Till Hurricane Katrina shockingly struck New Orleans in 2005 I was not aware that most of the city and a vast surrounding area was below river and lake level. The huge Lake Pontchartrain, which acts as a natural reservoir for the complex meandering of the mighty Mississipi river, has got levees to protect the city from flooding, the same happening with a canal linking lake and river. The breaching of the canal levee was the main reason for the disaster.
In November 2008 I went to see and better understand what happened. My refurbished hotel, some six kilometers from downtown and three from the lake, was aside a big abandoned 12-floor office building. Well, I went indeed to feel the atmosphere of the just recleaned famous French Quarter, or Vieux Carré in french, which looks as something unique in the United States, for its really french creolean caracter in terms of architecture, nonchalance and art-de-vivre, particularly at night. In Rue Bourbon you just walk in the street and can perfectly listen (and dance, if in such a mood) the orchestras playing inside the bars and restaurants, as they keep the doors open. You can too have a word from the street with those partying upstairs in the iron balconies.
The old streetcars are the other inevitable icon to mention; there are two lines, the really interesting one running from downtown to St. Charles, an uptrend suburb to the west. It goes all the way through a tree-lined path in a nice avenue, with lots of late 19th century charming mansions.
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