"Y'all ain't seen NOLA 'less you've seen it with Melanie!"
Melanie Boulet's tour was truly the highlight of our visit to New Orleans. A history teacher for nearly three decades, not to mention a Louisiana native of Cajun roots, Melanie lives and breathes the story of her state's rich past. As she walked us around the French Quarter, the historic brick and mortar came to life with stories of the French, British, and American ... from farmers to shrimpers, statesmen to pirates, Acadian (Cajun) refugees to sea captains ... every glorious stripe of humanity that came together in this beautiful bayou melting-pot state to make it the Jewel of the South.
We learned why the Mississippi flows "backwards" along the shore of the Crescent City, where to snag the best beignets, why Andrew Jackson (the statue in Jackson Square) is tipping his hat to a mysterious window above him, why our Nation owes its very existence to a French pirate, why every street in the French Quarter is labeled with a name that no one uses (or even remembers) ... and on and on ...
The tour ended WAY TOO SOON! After two hours enraptured by Melanie's living history lesson, delivered with the passion of a bubbling stream in spring, it felt like just a few minutes had elapsed. Our gracious and courteous guide then proceeded to vanish into a side street, with a smile and quick apology for running a couple of minutes overtime with the tour, leaving us standing in front of two of the best lunch spots in town from which to choose. But we weren't even thinking about food, what with our minds still caught up in the whirlwind of time and tide that make up this amazing old city.
Whatever else you do during your time in New Orleans, these are THE. BEST. TWO. HOURS. you will ever spend. Do NOT miss it!