French Quarter Hotels With Pools
When the weather is just right, why not take a dip? Whether you’re visiting New Orleans or staycationing, you can cool off and enjoy the city (or take a break) at any of the three charming, one-of-a-kind outdoor pools located inside these boutique hotels in the French Quarter: French Market Inn, Place d’Armes Hotel, and Hotel St. Marie.
Their pools offer something some other spots in the city don’t — a quiet place to escape, recharge, and soak up the sun away from the crowds. They’re intimate and secluded, and can offer some serenity just steps away from the hustle and bustle of one of the oldest neighborhoods in the U.S.
All three pools are saltwater and tucked away in private tropical courtyards, surrounded by beautiful brick walls, fountains, and lush greenery. What makes the pool at Hotel St. Marie (827 Toulouse St.) stand apart from the many other hotel pools in the city is that it’s handicap-accessible and especially kid-friendly, at 4.5 feet at its deepest.
Built for lounging, the pool area and the landscaped courtyard with patio seating can surely put you in vacation mode. You can grab a cocktail or a bite to eat from Vacherie Restaurant & Bar located inside the hotel, and enjoy either poolside.
Vacherie is three in one: the cafe is a convenient, on-the-go option for a snack or a quick sandwich; the full bar offers artfully crafted drinks (and the daily happy hour 3-6 p.m.); and the restaurant is great for elegant yet low-key dining-in.
Inside, Hotel St. Marie serves up a classic French Quarter atmosphere with modern amenities. Its European-style decor delivers luxurious touches like chandeliers and period paintings. The meticulously restored exterior is lined with wrought-iron balconies overlooking the action, only half a block away from Bourbon Street and a mere four blocks from Jackson Square and the St. Louis Cathedral.
The recently upgraded pool at the French Market Inn (509 Decatur St.) features a sun deck, lounge chairs, and plenty of seating around the pool and everywhere around the lovely courtyard. If you want to sip your favorite hot, iced, or frozen coffee beverage poolside, the on-site PJ’s Coffee has something fresh brewing daily, from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
The historic French Market Inn is uniquely situated to offer both the serenity of its private stone-paved courtyard and a glimpse into a busy French Quarter neighborhood steps away from the Mississippi River (and its balconies, overlooking Decatur Street, offer great views of both).
When you step inside, you’ll find yourself surrounded by the quiet elegance of antique brick and the meandering garden. Yet, the hotel is located within six blocks of renowned New Orleans attractions like Jackson Square, the French Market, the Audubon Aquarium and Insectarium, Bourbon Street, and Harrah’s New Orleans Casino.
The pool at the historic Place d’Armes Hotel (625 St Ann St.) has built-in seating inside it. The courtyard surrounding it is particularly enchanting, showcasing the award-winning patio planning and a variety of planted and potted plants, in all their tropical glory, that are native to Louisiana.
Find a spot at one of the patio tables or the benches in the shade of the magnolia trees, and relax to the sound of the gurgling fountains. You can also take your complimentary continental breakfast there. Just steps away from Jackson Square and located in two historic townhouses, Place d’Armes Hotel embodies old-world charm inside and out.
A few more things to know about these three pools:
- When you’re a guest at any of Valentino Hotels you can access the pool at any of those other hotels.
- They are not open to the public, only guests.
- Food and drink are welcome in the pool area, but no glassware.
- They’re open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
Cool off, indulge, and take advantage of the photo ops!
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Pop in for a Drink at the Best Creole Restaurants
Galatoire’s Restaurant by rulenumberone2
By: Ian McNulty
No one should leave New Orleans without experiencing its distinctive Creole restaurants, but whittling down the city’s long list of outstanding establishments to fit your budget and time constraints can be a real challenge. After all, there are only so many meals one can cram into a vacation.
Happily, there is an easy and tempting way to get the feel and flavor of several different classic New Orleans establishments each day without making reservations or taking out a loan. Simply saddle up to the bar.
Many of Crescent City’s most celebrated dining establishments feature lavish bars or lounges where guests can soak up the old New Orleans atmosphere, enjoy a cocktail or glass of wine, or even peruse the menu for a light bite without committing to a full meal. Just plan out a schedule and splurge a little.
Lunch — the quintessential meal at Galatoire’s Restaurant (209 Bourbon Street) — can last literally all day. But guests can still manage a quick visit here thanks to a 1999 renovation that added a bar and lounge area to the second floor.
For the better part of a century, drinks were served only from a service bar to diners already seated, but the upstairs bar offers a different way to experience Galatoire’s, if only for a cocktail. While the jacket-required dress code is not as strictly enforced at the bar, it’s a good idea to dress the part anyway if you plan to imbibe in this fine environment.
The storied history of Arnaud’s Restaurant (813 Bienville Street) holds that its labyrinthine network of private dining rooms, corridors and secluded chambers effectively concealed illicit drinking during the dark days of Prohibition.
In fact, requesting coffee at the start of lunch was in many cases a password for ordering a cocktail. Such measures aren’t necessary today, of course, but the rambling old building retains much of the same mystique.
The restaurant’s French 75 Bar — named for a specialty drink of brandy and champagne — serves both as a lounge for diners before and after a meal and also as a destination in its own right to bask in Arnaud’s ambiance.
Tujague’s Restaurant (823 Decatur Street) didn’t start its long career as an upscale restaurant, but rather as a place for workers from the nearby docks and merchants from the even closer French Market to catch a workday meal. Flash forward more than 150 years, and the unique Creole repasts served up in the dining room have established Tujague’s as a New Orleans dining destination.
