New Orleans before Katrina

The French Quarter of New Orleans - Photos: Still Gravity.
         Rainy day in New Orleans - License our images here.                

These are old 35mm memories of New Orleans before the havoc brought by Hurricane Katrina. This was the look of its colorful mix of French, Spanish, and Creole architecture in the year 2000. 

New Orleans is the city of jazz and Mardi Grass - French for "Fat Tuesday" -, a wild carnival running since 1699. Also the town with the oldest cathedral in the country, the one dedicated to Louis IX of France or Saint Louis - a king killed by disease in Tunisia during the Eight Crusade. 

We toured the old cemeteries. A walk among tombs raised from the ground to avoid parades of dead bodies through the narrow streets of the city during the frequent floods of this region. 

We took a boat in the Mississippi River to visit the Chalmette Battlefield. This was the place of the Battle of New Orleans in 1815, the last big battle of the War of 1812 where General Andrew Jackson defeated the British Army. A fight won with the help and skills of gunners of the French privateer - or pirate, if you like it better - Jean Lafitte. 

Old town with a lot of history that was heavily damaged by a big natural disaster. 

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