Around Louisiana with Penelope

Ales and Amelia kindly lent us her car, named Penelope, to go on a little road trip to Louisiana for a few days. We stopped for a night in Lafayette, where we stayed in a cool little hostel called "The Blue Moon". The fact it was a Monday night and the town was pretty dead (to say the least) might have played a part in it, but, although the people are friendly, we were rather unimpressed by this little city described by our guidebook as "a place that is likely to entice you to stay longer", so we decided to leave town immediately after breakfast and continue to New Orleans.

The French Quarter, lined with beautiful colonial houses (French and Spanish style) and other historical districts like the Garden District with its Victorian architecture have either been largely unaffected, or have entirely recovered from, the devastating hurricane Katrina which hit the area in 2005. Some other neighborhoods, like East New Orleans are apparently still in ruins (we decided not to visit these parts). We spent two pleasant days in the so-called "Big Easy", tried the traditional Louisiana Gumbo stew and pastry (beignets). Of course we didn't leave before seeing some live music in one of the many bars, where we caught a truly authentic atmosphere including an elderly black person enthusiastically "playing" his broomstick along to the ethnically diversified blues band.