But it’s in the establishment’s front barroom that its original rakish spirit truly lives on. There are no stools along the long, beautiful cypress bar and in fact, the only real eye-catching décor in the place is an ancient and massive mirror behind the bar said to have been imported from Paris in the 19th century.
Ducking in from bustling Decatur Street’s sidewalks, a drink in the high-ceiling room can seem like a time warp.
The front dining room and bar at the Napoleon House, courtesy of Napoleon House on Facebook
Napoleon House (500 Chartres Street) is named after the French emperor and offered to him as a refuge after he was driven from power. Napoleon never took up the offer, but today plenty of locals and visitors avail themselves of the bar and café housed in the 18th-century building.
The bistro in the rear is an upscale establishment with a Creole menu to match, but it’s the casual front dining room and bar that are the most atmospheric. Plaster walls show a patina of age and the subdued, old world décor is accented by the omnipresent classical music broadcast through the room.
The specialty drink here is the Pimm’s Cup, which is the color of iced tea and nearly as refreshing, though fortified with alcohol and garnished with a slice of cucumber. If it gets too crowded and the weather is fine, try to score a table in the small, lush courtyard at the center of the old building.
Are you planning to spend some time in New Orleans soon? To stay close to all the action, book a historic boutique hotel in the French Quarter at FrenchQuarter.com/hotels today!
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Things to Do in New Orleans: Outdoor Attractions and Activities
In New Orleans, every season has something for outdoor lovers. Winter brings cooler weather and a unique light for nature photographers; spring and fall are temperate and gorgeous; and summer comes with fewer crowds and unique wildlife spotting opportunities.
New Orleans City Park
City Park
The largest park in New Orleans is one of the most popular urban green spaces in the country and is about half as large as Central Park in New York to boot. There are several areas of the park, which is run by the City Park Improvement Association, part of the state government of Louisiana, as opposed to the city of New Orleans.
If you tackle the 1,300 acres comprising City Park, it’s best to approach the place as a series of destinations, rather than one entity you can experience in a single-day trip. The front area of the park, which is most readily accessed by visitors, includes the New Orleans Museum of Art, the adjacent Sydney and Wanda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, and the Big Lake, surrounded by a walking path that is immensely popular with families and joggers. As you scoot around the Big Lake, keep an eye (and an ear) open for the Singing Oak, a live oak tree festooned with wind chimes and bells.
Past the Museum of Art is a family-friendly area that hugs Bayou Metairie, and includes Cafe Du Monde (beignets! Cafe au lait!), the Greek-inspired Peristyle pavilion, and a large playground. Walking along City Park Avenue from this point leads you past some of the park’s ancient live oaks — City Park contains the largest grove of live oaks in the world.
The Goldring/Woldenberg Great Lawn sits across the park’s pretty Botanical Gardens and the twin kid-friendly amusements of Storyland and Carousel Gardens. For those seeking a more hike-y outdoors experience, we recommend driving to the traffic circle that sits at the intersection of Diagonal Drive and Harrison Avenue; you’ll find pull-offs for parking along Harrison.
From here you can either walk south/towards the river to Scout Island and the trails that web around it, or north/towards the lake into the Couturie Forest. In either of these areas, you can genuinely get the sense that you’ve left the city — we’ve even spied gators around Scout Island.
Crescent Park, Bywater, by Bridget Coila
Crescent Park
If you’re staying in the French Quarter, one of the easiest ways of getting outdoors is heading to the Crescent Park, which connects Faubourg Marigny — located at the edge of the Quarter — to the Bywater neighborhood, all via a long, waterfront park that hugs the contours of the Mississippi River. The Crescent Park consists of several sections., all separated from the city proper by either levee walls or a buffer zone of old railway infrastructure and shrubbery.
The section closest to the Quarter is a long, covered space pavilion, a former wharf linked to the intersection of N. Peters Street and Marigny Street via a long, covered bridge. It should be noted that this is the only handicap-accessible entrance to the park.
Making your way downriver, you’ll proceed along a paved path used by cyclists, joggers and walkers, passing the Piety Street Wharf, which has been converted into an austere collection of geometric shapes, hard lines and metal accents. This section of the park is connected to Piety and Chartres streets by the Piety Street Bridge, a footbridge many locals have dubbed the “rusty rainbow.”
The foot and cycling path continues downriver to the block between Bartholomew and Mazant streets in the Bywater, passing a popular dog park and several acres of landscaped lawn space and waterfront pedestrian areas. You can exit the park here via a small ramp, or walk back to the Quarter.
All in all, Crescent Park is a brilliant means of accessing the Mississippi Riverfront, and while the park is clearly within the city, its separation via walkways and bridges makes users feel outside of the urban experience at the same time.
Greater New Orleans Bridge from Woldenberg Park by Mary Witzig
Woldenberg Park
Woldenberg Park is essentially the French Quarter continuation of Crescent Park, although to be really fair, that description should be reversed — Woldenberg was around first. Woldenberg is the easiest means of accessing views of the Mississippi River for those who are staying in the French Quarter.
The park is a grassy space that runs the French Quarter length of the river to the Central Business District and is a quiet means of running between, say, Cafe Du Monde and the Audubon Aquarium. We find Woldenberg enjoyable for the simple pleasures of, say, watching some public busking or just admiring large ships as they tug by on North America’s largest river.
