Offbeat New Orleans

Cemeteries

It may sound odd, but the old cemeteries in and around New Orleans, where tombs have to be built above the boggy ground to keep the remains of loved ones from drifting away, are fascinating places to visit. Those near the French Quarter (St. Louis No. 2 and St. Roch, for example) aren't safe to visit alone, however; it's best to go on a tour or with a large group. Lake Lawn Metairie Cemetery (5100 Pontchartrain Blvd. 504/486-6331), on the other hand, is safe to tour; the office even offers audio guides to help motorists find their way around the stately cemetery, the final resting place of luminaries like Al Hirt, Louis Prima, and Civil War general P. G. T. Beauregard. Guided tours are available by appointment. One note: because it's a very busy cemetery, officials prefer that people visit between 8:30 and 10:30 am or after 3:30 pm, when there's less chance of disrupting a funeral in progress.

Snoballs

Generations of New Orleanians who grew up in the days before air-conditioning developed a method for coping with stifling summers: the snoball, shaved ice served in a cup or Chinese take-out container and topped with everything from simple syrup to fat-laden condensed milk. Hansen's Sno-Blitz Sweet Shop (4801 Tchoupitoulas St. 504/891-9788 May-Aug.) has been dishing them out since 1934; another stalwart is Plum Street Snowball at 1300 Burdette Street (504/866-7996 Mar.-Oct.). For visitors, the fun lies less in the actual product (although a snoball can be pretty darn refreshing on a hot summer day) than in being part of a local ritual.

Weird Museums

Home to a small but interesting collection of art and artifacts related to voodoo history and practice in the city, the New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum (724 Dumaine St. 504/680-0128) offers insight into a spiritual tradition that persists to this day. It's worth a visit if only for the handcrafted voodoo dolls and gris-gris (magic talisman) bags sold in the small shop.

Louis Dufilho, America's first licensed pharmacist, operated an apothecary, La Pharmacie Francaise, in this 1823 town home. Today it holds the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum (514 Chartres St. 504/565-8027), an interesting collection of ancient medicine bottles, a huge leech jar, eyeglasses, and some truly unsettling surgical instruments. The house and spacious courtyard alone are worth the price of admission.

Tiny Abita Springs, north of Lake Pontchartrain, is notable for three things: artesian spring water, Abita Beer, and an oddball institution, the U. C. M. Museum (22275 Hwy. 36, at Grover St., Abita Springs 985/892-2624). Artist John Preble's strange vision—sort of a Louisiana version of Watts Towers—is an obsessive collection of found objects (combs, old musical instruments, paint-by-number art, and taxidermy experiments gone horribly awry) set in a series of ramshackle buildings, including one covered in broken tiles. Truly odd and entertaining, but not for the clutter-phobic.