New Orleans: French Quarter
How could we not visit the French Quarter while in New Orleans? We knew it was a touristy spot and that stores and restaurants are typically overpriced here, but when we arrived at around 9:30am, it wasn’t too crowded at all! However, we went back at 5:30pm and it was totally different! You could barely walk through the crowds of people - reminded us a bit of NYC, especially when we got to Bourbon Street. We didn’t stick around too much during the crazy evening but here are some activities we did during the day.
The beautiful Jackson Square, with St. Louis Cathedral right behind it, is such a great starting point when exploring the French Quarter. It was rainy when we were there in the morning but there were still quite a few people visiting the cathedral. At night, there were horse-drawn carriages right outside the gates! It was such a pretty scene.
We visited two places literally right around the corner from each other (and only like a block away from Jackson Square) - Spitfire Coffee and Faulkner House Books. Spitfire Coffee was a very small cafe, with only a couple seats, so we took our coffee to go. Faulkner House Books is the former home of William Faulkner, now turned into a tiny bookstore. There’s a sign on the door - maximum occupancy is only 12 people! They had such cool editions of books, especially some of Jane Austen’s novels. Before we left the area, we grabbed some beignets from Cafe Beignet at the Old Coffee Pot. When you’re in the French Quarter, you have to try beignets!
Later that evening, while we were on Decatur Street, which is the street that runs parallel to the Mississippi River, we checked out Rocket Fizz. There used to be a Rocket Fizz near us in New Jersey but we never went so we made it our mission to stop by here. The whole store is full of different types of candy and different types of soda. Obviously we were going to get root beer but there were over two dozen different kinds!! It took us forever to decide but we got one called Ozark Mountain. It was such a creamy, vanilla-y root beer, very similar to our favorite Bulldog root beer (also similar to Hank’s or Stewart’s). It was delicious!
The French Quarter is such a fun part of New Orleans and there was so much to see and do there! We had planned to get dinner there but lines were out the door at several different restaurants so reservations might be needed if you’re planning a trip! Even though it was so rainy and foggy, walking by the Mississippi River was a great way to end the day!
- Nick + Jess
