holidays

We took the ferry across the Mississippi to Algiers – a five-minute trip – to have a look at Blaine Kern’s Mardi Gras World. It was very hot in Algiers. We walked around a block, looking at the houses in this peaceful residential area, then walked down the levee to the warehouses where Mardi Gras World was. We were expecting to look around and see people working on the floats and sculptures for next year’s Mardi Gras, as well as exhibits from previous years, but it was mostly all closed up. A car drove out of one building towing a trailer in the back of which were two large parrots. When we got back to the New Orleans we saw a poster advertising ‘Blaine Kern’s Mardi Gras World – Now in a New Location’. So much for the guide book.

Oysters and crawfish for lunch at the Oyster House. After lunch a trip to the Gallier House in the French Quarter. Which was closed. So we went round the St Ursuline’s Convent. The convent was built in the 18th Century to house the St Ursuline nuns who came over from France to help the needy and generally do good deeds.

On the way back we heard jazz music playing in the street, and when we walked over to investigate, found a wake in progress outside a bar. They started with a slow tune, with a black man dressed in a suit with a brightly coloured sash twirling an umbrella and singing a song, while a man stood in the doorway to the bar holding an urn. Then the band let rip. We recognized some of the musicians from bands we’d seen on the Natchez and in bars on Bourbon Street.

Oysters and stuffed shrimp and tuna salad for dinner at the Brewhouse, then we went to Bourbon Street. We did some cajun dancing, and sat and listened to a jazz band. Then we went further up the street, beyond the tacky bars and had a drink in a more classy place where a man was playing the piano and singing songs in the back.