Garden District & Lafayette Cemetry No. 1

We drove back into New Orleans and parked on a side street at the Garden District. These fine old homes preserve traces of the era of cotton and sugar empires. The grand antebellum plantations just dominate the landscape and this section of town is rightly named for the lush estates. This district owes its luxuriant vegetation to a 1816 flood caused by the overflowing Mississippi River. A rich deposit of silt created higher ground, a very desirable feature for future development. The area has thriving magnolia and oak trees, a variety of building styles including Gothic, Greek Revival and Renaissance, homes are embellished with iron lacework, a hallmark of the New Orleans architecture.

In the middle of the neighborhood stands Commander's Palace, one of New Orleans' finest dining destinations and a catalyst for the career of popular chef Emeril Lagasse. Across the street is a dreary brick wall that surrounds one of the "cities of the dead" that New Orleans is known for, Lafayette Cemetery No. 1. The cemetery was established in 1833. The tombs are as graciously proportioned as the mansions built in the neighborhood. These old cemeteries all have tombs built above ground because water filled the graves before the coffins could be lowered. Unfortunately, the cemeteries have become victims of their own architecture; the lavish tombs provide cover for the disreputable and vandalism is not uncommon. But they are a very cool place to walk through and look at the history and only imagine....
We then rode the St. Charles Avenue streetcar (not trolley) into the French Quarter and the river front. New Orleans offers free ferry rides across the Mississippi River to two smaller communities. Really not much on the other side of the river, but it was a nice relaxing stroll down the muddy waters.