New Orleans, LA - Cage, Bullock and the Destitute Orphans

So far, we’ve spent most of our time in the French Quarter but today, we’re heading over to the Garden district where some of the older more opulent homes are. It’s a walking tour around an area of about 16 square blocks. But, ooh, the area might be small but the architecture is beautiful. We were able to park on the street in the area and begin our walking tour with this beautiful home. The paperwork we had says that Nicolas Cage lives here, having bought the home from Anne Rice.

Here’s the top of Sandra Bullock’s home. Note how sections of it are set back so that the sun can hit all the rooms. If I were Sandra Bullock, I’d plant tall bushy bushes inside my wrought iron fence too. Keep those nosy photographers from taking pictures.

I liked the cornstalk fence around this home. The husband bought this fence for his wife when she became homesick for her native Iowa. Actually, the wrought iron fence was cast in a foundry in Philadelphia - must have cost a pretty penny to ship it all here.

How would you like to stand on this ladder to paint on the second story? This house was being refurbished and it really needed some tender loving care. Most of the homes in this area are in great shape but a few show the need for extensive repairs.

At one point is a line of 8 homes that are quite a bit alike - since a father built them for his 7 daughters because he wanted them to stay close to each other. All one story, shotgun homes with a side hallway.

Also on the walking route was one of the many cemeteries in New Orleans, the Lafayette. The cemeteries in New Orleans are especially intriguing since they have an abundance of tombs, statuary and other decoration. The first French settlers buried their dead below ground but this soon looked like a bad idea. Every time the city was flooded, coffins and bodies appeared. Thus, they adopted the practice of Europe and began to bury their dead above ground in crypts. And, hey, not only would they not be flooded out but crypts could be used over and over and over. Whole families could be buried in one crypt. Since Anne Rice has lived in several of the homes in this area, she has chosen this cemetery as the setting for some of her book openings. Even some films have been done here. I heard a guide say that a few scenes of Easy Rider were filmed here but actually, they were filmed in a cemetery closer to the French Quarter.

Here’s a memorial for the Society for the relief of Destitute Orphan Boys. There were lots of pennies and other tokens on the ledge.

Nice walk and many others were taking it along with us.