Bywater Bike Lane by Tulane Public Relations
Bike Lanes
New Orleans is an excellent city for bicycling — it’s flat, the architecture is gorgeous, and there’s an increasing amount of good bike infrastructure growing around town. From the French Quarter, you can cycle up Esplanade Avenue all the way to City Park, or cycle to the Lafitte Greenway, which connects the edge of the Quarter to a pretty slice of Mid-City that just happens to be adjacent to Second Line Brewing (and not too far from City Park to boot).
Arch Bridge in Audubon Park by Samantha Chapnick
Audubon Park
The biggest slice of Uptown green space is Audubon Park, an almost too-charming assemblage of live oaks, Spanish moss, pedestrian paths, jogging lanes, and general fecund beauty — all framed by some of the grandest, most beautiful homes in the city. Although much of the park is taken up by golf courses, there’s still plenty of ground to cover if you want some fresh air or a place to let the family run off some energy.
We’re particular fans of The Fly, the waterfront portion of Audubon that offers wonderful views out to the West Bank of the Mississippi. Other points of interest include a lagoon, lawns that front Tulane and Loyola Universities, and the Audubon Zoo.
A orillas del Pontchartrain by Javier Ignacio Acuña Ditzel
The Lakefront
Lake Pontchartrain is the “other” body of water in New Orleans, and the lakefront includes several miles of picnic areas and levees that are popular with local families. To get out here, good access points include the areas around Lakeshore Drive and Canal Boulevard, and Lakeshore Drive and Lake Terrace Drive.
Trees on the Bayou by Bart Everson
Bayou St. John
Many visitors to New Orleans assume Bayou St. John is a wild and wooly swamp slapped into the heart of the city. This isn’t really the case — rather, St. John is a pleasant inland waterway that connects Mid-City all the way to Lake Pontchartrain. The portion of the Bayou that runs between Orleans and Esplanade Avenues is a particularly pleasant slice of the urban landscape, cut through by the still waterway, shaded by trees, and peppered with waterfowl and relaxing families.
Barataria Preserve by Neil O
Barataria Preserve
Located about 40 minutes south of the city, the Barataria Preserve, managed by the National Park System, is an easily accessible slice of wild Louisiana. Trails and boardwalk paths here lead past deep swamps, flooded forests and long, vegetation-choked waterways. It’s not uncommon to spot alligators out this way, depending on the time of year. If you want to see the Louisiana swamp without getting into a boat, this is your best bet in the vicinity of New Orleans.
Manchac Swamp, courtesy of Louisiana Lost Lands Environmental Tours on Facebook
Paddling
The waterways of South Louisiana are a special, unique ecosystem that is best appreciated during a slow, involved paddling trip. Excellent kayak outfitters in the area include Lost Land Tours, which leads paddling trips into the South Louisiana wetlands led by naturalists and environmental experts who know and love the watery native soil with a passion. An excellent means of accessing the almost alien beauty of the local bayou wilderness, itself a unique American land and waterscape.
If you’re planning a visit to New Orleans, be sure to check out our resource for French Quarter Hotels.
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Meet the Mississippi: Exploring the New Orleans Riverfront
The Mississippi River looms large in the American identity, from the history and literature taught in schools to the nation’s modern economy.
In New Orleans, you can easily experience the river in all its bustling activity, natural splendor and historical significance via the Riverfront area adjacent to the French Quarter. Sweeping vistas, public art, family activities and jumping-off points for riverboat tours are all clustered here along a linear park and walkways.
The Mississippi has always been a working river and for generations, most New Orleanians were cut off from any access to it by floodwalls, warehouses and very busy wharves. That began to change in the 1970s through the 1980s, as underused industrial buildings near the French Quarter were razed and replaced by Woldenberg Park, a grassy open space named for local philanthropist Malcolm Woldenberg, and the Moonwalk, a walkway named for the former New Orleans mayor Maurice “Moon” Landrieu.
A great place for a picnic of po-boys or local seafood, a jog or just to catch a cooling breeze on a typically humid New Orleans day, this mile-long stretch of the Riverfront is also the setting for many community celebrations and special events. For example, the largest stages for the annual French Quarter Festival are set up here each spring and the park is prime real estate for viewing fireworks during the city’s Fourth of July activities, known collectively as Go 4th on the River.
A bronze statue of Malcolm Woldenberg in the park that bears his name is one exhibit in what has grown into an informal sculpture garden along the Riverfront. Near the philanthropist’s statue is a stainless steel sculpture called “Ocean Song.” Created by local artist John Scott, the piece depicts the motion of water in eight narrow pyramids, polished to a reflective gleam.
Further downriver is the elegant “Monument to the Immigrant,” crafted from white Carrara marble by sculptor Franco Allesandrini. The work faces the Riverfront with a ship’s prow topped by a female figure reminiscent of Lady Liberty, while behind her stands a turn-of-the-century immigrant family looking toward the French Quarter.
A few blocks downriver is Robert Schoen’s “Old Man River,” a stone human figure also made from Carrara marble. Weighing in at 17 tons and standing 18 feet high, the statue speaks to the river’s power and majesty in its rounded, circular body forms.
The most recent addition to this collection of public art is the city’s Holocaust Memorial, which was dedicated in 2003. Created by Israeli artist and sculptor Jacob Agam, the memorial is often described as a “living work” because its images and shapes change as a visitor walks around it.
