Roadtrip: New Orleans French Quarter daytime walkabout

Cobblestone street with historic buildings, ornate balconies, hanging plants, and pedestrians at dusk

Roadtrip: New Orleans French Quarter daytime walkabout

For most tourists, the French Quarter is best experienced at night, when it truly “comes alive.” Daytime brings a different kind of activity and reveals another perspective. In the sunlight, the old lady shows her age; the makeup is gone, exposing age spots and blemishes that add to her charm. As the locals say, “That old horse been rode hard and put up wet.”

Getting there…

“The House That Katrina Built” by Sally Heller, inspired by Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. It is made from debris left by the storm.

“Five Indulgences” by Jill Moser, plus a cone

Tourists’ entrance to the French Quarter…

New Orleans is famous for its museums, from very large ones like the WWII Museum to smaller ones like the Civil War Museum.

This has to be the smallest…

A Cafe Museum

It really is a pop-up museum, albeit very small, about the pre-Civil War **Free People of Color** community/ social class.

Setting up shop and getting ready to open…

Backstory:

This is a structural anchor plate (also called a tie-rod plate or a pattress plate). They adorn many buildings in New Orleans, but are not decorative. They’re part of a hidden system that literally helps hold old buildings together.

A long metal rod runs through the building from that exterior plate to the interior framing.
The plate spreads the load across the brick so the bolt doesn’t pull through.
Tightening the rod pulls the wall inward, preventing it from bowing or collapsing

Headed into a hidden patio for lunch…

Traditional N.O. lunch: red beans and rice, with a locally made Andouille sausage and garlic toast. SUPERB.

Patio wall. I was drawn to the aged brick.

It isn’t the French Quarter if there are no skeletons.

There was this chicken. “Go pose beside the chicken,” says I…

BUT WAIT, is it really a chicken??????

Down the street, there is an old building boarded up, with closed signs adorning it.

The view through the dirty window was interesting…

Another old building, this one blocked off.

ALL trips to the French Quarter must include Mardi Gras masks…

This post pairs with my previous post: New Orleans French Quarter signs.

April 26, 2026, from an April 9 visit.

Thanks for visiting!

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