Jean Lafitte

You don’t need to believe in ghosts to understand why New Orleans feels different after dark. Spend an afternoon walking through the French Quarter and it can be bright, colorful and loud. Music spills from open doors. Tour groups move down the sidewalks. Balconies hang overhead. Courtyards appear unexpectedly behind iron gates. Then the sun…

There really isn’t a bad time to visit New Orleans, but October makes a pretty strong argument for being one of the best. The worst of the summer heat is usually behind us. Festival season is rolling. Football is back. Halloween decorations start appearing on balconies and porches. Costumes become increasingly normal as the month…

There are cities that celebrate Halloween. And then there’s New Orleans. October is one of our favorite times of the year in the French Quarter. The summer heat finally starts giving us a break, festivals fill the calendar, costumes begin appearing on the streets and the entire city seems to get a little stranger as…

New Orleans today is celebrated for its music, food, and vibrant streets—but life in early 1800s New Orleans was anything but glamorous. This was a city shaped by mud, disease, faith, crime, and opportunity. It was loud, dangerous, deeply multicultural, and constantly on the edge of collapse or greatness. To understand New Orleans,…