Vestiges of the area’s industrial past remain, like the warehouses and wharves that begin behind the French Market and the freight trains that still rumble along a corridor between the river and the French Quarter. Much gentler rail traffic comes in the form of the city’s red Riverfront streetcars, built in 1988 with a vintage look and modern amenities to carry passengers from Canal Street to the lower end of the French Quarter.
Past the French Market, going along St. Peter Street, one can spy the latest pedestrian-friendly addition to the city’s Riverfront real estate: the entrance to the Crescent Park, an unmissable pedestrian footbridge linked to the ground by an elevator and staircase.
The Crescent Park plays with the city’s shipping heritage, drawing upon that legacy to create a severe, post-industrial aesthetic that includes open-air pavilions, concrete buttresses, long walking and cycling paths, and rusted metal features like a pedestrian bridge, all laid out in a linear park that runs from Faubourg Marigny through the Bywater. Using Crescent Park’s linear pathway, you can walk all the way from N. Peters Street and Marigny Street to Chartres Street and Bartholomew Street.
Anywhere you go on the river, you’re likely to spot modern shipping traffic. The ports, refineries and terminals clustered between the mouth of the river and Baton Rouge to the north make the Mississippi one of the world’s busiest rivers, and from a bench along the Riverfront visitors can watch as tugs, tankers, freighters, cruise ships, and long strings of barges navigate its currents.
Street musicians usually perform nearby for tips, adding to the ambiance with their saxophones or trumpets. From the French Quarter, visitors can see with their own eyes how New Orleans earned the nickname the Crescent City as large vessels follow the dramatic turn in the river upon which the French Quarter is situated.
If all these maritime vistas give you the urge to use your sea legs, the Steamboat Natchez will take you out on the muddy Mississippi and offers tours of varying lengths and themes. Designed to resemble the old steamships that once brought cotton, gamblers and jazz up and down the river, this modern vessel gives today’s visitors a way to experience the Mississippi up close and view the city’s skyline and intricate French Quarter roofscape from the river.
Back on dry land, the Riverfront area is also home to two of the city’s most popular family attractions, the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas, joined by the Insectarium in the Summer of 2023. The active area outside these facilities is filled with whimsical sculptures of marine life, well-shaded park benches and outdoor vendors serving light refreshments.
Just upriver from the aquarium area is the Spanish Plaza. Dedicated in 1976 during the U.S. bicentennial, the plaza was a gift from Spain in a gesture of friendship to its one-time colony. It features a large fountain ringed by tile mosaics of Spanish coats of arms representing that country’s provinces. Vendors in the plaza serve smoothies and snacks, while the Riverwalk Outlets is just next door for air-conditioned shopping.
Are you planning to spend some time in New Orleans soon? To stay close to all the action, book a historic boutique hotel in the French Quarter at FrenchQuarter.com/hotels today!
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Find Your Favorite French Quarter Hotel
The over-three-centuries-old French Quarter is located right in the heart of New Orleans, a tapestry of music, cuisine and cultures, and a testament to its colorful past. With its non-stop, 24/7 action, breathtaking architecture, world-class restaurants, outstanding music scene, and only-in-New-Orleans experiences, the French Quarter is irresistible.
And what better way to explore this one-of-a-kind place and one of the oldest neighborhoods in the U.S. than to stay right in the middle of the action?
These four historic boutique hotels are located in the French Quarter, so you are never far from all that the neighborhood has to offer. And when you’re done exploring, enjoy the welcome respite from the bustle and relax by the pool (French Market Inn, Place d’Armes Hotel and Hotel St. Marie have saltwater pools), hit a happy hour, grab a bite in one of the hotels’ bars and restaurants, or simply enjoy the view from your room or your balcony.
So, what makes these hotels outstanding? Read on!
Hotel St. Marie
Hotel St. Marie (827 Toulouse Street) features modern amenities combined with a classic French Quarter atmosphere. Its European-style decor delivers luxurious touches like chandeliers and period paintings, yet the extensive renovation added many modern updates.
The meticulously restored exterior is lined with wrought-iron balconies overlooking the action, only half a block away from Bourbon Street and mere four blocks from Jackson Square and the St. Louis Cathedral.
Many of its elegant guest rooms feature balconies overlooking the exciting streets of the French Quarter or the serene tropical courtyard with a saltwater pool. There are eight room types at Hotel St. Marie, with either one king or two queen beds.
The deluxe room, for example, features elegant antique reproduction furnishings, and the streetside balcony room features a balcony overlooking the French Quarter (great for people-watching!). Both the suite and the junior suite offer an elegant sitting area.
The on-site Vacherie Restaurant & Bar is three in one: restaurant, bar and cafe, which are all located next to one another on the first floor. The elegant yet low-key restaurant serves authentic Cajun cuisine with a few inventive twists, focusing on homestyle Cajun and regional Louisiana fare like BBQ shrimp and grits or crabcakes.
The cafe serves up snacks and things like sandwiches, perfect on the go. You can also hit the full bar for the daily happy hour 3-6 p.m. The $8 bar menu includes things like sliders of the day and boudin balls. To drink, $6 will get you a cocktail like rum punch, a glass of any of the house wines, or a draft beer flight (three half-pints of your choice).
Prince Conti Hotel
Prince Conti Hotel (830 Conti Street) features an old-world southern atmosphere with modern amenities. The Prince Conti Hotel is also very close to a plethora of renowned historic sites and fun destinations. The always-hopping Bourbon Street is only a block away, and the historic St. Louis Cathedral and Jackson Square are six blocks away.
