famed for caf� au lait (coffee with milk) and beignets (something like a square doughnut coated with powdered sugar). If you keep going toward the Mississippi you’ll find the Moon Walk (named for former Mayor Moon Landrieu), a riverside promenade where you can watch huge tankers and cargo ships passing by.

Old U.S. Mint

Touring the French Quarter

Photograph © Bob Sacha

Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve encompasses several locations across southern Louisiana. Among them, the French Quarter Visitor and Folklife Center (916 N. Peters St. +1 504 589 2636) presents exhibits and programs on regional culture and history, and rangers lead daily walks through both the Quarter and the uptown Garden District; check at the Visitor Center for schedules. Continuing downriver past the French Market, an area of shops and restaurants that also includes a Farmers� Market, you�ll come to the Old U.S. Mint (400 Esplanade Ave. +1 504 568 6968. Closed Mon.; Adm. fee), another part of the Louisiana State Museum. This 1835 building, which at various times in its past turned out both U.S. and Confederate money, now houses exhibits on jazz and Mardi Gras.
Fires in 1788 and 1794 destroyed most of the original French Quarter; one edifice that survived was the 1734 Old Ursuline Convent (1100 Chartres St. +1 504 529 3040. Closed Mon.; Adm. fee). Once the home of the Sisters of St. Ursula, French nuns who came to New Orleans in 1727 to establish a school, the convent now offers tours of its beautifully restored building. Two nearby historic residences are also open to visitors: The 1826 Beauregard-Keyes House (1113 Chartres St. +1 504 523 7257. Closed Sun.; Adm. fee) was home to Confederate Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard and novelist Frances Parkinson Keyes; the Gallier House (1118-1132 Royal St. +1 504 525 5661. Closed Sun.; Adm. fee), completed in 1860, was built by James Gallier, Jr., a well-known New Orleans architect, and is furnished in the style of the city�s well-to-do in the mid-19th century.

Hermann-Grima Historic House

French Quarter banjo player

Photograph © Danny Lehman

Music is everywhere in the French Quarter, but the most famous venue is undoubtedly Preservation Hall (726 St. Peter St. +1 504 522 2841. Nightly at 8:00; Adm. fee), where people go to hear traditional jazz played enthusiastically but respectfully—not to eat or drink or talk, but just to listen. The list of famous New Orleans musicians is long and eclectic, and bars and clubs are abundant, so check local publications to see who might be appearing around town during your visit. A bit farther away, the 1831 Hermann-Grima Historic House (820 St. Louis St. +1 504 525 5661. Closed Sun.; Adm. fee) features a stately interior, a formal courtyard garden, and a historically important kitchen and stable.

Audubon Zoo

Fish-watching at the Aquarium of the Americas

Photograph © Danny Lehman

Moving to the outskirts of the Quarter now, the Aquarium of the Americas (1 Canal St. +1 504 581 4629 or 800 774 7394. Adm. fee) is one of the city�s must-see attractions. Showcasing North and South American species, the aquarium includes a 400,000-gallon [1,514,165-liter] Gulf of Mexico exhibit and displays on Caribbean reefs and the Amazon River. The creatures you�ll see here range from alligators and sea turtles to sharks and jellyfish. Southwest of the Quarter, the Louisiana Children�s Museum (420 Julia St. +1 504 523 1357. Closed Mon.; Adm. fee) offers a broad array of activities, from exhibits on physics and physical fitness to areas where kids can pretend to be TV stars or tugboat captains. The fine Audubon Zoo (6500 Magazine St. in Audubon Park. +1 504 861 2537 or 800 774 7394. Adm. fee) is another treat for animal lovers, with its famed white alligators in the Louisiana Swamp exhibit.
An excellent way to see the aquarium, children�s museum, and zoo is to ride the historic St. Charles Streetcar Line (+1 504 248 3900. Fare) from Canal Street past the fine old houses of the Garden District to the zoo, and then take the John James Audubon riverboat (+1 504 586 8777. Fare) back to the aquarium.

