Agree about the Zoo. I know you said that you didn’t want eating and drinking suggestions because you were saving that for the evenings, but NO in the morning is a terrific place for people watching. Find a cafe, grab a coffee and some beignets, and just sit and let time happen.
For lunch, there is much to be said for a fried oyster po boy or a muffalata washed down with a big ole glass of sweet tea. (I recommend splitting the sandwiches with someone so you’ll have room for dinner.)
Thank you everyone. WWII museum, Ogden, pharmacy museum, Hermann Grima house, ferry, Audubon zoo, cemetery tour, galleries on Royal and Magazine Streets are on the agenda. I also booked a 10 a.m demo at the New Orleans School of Cooking (the hands on were full but the demo should be fun) I wish there were a house tour in the Garden district but it seems that most of those homes are private homes.
The Pitot House is the second oldest. It would have been rural when built. It’s on Bayou St. John, off the corner of City Park that is near the Art Museum.
Here is a free Garden District walking tour you do by yourself. I would add to it a house on the corner of Chestnut and First Streets. It was owned by Anne Rice for years and she wrote the Witching Hour there (it is the house featured in the book and illustrated on the inside cover). It is on the southeast corner, or as people would say - the river side (not lake side) and the downtown side (not uptown side).
Walk one block, and the house (on the same side, same block) at the corner of Camp st. is very interesting. It is clearly far older than anything else in the Garden District. I don’t know its history but I wonder…
(the Garden District is where it is because Mrs. Marigny wouldn’t allow the family land to be sold to any Americans. Community property laws meant that she could stop the sale that was in the works by her husband.)
It is spring here now with azaleas in bloom and all, if you enjoy looking at houses without an actual tour just take a ride up and back on the St. Charles street car line, plenty of beautiful houses that will look even better now with spring blooms
Without a doubt, my favorite thing to do in New Orleans is to go to M. S. Rau on Royal street. It is like a museum, but everything is for sale. There is fantastic stuff to look at and drool. I love going to their website.
You don’t want plantation tours…but I’m recommending a very different kind of plantation tour. It’s a museum of slavery, with a particular emphasis on enslaved children. Just an extraordinary place.
Thanks all for the great suggestions. @greenwitch, no thanks lol. Unfortunately the the timing of our trip is endangered by the pending storm. Hopefully we will get down there! We are trying to change our flights. This is the second trip in the last three months that has been threatened by bad weather.
I just returned from a trip to New Orleans where I was attending a conference. I had a few hours free one afternoon and ended up walking around the French Quarter. The weather was splendid and I had lunch in lovely old courtyard. I enjoyed browsing in unusual stores and listening to buskers on every other corner. Thanks @silverlady for suggesting M. S. Rau. Without your recommendation I would have walked right past it!
M. S. Rau is just terrific! I decided not to be intimidated and engaged a sales person in conversation. Very helpful, even though I made it clear I was looking and gathering info - no intention to buy items in the area we were looking. Very comfortable shopping despite the price tags! Even DH had a great time looking through the various departments - some unique items,
For anyone else looking to shop on Royal Street - I had similar good experiences at the numerous jewelry stores. Lovely estate jewelry items, any time I asked for help, I got help, not a sales pitch.