The shopping and dining destinations of Canal and Royal streets are close by, and the museums and world-class restaurants of the CBD are a short ride away. New Orleans is also known for its exciting nightlife, and the Prince Conti Hotel puts you close to some of the best nightlife destinations, like Harrah’s New Orleans Casino, Pat O’Brien’s, House of Blues, and more.
The hotel is housed in a historic 19th-century townhouse, which sports a carriageway and plenty of European charm. Some of its rooms feature exposed brick and recent renovations updated the amenities and the interior’s rich colors and moldings, adding touches of opulence and the classic New Orleans charm.
Despite its proximity to the 24/7 action right outside its windows, Prince Conti Hotel offers a quiet respite from it all, an oasis with an elegant yet relaxed vibe.
The hotel also houses The Bombay Club, an elegant New Orleans favorite featuring creative cocktails and bar bites. The Bombay Club serves up dozens of varieties of martini and nightly live music.
In the morning and afternoon hours, dine in style at the Cafe Conti, also located in the Prince Conti Hotel. Serving a variety of breakfast and lunch fare daily, Cafe Conti’s menu gives special attention to Creole and French cuisine.
French Market Inn
The French Market Inn (509 Decatur Street) is located on the bustling Decatur Street, just steps away from the Mississippi Riverfront and within six blocks of renowned New Orleans attractions like Jackson Square, the French Market, Audubon Aquarium of the Americas (joined by the Insectarium in the Summer of 2023), Bourbon Street, and Harrah’s New Orleans Casino.
This historic hotel boasts a serene, private stone-paved courtyard with a saltwater pool, a fountain, and a beautiful tropical garden. Its antique brick facade opens onto a lobby adorned with period paintings, chandeliers, and columns, with period details throughout the building. The hotel’s balconies, overlooking Decatur Street, offer great views of the river and the vibrant neighborhood.
Since this historic property dates back to the 18th century, every guest room has its own distinct character. The first property records date as far back as 1722, and it was used in the past as a bakery and a family residence. In the early 1830s, the Baroness Pontalba y Almonaster bought the bakery and the surrounding lots and turned it into an inn.
If you’re in the mood for a comforting beverage, PJ’s Coffee is on-site and has something fresh brewing daily, from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Place d’Armes
Place d’Armes (625 St. Ann Street) is just two blocks from the historic Jackson Square (which used to be called Place d’Armes, hence the name), and an easy stroll away from Cafe Du Monde, the French Market and the Mississippi Riverfront. The excitement of Bourbon Street is only eight blocks away, too.
Place d’Armes Hotel embodies old-world charm inside and out. It occupies two restored historic townhouses dating back to the 18th and 19th centuries.
Guest rooms facing both the street and the courtyard have wrought-iron balconies, and feature exposed brick, conveying the traditional, old-world ambiance of the French Quarter. The hotel’s courtyard is particularly enchanting, showcasing a variety of tropical plants, fountains, and a saltwater pool under the magnolia trees.
Don’t miss out on all the excitement the French Quarter has to offer all year round, round the clock! Book your room at any of these historic hotels today.
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New Orleans’ Haunted History
The LaLaurie Mansion, photo by Tom Bastin
For the rest of the country, things that go bump in the night move to the forefront of the imagination for one month out of the year. But in New Orleans, often called the most haunted city in America, every day might as well be Halloween.
Stroll through New Orleans on any given night, and you’re likely to encounter these things: an above-ground graveyard. A cobwebbed 18th-century mansion. A tour guide telling stories about the city’s haunted history. Here are just a couple of true tales from New Orleans’ haunted past.
Yellow Fever Epidemic in New Orleans, 1817-1905
Perhaps the most gruesome tableaus ever to unfold in New Orleans took place during yellow fever epidemics, which peaked in 1853 (7,849 deaths), 1858 (4,845 deaths), and 1878 (4,046 deaths), according to the New Orleans Public Library. All in all, 41, 000 souls would lose their lives to yellow fever in the 19th and early 20th century.
The mosquito-borne virus, a member of the Flaviviridae family, ravaged the populations of immigrants new to the city in particular. Individuals became infected when bitten by a mosquito carrying the virus, so it was easy for multiple members of a household to succumb to the disease. Headaches, muscle soreness, fever, and jaundice (hence the name yellow fever) were followed by liver and kidney failure, hemorrhaging, seizures, coma, and death.
Yellow fever cases peaked during warmer months, when mosquitos are most active, and for years, families who had the means to flee during the summers did so. During the worst epidemics, one out of every 10 people who stayed behind would die.
In 1853, more than a thousand people died each week. Obviously, civil services were not equipped to deal with mass deaths of that magnitude, but they did what they could. Each day, corpse wagons circled the neighborhoods, drivers calling “Bring out your dead.” Mass graves lined the city’s perimeter.
Fortunately, early 20th-century scientists figured out that if they controlled mosquito populations by limiting their breeding grounds, they could control the spread of disease. New Orleanians joined forces to close their cistern, drain stagnant pools and create underground sewage systems. After 1905, yellow fever never again ravaged the Crescent City… but it still exists in other parts of the world.
The LaLaurie Mansion (1114 Royal Street)
The LaLaurie house is well-known both within and beyond New Orleans’ city limits. Kathy Bates portrayed Delphine LaLaurie in an episode of American Horror Story, and haunted house attractions frequently include homages to the grisly tale.
