New Orleans air is still redolent of flowers and spicy food, but still, there is some subtle something missing. The Lake Pontchartrain causeway, the longest bridge in the US to go completely over water, carries reminders of Katrina and the height of the flood waters.
The Writers of New Orleans
New Orleans was a city made for writers, and many writers claimed a connection to the Big Easy.
- Tennessee Williams, although from Mississippi, moved to New Orleans in 1939 and set one of his greatest plays, "Streetcar Named Desire" in the French Quarter of New Orleans during the restless years following World War Two. A bus named Desire still carries passengers around the streets of New Orleans.
- Lillian Hellman was born in New Orleans and spent part of her childhood there. Her book "The Little Foxes" may well have been influenced by her memories of New Orleans. Elmore Leonard was born in New Orleans.
- Anne Rice was born and lived in New Orleans. Her vampire novels have a New Orleans setting and much of the movie, "Interview With the Vampire" was filmed in New Orleans.
New Orleans, Weaving Romance and History
New Orleans was a great setting for romance. Passion drifted on the river and hid in obscure cul-de-sacs, awaiting hapless lovers. Love was in the music, the soft air, the breezes that rippled the leaves of the live oaks and carried the sweet scent of magnolias.
History, too, lived in New Orleans, lurking in magnificent old houses that still recalled the days of their youth. It lingered in overgrown gardens, on the Mississippi and in winding river roads.
Paranormal New Orleans
Amidst the romance and history of New Orleans, another side, the haunted side, flourishes.
- Many old buildings boasted a ghost or two, including Lalaurie mansion, New Orleans Most haunted House.
- Voodoo flourished in the shops, and some tours offered a visit to an actual Voodoo ceremony. New Orleans was the home of Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen.
- For the ultimate in chills, you could take a cemetery tour at midnight. Because New Orleans is below sea level, all burials were in vaults above ground. Marie Laveau is said to be buried in a mausoleum in Saint Louis Cemetery #1.
Some of the old houses may have survived. The magnolias will probably flower again, and more ghosts than before now walk the streets. But New Orleans will never be the same, not for those who once had friends there, people they walked the streets with hand in hand, floated on the Mississippi with and toured the swamps.
New Orleans may be rebuilt, but they can never rebuild the atmosphere, the aura that surrounded the magical city of Louis Armstrong and jazz, of spicy food and beignets, of street artists and romance.
Laissez les bon temps roulez - Let the good times roll. It's going to be some time before those good times roll again in New Orleans, and even then, it will never be the same. Many will never go back. They want to remember it as they knew it: a city made for romance and for writers.
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