City of the Dead.

This morning we took a tour round St Louis Cemetery. It was absolutely fascinating. We had such a good guide too, she was a native New Orleanian and does the tour as part of the 'Save Our Cemeteries inc' which is a non profit organization dedicated to the preservation and upkeep of these historic cemeteries, so she was most knowledgeable. Mags and I have been most intrigued by these 'Cities of the Dead' since we read the vampyric Poppy Z. Brite books in our youth (which are a bit of a guilty pleasure I have to admit - but not as embarrassing as reading Anne Rice which I equate to deep fried pizza - unappealing, unsatisfying, cheesy and difficult to digest!) but also just for the history behind them too which is so interesting and a huge part of New Orleans and its development.

Here is the history bit for anyone who is remotely interested!
When New Orleans was founded in 1718 burials were made on the riverbank which clearly wasn't going to work. The first cemetery, in 1721, was on St Peter St. and burials were also made in the church but the water table is so very high here that this just didn't work either. So, after a while of bodies resurfacing and floating about all over the place they adopted the practice of burying above ground. Eureka!
The first cemetery was demolished and this one, St Louis Cemetery No. 1 on Basin St, was established by Spanish Royal Decree in 1789. The brilliant thing is that they will also never run out of space because you pop your loved one in the family tomb when they pass and after a year because of the weather and humidity here you are able to open up the tomb, stick the bones in a bag and push it to the back then pop in another coffin should you most unfortunately need to. It may not sound very romantic, but it is very practical. Plus the family can all stay together. Which is quite nice really.

We had a spot of lunch at Cafe Beignet on Royal St and had our first Gumbo and Jambalya and one of New Orleans World Famous Pralines (which we'd never heard of before but seem to be huge here - think dodgy tablet with nuts in). The gumbo was good but M and I are big girls when it comes to anything remotely spicy and the jambalya was just much too hot for us - but I think would be lovely with a great big dolop of sour cream ;o)

So now we've almost completed our N'awlins must eats with out Poboys, Gumbo, Jambalya and Pralines. But we haven't had a Beignet yet! (Despite eating in a cafe called that very thing) Most remiss. Must do tomorrow. Oh and we haven't had a hurricane either, got to have one of those!

After lunch we went for a horse and carriage ride around the Quarter which wasn't in the least bit informative but we found completely hilarious! We couldn't hear a thing the guide was saying and the carriage was bumping along at such a rate we were bouncing up and down in the back. Then the horse in the carriage behind us tried to chew me while his driver shouted Get that tongue in Sugardaddy! over and over!



If you'd like to see some more photos from Los Angeles they are here, or from our journey on the Coast Starlight Train they are here or even from San Francisco - here they are!

I haven't managed to write any comments or anything but feel free to take a peek, Grand Canyon and New Orleans coming soon :O)