LaLaurie enslaved African American people, and she was a notoriously cruel mistress. After a 12-year-old girl fled LaLaurie’s bullwhip in terror, falling off the roof and dying from her injuries, the authorities were brought in to investigate.
Because cruel treatment to slaves was prohibited by law, LaLaurie’s slaves were taken away from the house and sold at auction. Unfortunately, one of LaLaurie’s friends bought them and gave them back to her. Whether LaLaurie’s famous temper lead her to act out in vengeance toward the slaves, or whether she was simply insane, no one knows, but the worst was yet to come.
Visitors to the LaLaurie house became fewer and fewer, as rumors of her cruelty spread and damaged her reputation. In 1834, a cook intentionally set the house on fire, hoping that it would bring civic intervention (at best) or the relief of death (at worst). Behind a locked door on the third floor, firemen discovered a scene described thusly by The New Orleans Bee on April 11, 1834:
“Seven slaves, more or less horribly mutilated, were seen suspended by the neck, with their limbs apparently stretched and torn from one extremity to the other. These slaves had been confined by the woman LaLaurie for several months in the situation from which they had thus providentially been rescued, and had been merely kept in existence to prolong their suffering.”
Subsequent retellings of the story included even more perverse and graphic forms of torture, but the Bee account is the most reliable version. LaLaurie managed to escape, and an angry mob destroyed her home’s interior, smashing furniture and ripping out doors and railings before order was restored.
The gutted house sat sealed for years and eventually returned to the market. It was purchased by actor Nicolas Cage in 2007 and sold in 2008. Word on the street is that he never dared to spend a night there.
Are you planning to spend some time in New Orleans soon? To stay close to all the action, book a historic boutique hotel in the French Quarter at FrenchQuarter.com/hotels today!
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Block Parties in Motion: The New Orleans Second Line Parade
Visitors experience a city’s culture on the walls of museums and galleries, on the stages of theaters and music halls, and even on the plates of local restaurants. But in New Orleans, culture also comes bubbling up from the streets and one of the most unique local expressions of this sort of culture is the second line parade.
Second line parades are the descendants of the city’s famous jazz funerals and, apart from a casket, mourners and a cemetery visit, they carry many of the same traditions with them as they march down the streets.
There are dozens of different second line parades put on throughout the year, usually on Sunday afternoons, and held in the French Quarter and neighborhoods all across the city. They range in size, level of organization and traditions, but in all cases, they will include a brass band, jubilant dancing in the street and members decked out in a wardrobe of brightly colored suits, sashes, hats, bonnets, parasols, and banners, melding the pomp of a courtly function and the spontaneous energy of a block party, albeit one that moves a block at a time.
The parades are not tied to any particular event, holiday or commemoration; rather, they are generally held for their own sake and to let the good times roll.
Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club photo by Zack Smith
Second Lines and New Orleans Festivals
One development in the past years has been to stage second line parades for festivals, and this is where visitors are most likely to encounter one. For instance, the Satchmo Summerfest organizes a second line parade through the French Quarter in early August (August 5, 2023), a second line parade kicks off the French Quarter Festival each April, and numerous second line parades accompany the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, or Jazz Fest, held each spring at the Fairgrounds Race Course in Mid-City.
Heralded by the blare of an approaching trumpet or thump of a tuba, these colorful, vivacious parades appear and completely take over one or more blocks at a time, seeming to come from nowhere like a sudden downpour from a sunny summer sky, and disappearing almost as quickly around the next bend. Hosted by neighborhood organizations and composed of progressive generations of friends, family members and neighbors, they are nevertheless in most cases open to anyone who can find and keep up with them. A second line, by its very nature, invites crowd participation.
Indeed, the term “second line parade” refers to those who join in the rolling excitement. The people who are part of the hosting organization are the “first line” of the parade (at a jazz funeral, this would be family members of the deceased, the hearse and the band) while those who follow it along, dancing and often singing as they go, form what is known as the “second line.”
Second lining can also refer to the type of dancing that usually goes on at these parades — a wild, strutting dance step to carry participants forward in pace with the brass band — so one can go to a second line, be in a second line and do the second line all at once.
Baby Dolls and Treme Brass Band photo by Zack Smith
Deep Roots: The History of the New Orleans Second Line
Second lines trace their roots back to the 19th century and the fraternal societies and neighborhood organizations that collectively provided insurance and burial services to members, especially among the African American community. One of the earliest such organizations was the New Orleans Freedmen’s Aid Association, founded in 1865 at the end of the Civil War to provide loans and education to newly freed slaves. These organizations began hosting parades as neighborhood celebrations, to advertise their services and to honor members who had died.
As racial segregation slowly dissolved and insurance and other services became available to black New Orleanians from mainstream providers, the social aid aspect of these organizations diminished. The groups themselves persisted, along with their parades, and today new organizations continue to form with the primary purpose of holding a parade.
Reflecting their benevolent roots, however, these organizations are generally still called social aid and pleasure clubs. They have names like the Jolly Bunch, the Sidewalk Steppers, the Money Wasters, the Lady Rollers, the Perfect Gentlemen, the Devastating Men, and the Popular Ladies.
