A very typical balconied house (prob small flats by now)
View through to the courtyard of our guesthouse
Architecture - after a couple of huge fires that burnt most of the original structures in the French Quarter, the government (Spanish at that time) banned building with wood, and imported building codes from Spain including having to have an interior courtyard with a well for defense against future fires. The back of the house faces onto the street, and the interior courtyard was the front of the house. Used for hanging laundry and hanging about. The street balconies were only added on after sanitation improved beyond chucking it out the window. The courtyards were sort of open air extensions of the very open house, with lots of big shutters front and back to provide airflow and storm protection. Thats my summary anyway. There are whole books on the subject if you want more precise details. It is all beautiful, and I loved seeing it. There are other styles, from later on, but I loved seeing the glimpses of the courtyards. I also loved the idea of sitting on your balcony with a drink watching the world go by. It was too cold for this when we were there.
Music - they are very proud of their musical heritage. There are heaps of buskers. The first day we were there, a brass band made up of teenagers were on a street corner going for it, with about 5 brass instruments and a couple of drums at the back. They were pretty good. All the shops and restaurants play jazz music. The National Parks Service runs a Jazz preservation park there - essentially a service to encourage the music.
Food - seafood based, simple, usually stews, we ate very well, and enjoyed every bite. We even got the kids to eat some Jambalaya, because it is sort of a rice dish with shrimp and chicken and sausage.
Bourbon street - I walked down Bourbon St, including the busy end (full of clubs and pubs) that we had previously avoided, on a quiet Tuesday morning. My experience was that it stank... no matter how the pavements were washed down (and they were all sprayed, every morning) the smell of stale beer and worse lingered. It just didn't seem like a nice place.
Alcohol - New Orleans has an open carry licence, so you can purchase alcohol then walk around drinking, or purchase a drink then stand around on the street drinking, so there seemed to be a lot of random drinking, from around lunch time onwards. I wondered at the point, given a lot of places had a 'no outside drinks' rule. It looked like a lot of people were just doing it because they could.
Homeless - Maybe because we're out in the 'burbs here at home, and maybe because of the tourist activity, I'm not sure, but there were a lot of homeless congregating on the streets of the French Quarter.
Beads - I don't get the beads. I think they are some sort of party favour,thrown from Mardi Gras floats, but they are generally very cheap, imported from china, and worn by tourists whatever the time of year? They are strung on balconies or trees or bits of ironwork.
Hurricane Katrina - most locals have a story to tell, or an opinion to voice. It felt like a semi-oppressive elephant in the room actually. Because although life goes on, you can still see the occasional boarded up house, and it was all such a big shake up of the city. One big change was the skyrocketing cost of real estate in the French Quarter (which didn't flood), which means it is now being (or has been?) gentrified or turned into B&B's.
