Clare's culinary tour

So that St Patrick's Day didn't end up with Rich and Clare in bed drunk by 3pm we dressed up in green, but then started on Clare's culinary tour of the city - read: Clare dragging Rich around to wait in queues to try various local snacks...

It started at Cafe de Monde with some coffee and beignets.

Then we got the street car up to Cemetries - the reverse of Stella's journey (although it was again not called Desire). Unfortunately, because we are wearing green and Clare knows where we are going people seem to think they can follow us to the parade and get off when we get off.  They missed their stop about 10 minutes ago...

Now for some sun cream and sculptures (culture before green beer...).

It is crazy in New Orleans and they seem to use any excuse - not just Mardi Gras - for a party and parades. We have seen signs for saints' days for obscure saints that we've never heard of - but in Nola they'll throw a parade anyway. Given that everyone's heard of St Paddy's, there's barely a person in town not wearing some green clothing at a minimum. We are missing the ubiquitous green beads (think: Christmas decorations) that everyone is wearing around their necks. Note : by the end of the night Clare had numerous...

Apparently strictly only for Mardi Gras, the beads appear to have been co-opted for every celebration.

Next up its finally time for the Nola special that Clare's been waiting for - the "Po'boy". What's one of those? Well here's the locals' explanation:

We headed out to the famous Parkway Bakery to get our Po'boys - thanks Sam and Helen!

They were delicious and needless to say Clare was very excited by her new-found culinary delights!

We then headed back to Bourbon Street for the St Patrick's day shenanigans and parade. It's one of the few places in the States where you can drink on the streets and everyone gets their drinks "to go" before spilling out on the streets to consume things with names like hurricane and hand grenade. Thanks Ollie!

Bourbon Street and everywhere nearby basically resembles every "Spring Break" scene you've ever seen in a film or imagined. It is too crazy to properly (or morally) capture in photographs. As you can see almost everyone is decked out in green...apart from the street performers, who were as lethargic as last time!

The parade "started" at 6pm and so from about 5.45pm all the tourists started lining up at the side of the road...but what no one told them (or us!) is that 6pm on New Orleans relaxed time means around 8pm ish...if they feel like it. The pace of life here is so relaxed and has a very Caribbean feel to it, it's a wonder they get anything done. Ask a street car attendant when the next street car is coming and you're met with a look of blank confusion...how could anyone possibly know when it's coming...and why would anyone care?!?

When the parade finally did show up we had met a few nice American couples to drink with and were then treated to a spectacular tropical thunder and lightning storm. It didn't stop us seeing the parade but I can't believe the performers were having much fun!

After dinner we went to check out the famous Preservation Hall live music venue. 

The music was fantastic and the venue is so small that everyone is right in front of the band and this was without a doubt the most polished performances we've seen. The set includes renditions of Swing Low and The Saints...we're hoping this is a good omen for Saturday!

We also came across this place on our way home. We didn't go in but I hear they have an interesting basement bar...