While in the French quarter I visited several buildings. The cathedral is the most imposing as it can be seen from far away and it stands in front of a lovely park.
Right next to it is a musuem called the Cabildo…it is located in a 200 year old house and holds an ecclectic collection of artefact relating the history of the area starting with the indigenous people, through Napoleon times, the slave trade, the civil war and modern times with the coffee trade.
Two other historic houses are open to the public: the Hermann Grima house and the Gallier house. The Hermann Grima was built in 1831. It is what is known as a Federal mansion. It has the only horse stable in the area. Inside you can see several fully furnished rooms. Outside, the buildings surround a courtyard planted with fruit trees. We got to visit the slaves quarters (which were nicer than the ones on plantations we were told…) as well as several rooms dedicated to food storage and preparation (always fascinating to me).
The Gallier house is younger, having been built in 1857. The decor is more victorian and ornate…I preferred the Hermann Grima.
This one was in summer dress, which means that the carpets had been replaced by straw mats, all the furniture covered in white cotton and the chandeliers and paintings on the walls had also been wrapped in muslin to protect them from insects.
I liked the inner courtyards in both homes, but it is disturbing to be reminded of the salves who lived there, even if they try to gloss it over… We did learn a lot about the lifestyles of those days.
I visited other museums, one of them dedicated to Katrina… learning about the geography and geology, and meteorology is interesting but what remains in my memory are photos of the destruction…