The Journal. Los Angeles to Daytona...

Day 11 – Swamp Music – New Iberia to New Orleans

We have now clocked up more than two thousand miles as we ride along the glorious Louisiana Coast line, passing through the small town of Jeanerette with Vermilion and Cute Blanche Bays to our right hand side. We stop briefly at Morgan City for gas. I know I keep saying it but the roads here are fantastic, in fact road for today is our good old friend the 90, and for the most part crosses Louisiana swamp on concrete stilts, as such is elevated freeway. You do not notice this at first until you find yourself peering over the side to ‘ground’ level, its not that high but gives you a feel (me anyhow) of being on a theme park ride. The views are uninterrupted, the heat is rising and the air is filled with insect life. Today was deliberately planned from the outset as being a low mileage day, ca 160 miles in order to arrive in New Orleans early and explore what the “Big Easy” has to offer.

Pushing on, the sun really is upon us now and we head towards Raceland and enter the outskirts of New Orleans (NO). I have seen pictures, I have seen films of NO but nothing can prepare me for the actual sights.  This city with its architecture contrasts of skyscrapers and old French Quarter colonial residential and commercial properties is a real treat, and we have not even found our way to the hotel yet, we traverse up and down one way roads, looking for signs but distracted by the coffee bars, restaurants, markets and houses.

Our hotel for two nights is the Le Richelieu and sits on the edge of the residential side of the French quarter but is within a two-minute walk of the bustle of markets and bars as well as shops. We checked in and started to explore, grabbing lunch first at the French market – Alligator Po-boys

Monday nights are best spent in Frenchman Street where local musicians jam the night away, we went to the Spotted Cat (Frenchman Street) to listen to a Jazz session, very delightful with an artesian market next door, all lit up with music wafting down the street, very atmospheric. I am not a big fan of jazz and whilst I struggled with the impromptu jamming sessions, it worked well contextually. A few drinks later we headed back to the hotel, we have two days here so best not consume all of NO on the first day

Laner

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