New Orleans Museum of Art
To the north, in City Park, the New Orleans Museum of Art (1 Collins Diboll Cir. +1 504 488 2631. Closed Mon.; Adm. fee) is known for its collections of French and American art, Japanese paintings, and African art, as well as one of the South�s finest decorative art collections, including three of Peter Carl Faberg�s famed Russian Imperial Easter eggs.
Two sites not far from the city center offer good introductions to the natural environment of southern Louisiana. Nature trails wind through 86 acres [34.8 hectares] of woods and wetlands at the Louisiana Nature Center (Off Read Blvd. in Joe W. Brown Memorial Park. +1 504 246 5672. Closed Mon.; Adm. fee), and a planetarium offers changing shows on astronomy. To the south of New Orleans, the Barataria Preserve Unit (7400 Louisiana 45, Marrero. +1 504 589 2330) of Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve encompasses some 20,000 acres [8,093 hectares] of varied habitat, from the forests that grow on slightly elevated natural levees down to lower-lying marshland. Hiking and canoe trails allow exploration of the preserve, providing close looks at alligators, nutria, wading birds, songbirds, and other wildlife.
The rich bottomland soil of the Mississippi Delta, along with the labor of slaves, became the foundation on which huge fortunes were built in the early 19th century, when farmers established expansive sugarcane plantations along the riverbank and throughout the surrounding countryside. Louisiana is said to have been the second richest state in America before the Civil War, and plantation owners vied with each other to build the finest mansions with the costliest furnishings. Many houses were destroyed in the war (and many fortunes were lost), but a few survived and have been restored to their antebellum glory. A drive up the north bank of the Mississippi and down the south will take you to some of these historic houses. To begin, return to Business US 90, go west to I-310, north across the river to Louisiana 48 (River Road), and turn right.

Destrehan Plantation
Destrehan Plantation (13034 River Rd./Louisiana 48. +1 504 764 9315. Adm. fee) stands as the oldest documented plantation house in the lower Mississippi Valley. Originally built in 1787 with hand-hewn bald cypress timber and bousillage (mud, Spanish moss, and animal hair) walls, it was expanded and remodeled in the 19th century to its present appearance, a blend of traditional West Indies and Greek Revival styles. Wide galleries provide shade, and large doors and windows catch any breeze. Destrehan began as an indigo plantation, but later switched to sugarcane when the latter crop�s superiority caused a boom in plantings in the early 1800s.
Proceed upstream on the River Road, which eventually is called Louisiana 44 and takes you to San Francisco Plantation (+1 504 535 2341. Adm. fee), an 1856 home whose name is as interesting as its architecture is eclectic. Because the house was so expensive, its first owner called it St. Frusquin, a bit of wordplay on the French phrase sans fruscins��without a penny�; a later owner changed it to the more genteel San Francisco. The highly decorated steamboat Gothic exterior is flanked by large cisterns; the wonderfully restored (and, in places like the Lady�s Parlor, amazingly colorful) interior features elaborate ceiling murals and sumptuous furnishings.
Farther west on Louisiana 44, beyond the tall Sunshine Bridge, Tezcuco Plantation Home (3138 Louisiana 44. +1 225 562 3929. Adm. fee) is at the center of a complex of bed-and-breakfast cabins, shops, and outbuildings. Its Greek Revival-style exterior is more modest than that of many plantation mansions; its interior includes fine plasterwork, false-grained wood, and period antiques. Construction began in 1855 and lasted five years, making Tezcuco one of the last of the grand homes completed before the Civil War. Also on the grounds is the River Road African American Museum and Gallery (+1 225 644 7955. Call for appt.; Adm. fee), with artifacts of the slavery era.

Houmas House Plantation and Gardens
Take Louisiana 942 to Houmas House Plantation and Gardens (+1 225 473 7841. Adm. fee), the �big house� of what was once Louisiana�s largest sugarcane plantation. (The house and surrounding 12,000 acres [4856 hectares] sold for one million dollars in 1858, and plantings later grew to 20,000 acres [8093 hectares].) With its stately white columns and gardens, Houmas House recalls a patrician world of privilege and wealth.

Oak Alley Plantation, built in the 1830s

Photograph © Bob Clemenz

Return to the Sunshine Bridge, cross the Mississippi, and turn left on Louisiana 18 to reach one of the most photographed scenes in Louisiana: the quarter-mile-long [.4-kilometer-long] double row of live oaks fronting Oak Alley Plantation (3645 Louisiana 18. +1 225 265 2151 or 800 442 5539. Adm. fee). These gnarled limbs have seen a lot of history since they were planted by an unknown French settler in the early 18th century; they�ve long since grown together to form a green tunnel leading from the house toward the river. The Greek Revival mansion, with its 28 massive brick columns, was built in the late 1830s; its interior has been carefully and elegantly restored.
Continue 3 miles [4.8 kilometers] on Louisiana 18 to Laura: A Creole Plantation (Louisiana 18. +1 225 265 7690. Adm. fee). Rather than a mansion tour, this site offers an entire Creole plantation complex, including an 1805 manor house, 1840s slave cabins, and bald cypress Creole cottages (1820-1880s). Based in part on the memoirs of Laura Locoul, who was born here in 1861, the tours emphasize the daily lives of owners and slaves, men, women, and children.
Return to New Orleans on Louisiana 18, I-310, and I-10.