Interview with a Vampire

We are here in October and Halloween week  is coming into full swing, with lots of houses festooned with ghouls, skeletons and witches, mardi gras beads and Voodoo paraphernalia. Steam punk outfits fill the clothing shop windows . Drag queens and street performers put on their finery and poodles wearing shoes (yes, shoes!) parade around the streets of the French Quarter.

We join the Halloween theme with tours of some of the cemeteries. St. Louis No. 1 is where Marie Laveau, the mother of Voodoo, is reputed to be buried. Marie started her professional life as a hairdresser, so got to know everyone’s business though gossip in the salon, and turned this ‘secret’ knowledge to her advantage when launching a new career as a Voodoo priestess!

The tombs are traditionally built above ground, partly to prevent the bodies floating away during floods, as the whole district is built on an ex plantation swamp.  It gets so hot inside the tombs that the bodies dry to bones, and after a year and a day (Catholic tradition) the bones can be bagged and drop into the bottom section of the tomb. In this way, one tomb can house many members of the same family, a big saving I suppose!

Scenes from the film Double Jeopardy flashed through my mind whilst walking among the head-high tombs and seeing the trinkets and flowers on the stone slabs – glass Mardi gras beads instead of Jewish-style stones on top of the tombs. The festival nature of this place reflected in a glittering gold stiletto shoe, and plastic flowers (tacky but practical as fresh vegetation would wilt in a matter of minutes in the blazing summer sun).

I buy some herbal soap and a mini Voodoo doll (for healing purposes, of course!) at Voodoo Authentica. Of course, Voodoo isn’t all about sticking pins in people, but more the art of healing of the self and others through meditative thought and concentration on the positive (like most other psychotherapeutic or healing techniques, harnessing the link between mind and body for health!).

Walking around the older area of the Marigny, we see  Spanish, French and British influences in architecture, and many of the ‘shotgun’ and ‘Creole cabin’ houses (doors both sides of the house which can be opened to allow a cooling breeze through in the hot sticky summers).

In the Garden District, the houses are on a grand scale, and we walk past houses belonging to Sandra Bullock, Dan Goodman and Nicholas Cage. It was here that the film ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ was filmed, and everyone we meet has nothing but praise for Brad Pitt and his investment in the ‘Make it Right’ housing project following Hurricane Katrina and the destruction of the Ninth ward. 

Gone with the wind

Our visit to the plantation houses was a welcome quiet contrast to the loud party atmosphere of the city.

Oak Alley is the plantation house you see in all the old films, and has the famous driveway framed by arches of oak trees, dripping with lichens and tree moss. The costumed guide brought the house to life, with an entertaining tour.

Many of the buildings on the Laura plantation are still surviving, and our guide acted out stories there to transport us to the past.

In both places, the contrast between the plantation owners’ lives and that of the slaves was starkly evident, especially after our recent visit to the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis.

Cruising up and down the Mississippi on the paddle steamer Natchez with live jazz and three decks to explore was an easy way to step back to the time of Gone With the Wind! Plenty of restaurants on board, and the ubiquitous gift shop, conveniently located next door to the ladies!

 

As we were leaving the boat, the guide says ” remember whatever the question, the answer is love”, which tickled us and we entered into a ten minute question answer session of how old am I? Answer, love etc.

Exit through the Gift shop

Although there were a few things which bugged me (the hard sell, rules rules rules and always having to exit though the gift shop!), there are many great memories of my first visit to the U.S. We experienced excellent customer service in the smaller eateries we visited, and I loved being called  ‘ma’am’ all the time! The portion control and doggy bags, for those leftover dinners were a fantastic idea, and why can’t we do flushable toilet seat covers in the UK?

Most of all, though, it was the friendliness of the Americans we met (both locals and fellow tourists) which made our visit to Nashville, Memphis and New Orleans so special, and we were made to feel very welcome everywhere we went. We can’t wait for our next visit…..see ya’ll soon!