We were given these "warnings" about 2 seconds after we walked out of the hotel right after we got there.
Date: 12/15/2007
St. Louis Cathedral
Date: 11/16/2007
A view of St. Louis Cathedral and Jackson Square (with statue of Andrew Jackson).
Jackson Square/St. Louis Cathedral
Date: 11/16/2007
St. Louis Cathedral and statue of Andrew Jackson.
Some people forgot to take down their Halloween decorations!
Date: 11/16/2007
We just thought this was so funny and bizarre that we had to take a picture of it.
St. Louis Cemetery #3
Date: 11/17/2007
It may be morbid, but the cemeteries are some of my favorite sights in New Orleans. I've always said that I don't want to be buried when I'm dead -- it wastes valuable land. But I wouldn't mind being someplace like here, where good use is made of the available space.
St. Louis Cemetery #3
Date: 11/17/2007
A slab on the side of a tomb usually indicates that they had a different kind of plot originally, and built the tomb later, then just pried up the slab and attached it to the side. Or sometimes, they do this sort of thing when they run out of room. Many, many bodies can be interred inside a tomb this size.
St. Louis Cemetery #3
Date: 11/17/2007
A lot of tombs had Greek-revival architecture and sculptures.
Marie Laveau's tomb, St. Louis Cemetery #1
Date: 11/17/2007
Visitors draw X's on the tomb of Marie Laveau, voodoo queen, in the hopes that she'll grant their wishes. If the wishes are granted, they leave offerings like the cakes in front of it.
Old tomb at St. Louis #1.
Date: 11/17/2007
On many of these, the slab bearing the inscriptions is gone, but on this one it's just leaning against the tomb.
St. Louis Cemetery #1
Date: 11/18/2007
This was a so-called "society" tomb -- several groups, like the Italian Society (above), built their own tombs to bury their members in.
Tomb with open vault, St. Louis Cemetery #1
Date: 11/18/2007
The marble slab seems to have come off in pieces on this one. Most of the tombs had this basic construction: two or more "shelves", one on top of the other. When someone died, the marble slab would be removed, and the bricks around one of the shelves would be broken out; the coffin would be slid into the opening. Once all the spaces were full, the next time someone died, the oldest one would be broken open, the remains of the casket removed, and the bones pushed to the back, where there was an opening that went all the way down to the bottom; then the new casket would be slid in there. That's how they buried so many people in one tomb. (The same thing is done today, but the bones are bagged and labeled now before being pushed to the back.)
St. Louis Cemetery #1
Date: 11/18/2007
A soldiers' tomb. The upside-down torches symbolize death (what else?).
St. Louis Cemetery #1
Date: 11/18/2007
A lot of tombs have been renovated or restored, but obviously not all of them.
Plaque from Protestant section of St. Louis Cemetery #1
Date: 11/18/2007
This was a Catholic cemetery, so Protestants had their own section away from the Catholics.
St. Louis Cemetery #1
Date: 11/18/2007
The tombs in the Protestant section were a bit different from the rest of the cemetery.
Oven vaults, St. Louis Cemetery #1
Date: 11/18/2007
As with all other tombs here, many people can be buried in a single vault. The remains are pushed to the back when a new burial is done. Some of these so-called "ovens" can also be rental units (though these particular ones are not). By law a tomb can't be opened until a year and a day after the last burial, so if there is another death before that time has passed, the family can rent a vault temporarily.
St. Louis Cemetery #1
Date: 11/18/2007
I'd love to have an epitaph like this (well, in the feminine, that is); in French, it says at the bottom, "Good son, good brother, good friend."
Granite tomb, St. Louis Cemetery #1
Date: 11/18/2007
Tombs in this style were pretty rare, and our tour guide was disdainful of them; said they don't go with the rest of the cemetery and they also don't hold up well over time.
St. Louis Cemetery #1
Date: 11/18/2007
Plaque which explains burial methods in New Orleans cemeteries.
St. Louis Cemetery #1
Date: 11/18/2007
This sort of "decorating" is normally not allowed, but apparently the guy who does it has been doing it for so long (to honor the grandparents who raised him) that the cemetery's keepers make an exception for him.
Pontalba building, Jackson Square
Date: 11/18/2007
This is one of the most famous buildings in the Quarter, the oldest apartment building in New Orleans. Notice the "AP" in the ironwork -- the "A" is for Almonester, and the "P" for Pontalba. Almonester was the original owner of the land; his daughter was the Baroness Pontalba.
Pontalba building, Jackson Square
Date: 11/18/2007
There are stores on the bottom level and residences above.
Jackson Brewery, viewed from the river
Date: 11/18/2007
This was taken on our riverboat ride on the steamboat Natchez. The St. Louis Cathedral's steeples are just visible to the right.
New Orleans American section, viewed from the river.
Date: 11/18/2007
The roundish building at lower left is the Audubon Aquarium.
Lafayette Cemetery #1
Date: 11/18/2007
Notice how the marble slab on the front is warped? This happens to a lot of them because of the weather conditions. Eventually a lot of them break or fall out.
Aboveground burial plots - for people who don't like vaults (Lafayette Cemetery #1)
Date: 11/18/2007
Another plaque embedded in the wall of a tomb at Lafayette Cemetery #1.
Date: 11/19/2007
This was generally done when the family built a different (usually more elaborate) tomb over an existing one; they'd embed the plaque from the old one in the side wall of the new one.
Tomb of Judge Ferguson, of Plessy vs. Ferguson fame. We saw Plessy's tomb in St. Louis #1.
Date: 11/19/2007
Broken column memorial. Pretty common symbol of death. I think this was a Confederate soldiers' monument.
Date: 11/19/2007
In the back corner of Lafayette #1 are these four tombs that belonged to four best friends who wanted to be buried together.
Date: 11/19/2007
St. Charles streetcar.
Date: 11/19/2007
We took it a couple times to the Garden District. These had just come back into service a week or two before we visited, and the locals were very excited about it.
New species of tree: the New Orleans Bead Tree.
Date: 11/19/2007
Along the Mardi Gras parade route down St. Charles, practically every tree was covered in beads.
Cornstalk Fence Hotel. There are apparently only about two of this type of fence in New Orleans.
Date: 11/20/2007
Closest we've ever seen an elephant!
Date: 11/21/2007
We actually got to touch the elephant's skin. It's leathery and the hairs are like wire.
Not sure what this was - looked kind of like a peacock, but not quite. (Audubon Zoo)
Date: 11/21/2007
Entrance to Odd Fellows Rest Cemetery. (There are at least 6 cemeteries all clustered together in this area.)
Date: 11/23/2007
K-Paul's restaurant, site of yet another amazing New Orleans meal.
Date: 11/21/2007
We ate on the balcony, with a trio of musicians playing in the street just below. It was amazing.