These parades are always propelled by a style of music that has rightly been called the street sound of the Crescent City — the New Orleans-style brass band, in all its thumping, syncopated, feet-moving glory. While the instruments used by these bands are familiar (always at least one of the following: trumpet, trombone, saxophone, tuba or Sousaphone, bass drum, and snare drum), they come together for a sound that is as different from contemporary jazz or even traditional Dixieland jazz as R&B is from heavy metal. Heavy on improvisation and funked-up interpretations of modern pop songs, brass band music sets a soundtrack for the second line party.
Second line parades traverse major thoroughfares only briefly, with their routes usually meandering through neighborhood side streets. They can pass antebellum mansions on one block and public housing projects only a few blocks later. Visitors should always use caution when traveling in unknown areas and be aware of their surroundings.
Also, these routes can change from year to year, and news of their schedules is usually spread on a grassroots level. All this means it can be difficult for visitors to find information about upcoming second lines, or even to catch up with a parade.
A great local resource for information about second lines, however, is the Backstreet Cultural Museum, located just outside the French Quarter in the historic Treme neighborhood. This small museum features exhibits on second line parades, jazz funerals and other realms of New Orleans culture.
If you’re planning a stay in New Orleans, be sure to check out our resource for French Quarter Hotels.
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Celebrate Labor Day Weekend in the French Quarter
Photo by Miguel Discart on Flickr
Say goodbye to summer and ease yourself into fall by celebrating Labor Day (Monday, September 4, 2023) in New Orleans. Americans do travel a lot for this long weekend ending on the first Monday of September, and New Orleans is a top Labor Day destination.
There are great reasons for the city’s popularity, and don’t let the still-summery temps of early September deter you — the Labor Day weekend in New Orleans will deliver, and then some. Here are some suggestions on how to get the most out of your stay in the French Quarter, starting with the immensely popular Southern Decadence festival.
Southern Decadence
This massive four-day festival celebrates LGBTQIA+ culture and attracts participants from all over the world. Southern Decadence started as a humble going-away party but is now considered the fifth largest event in the city after Mardi Gras, Jazz Fest, Essence Festival, and the French Quarter Festival.
Southern Decadence will be held from Thursday, August 31, through Monday, September 4, 2023. It kicks off and closes with dance parties. There will be lots of block parties and dance parties in between. This year’s theme is TBA.
The festival’s annual hub, Bourbon Pub Parade, will be open 24/7. Just like in previous years, it will serve as the epicenter of the annual Bourbon Street Extravaganza, a free show/block party happening on Saturday at the corner of Bourbon and St. Ann Streets. The annual Southern Decadence Grand Marshal Parade on Sunday will also end up there, stretching loosely one block over to its ending point at Bourbon and Dumaine Streets.
A lot of events are free, and you can buy passes online to access the events that do charge an entrance fee and may sell out. The VIP Weekend Pass covers all events; the Weekend Pass includes all events held Friday through Sunday.
The Oz dance club and Cafe Lafitte in Exile, both on Bourbon Street, will also host DJ’d shows and dance parties that weekend. Although not part of the Bourbon Street stretch, the 24/7 Good Friends bar at 740 Dauphine Street in the French Quarter also receives a fair share of the festival partygoers each year.
Musical Highlights
Your best bet would be to just head out to Frenchmen Street on any given evening and explore, and there’s something always going on at the iconic Tipitina’s. The Labor Day weekend’s musical offerings are usually excellent. Let the WWOZ Livewire Music Calendar guide you.
Eating and Drinking
For happy hour, various French Quarter bars are offering lots of great deals, including The Bombay Club. For more ideas, check out our guide to the best happy hours in the French Quarter. As for eating, the French Quarter is your oyster, and then some. Check out our dining guides and listings to reserve a perfect spot.
If you’re planning a stay in New Orleans during the Labor Day weekend, be sure to check out our resource for French Quarter Hotels.
Eat, drink, dance, stay cool, and happy Labor Day!
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New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival Lineup
Image courtesy of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on Twitter
It’s almost that time of year again — time to sip the iced tea, snack on crawfish Monica, and sway to the music of local and international musicians under the hot New Orleans sun. The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, or Jazz Fest, is one of the most celebrated festivals in New Orleans and takes place every year during the last weekend of April and the first weekend in May. Jazz Fest has been around since 1970 and gets bigger and better every year.
During these two weekends, locals and out-of-towners get together to enjoy the culture of New Orleans with the various food, crafts, and performances that Jazz Fest has to offer. Contrary to the name, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is more than just jazz music.
Various musical genres like hip-hop, zydeco, blues, tribal, and electronic music can all be heard live from Jazz Fest’s multiple stages. This year the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival will take place at its usual spot on the Fair Grounds Race Course starting on Friday, April 28, and ending on Sunday, May 7, 2023.
Some of the top headliners for the festival include Lizzo, Ed Sheeran, Mumford & Sons, Dead & Company, The Lumineers, Jon Batiste, H.E.R., and more. The music schedule is broken down by day in cubes with times for all the acts, which you can view here.
Of course, one of the best parts of Jazz Fest is the food. Some staples for food include Crawfish Monica, mango freezes, Ya-Ka-Mein, snoballs, poboys, and much more.
What’s new in 2023
Jazz Fest is going cashless this year! Ticket, food, beverage, craft, and merchandise booths will no longer accept cash payments. If you come to the event with only cash, the Festival will offer cash exchange booths near key vending locations so you can get a prepaid card for your cash.
