Ted's Excellent Pictures Taken In New Orleans March 2008

Ted's Excellent Pictures Taken In New Orleans
March 2008

Jackson Square, at the heart of the French Quarter

St. Louis Cathedral (ca. 1794)

Inside St. Louis Cathedral

On the horse: Andrew Jackson, commander of the American forces at the Battle of New Orleans
(final major battle of the War of 1812)

AJ was later the seventh US president : his face is on the 20 dollar bill ... for now
Variously described as "frontiersman, soldier, democrat, man of the people"
but also "slaveholder, land speculator, executioner of dissident soldiers, exterminator of Indians"

Louisiana (named after French King Louis XIV "The Sun King") flip-flopped between French and Spanish control until the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.
Although Louisiana remained under Spanish control almost until the end, they had actually signed a treaty giving it back to France in 1800.
The treaty was kept secret but America found out about it and was not pleased, especially since Spain occasionally blocked access
to the port of New Orleans - this was the impetus to negotiate the purchase: control of New Orleans.

The Louisiana Purchase encompassed not just Louisiana but all or part of 14 current US states
and parts of what is now Alberta and Saskatchewan, doubling the size of the US at the time. The price: 78 million francs or 15 million dollars.

Actually, what the US acquired was the territory claimed by France; it took another century of wars or buy-outs with Native American tribes to take ownership.

Upon completion of the agreement with Thomas Jefferson, Napoleon Bonaparte stated:
"This accession of territory affirms forever the power of the United States, and I have given England a maritime rival who sooner or later will humble her pride."

Artists at work, Chartres Street

Madison Street

Ready for a party

Residence on Esplanade Avenue
A balcony in New Orleans is called a Gallery (pronounced gal-ree)

Residence on Bourbon Street (the quiet end of Bourbon St)

Rue Dumain Guesthouse, Dumaine Street

Galleries on Royal Street

Off Bourbon Street (all functioning gas lamps)

This sums up the tourists in this part of Bourbon Street perfectly:
Huge Ass, Beer To Go!

These young cats (and their adult mentors) were belting out a terrific jazzy version of Fats Domino's "I'm Walking"

St. Charles Ave streetcar - "the oldest continuously operating street railway system in the world"
(they conveniently don't count the 15 month outage after Katrina)