Welcome to part 3 of my New Orleans trip! Be sure to check out my travel tales in The French Quarter and Plantations & Gators.
The Garden District is a neighborhood in the city of New Orleans and it was the last leg of my trip. I took a streetcar -a 1920’s kind of train/trolley from the French Quarter to the Garden District and met my group tour guide. We kicked off the tour by visiting the famous Lafayette Cemetery. When you first enter the cemetery you notice that it is very well preserved considering it was first established in 1833 and has seen so many weather changes. A lot of the people buried at this cemetery died from yellow fever and for a time the funeral business was quite a lucrative one! Some of the wealthier underground residents had huge and fancy tombs and crypts constructed for their after life comfort while the very poor were given vaults where the entire family, sometimes generations were buried in a single vault!
Lafayette Cemetery is a very popular location for Hollywood movies and TV shows and if you are a movie buff you will probably recognize a lot of parts when you visit. Movies like “Double Jeopardy” and “Dracula” and music videos from LeAnn Rimes and New Kids on the Block were filmed there.
My next stop was walking around the Garden District and admiring all the houses in the neighborhood. Our guide entertained us with stories of different residents some celebrities included. I’m embarrassed to admit that I don’t remember who owns the respective houses in the pics below. Just that they were very beautiful. I remember especially that John Goodman’s and Sandra Bullock’s homes were spectacular. We also saw Nicholas Cage’s house and the Manning brothers’ parents’ home. Brad Pitt and Angelina’s house is also in the Garden District but we didn’t get a chance to walk by their house.
Finally, our tour ended at noon and I was starving. We conveniently ended the tour near a restaurant called Commander’s Palace and our guide encouraged us to definitely try the weekend jazz brunch. So I did! Let me just say that I have never had such a wonderful dining experience. Sure, I’ve gone to plenty of restaurants where the food is delicious but a divine dining experience is when the food and service are exceptional and that was Commander’s Palace. I even got my “doggie bag” in a duck!
The frosting on the cake or in my case the delectable bread pudding soufflé with whiskey sauce was the trio of jazz performers who went table to table and played some of the guests’ favorite songs and some of their own. It was my friend’s birthday so obviously Happy Birthday was one of them! I would definitely recommend treating yourself to a jazz brunch if you are in the area.
So when are you planning your Nola trip ?
Mouthful Of Life 
