Things to do
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French Quarter
Laid out in 1718 and rebuilt in brick and stucco after two fires under Spanish rule, the oldest quarter of the city is Spanish in its architecture despite the name. Cast-iron galleries were hung on the facades later. Bourbon Street is loud and late; Royal Street, one block over, holds the antique dealers and the quiet courtyards, and is the better walk by morning.
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Garden District
American newcomers built uptown after the Louisiana Purchase, keeping their distance from the Creole quarter downriver, and the result is a grid of Greek Revival and Italianate houses standing in deep gardens. The St Charles streetcar, running since the eighteen thirties, reaches it from Canal Street in about twenty minutes. Magazine Street carries the shops, and Lafayette Cemetery, walled in the middle of the district, has spent long spells closed for restoration.
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Jackson Square
Once the parade ground of the French colony, the square was renamed for Andrew Jackson after the battle downriver, and his statue rears at its centre. Facing away from the water stand the cathedral, the Cabildo and the Presbytère, with the red-brick Pontalba terraces closing the flanks. Painters hang canvases on the railings, and brass bands set up at the river steps by late morning.
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National WWII Museum
Higgins Industries built the plywood landing craft that put troops on the beaches, and built them here, which is why the national museum of the war sits in a warehouse district in Louisiana. Several pavilions now cover both theatres, with aircraft hung overhead and oral histories throughout. Half a day is the honest minimum, and the museum is busiest in the middle of the day.
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St. Louis Cathedral
Three slate spires over Jackson Square mark the seat of the archdiocese, a church on this site since the French founded the city and largely remade in the middle of the nineteenth century. Inside, painted ceilings and a mural of Saint Louis above the altar. Entry is free and takes minutes. Behind, a floodlit statue in the garden throws its shadow across the rear wall after dark.