Another change is that one of the longest-running Jazz Fest food vendors won’t be there, and neither will his famous and beloved crawfish bread. John Ed Laborde, who created this bread, has been selling it at the fest since 1987.
To view the complete 2023 Jazz Fest music and food lineup and purchase tickets visit the event’s website.
If you’re planning a stay in New Orleans, be sure to check out our resource for French Quarter Hotels.
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The Irish Pubs of the French Quarter
The French Quarter, despite its name, has quite a bit of Irish blood running through it.
Like old port cities of the East Coast, New Orleans saw a huge influx of Irish people in the 19th century, and for a time the Celtic brogue was heard as commonly on the streets here as the Creoles’ Francophone dialect. Both those mother tongues have assimilated into the modern New Orleans accent, but one contribution of the Irish to French Quarter culture is indelible and indispensable to this day: the pub.
As is true wherever they are found, Irish pubs serve as local watering holes and gathering spots for friends in the French Quarter. While the karaoke joints and dance clubs and theme bars shake, rattle and roll, these pubs are bastions of camaraderie and good cheer, places for locals to unwind after a shift, and for visitors to sit back and observe New Orleanians in their natural element.
The pubs are often found literally in the shadows of flashier establishments. There’s Molly’s Irish Pub (732 Toulouse St. — not to be mistaken for Molly’s at the Market, below!), for instance, an attractive, understated barroom of soft brick and polished woodwork the color of burnt sugar housed in an old Creole cottage. Regulars perch themselves on window sills or along the bar, while just outside the howls, chants and yelps of Bourbon Street are clearly audible and occasionally drown out the jukebox.
Erin Rose (811 Conti St.) offers a similarly dramatic transformation of the setting by taking just one step up and inside. Bourbon Street, in all its bead-flinging, feather boa-strewn glory, is merely two doors away, but Erin Rose seems like it’s in a whole different neighborhood — one where drink prices take a sharp turn downward and local color amps up pleasingly. Regulars make a clubhouse of the place, installing themselves at the bar with the predictability of a professor’s office hours.
Music: Traditional and Otherwise
In a city famous for its jazz and R&B, a handful of musically-inclined pubs provide a welcome alternative for fans of acoustic music and singer-songwriter genre.
Kerry Irish Pub (331 Decatur St.) hosts live music seven nights a week (traditional Irish music and acoustic harmonizing are well represented). With a street reputation for pouring the best pint of Guinness in the Vieux Carré, many an innocent Decatur Street stroll has been cut short by a stop inside this hospitable pub.
Have a Pint, Spin a Yarn
The entertainment provided by other French Quarter pubs is entirely in the hands of fellow patrons and passersby.
Just down the street from the Kerry is Ryan’s Irish Pub (241 Decatur St.), an unassuming picture of tranquility during the day but something else altogether at night. Fitted out with cozy booths and a beautiful antique bar, the pub can get quite lively after sundown depending on which nationally touring acts are performing at the adjacent House of Blues and the temperament of the crowd those acts draw to the neighborhood.
Those with the gift of gab will find a stable of regulars with plenty of stories to swap at Fahy’s Irish Pub (540 Burgundy St.), where a decidedly locals’ scene develops after restaurants and other bars begin cutting their shifts for the night. The popular drink at Fahy’s is a local version of the “mind eraser,” a sweet vodka concoction served in a pint glass and slurped quickly by two or more people simultaneously through straws in a race to the bottom. Pool is very popular here, as evidenced by the rows of small, wooden lockers for regulars to stow their personal pool cues and gear.
And if you find yourself at Molly’s at the Market (1107 Decatur St.) any day or night without an interesting yarn to share with a total stranger, just wait around a bit and you will likely witness the makings for a worthy story to tell the next time around. It’s hard to imagine a more variegated bar crowd anywhere than the one that develops at Molly’s, located just around the corner from the French Market.
For years, Molly’s served as the de facto press club for New Orleans, and journalists, political hopefuls and other local notables have spent honorary shifts behind the bar pouring drinks for their friends and critics alike. Every night, the place fills with a crowd of fops, bards, fancy ladies, punks, bankers, artists, students, tourists, and those best described as “open to suggestion.”
If for some reason, this social cocktail doesn’t spark things up for you, there’s always inspiration to be found in the collection of French Quarter stories and memories enshrined on the walls and behind the bar, which includes Molly’s founder, the late Jim Monaghan. His ashes have been interred in a place of honor above the bar ever since his jazz funeral disbanded outside the pub’s doors in 2001.
We’d also like to add these two Irish bars to the French Quarter lineup since this article has been written:
731 St. Peter St.
Tucked into a brick hideaway between Royal and Bourbon streets across from Preservation Hall, this intimate Irish pub was named after a movie that runs on the loop on the TV inside the bar (don’t worry, there’s a good jukebox too). The famously friendly bartenders serve Guinness and local beer on tap, as well as Irish car bombs. The prices are very, very good — so think of Boondock Saints as your perfect getaway from the 24/7 party happening just steps away on Bourbon St.
717 St. Peter St.
Another low-key Irish bar on the same block, Finnegan’s Easy is long, narrow, and more crowded, but with ample capacity to handle it thanks to its spacious courtyard. You could tell it caters more to the visitors as it serves as a stop on some of the walking tours in the French Quarter. Finnegan’s features sports on TV and cheerfully serves Irish grub along with more American fare, like wings. The drink menu also varies from the local beer on tap to Mai Tais and Hurricanes.
