“Don’t you just love those long afternoons in New Orleans,” Tennessee Williams wrote in A Streetcar Named Desire, “when an hour isn’t just an hour–but a little piece of eternity dropped into your hands—and who knows what to do with it?”
The pandemic certainly dealt a blow to the famed Crescent City, where the Covid-19 rates in March were among the highest in the world. The mayor and governor, alongside the citizens, worked tirelessly to mask-up and partially lockdown. Rates fell, but then a staggering eight major storms, including six hurricanes, arrived in early fall.
Despite it all, New Orleans has come out on top, and she’s now a fine destination for responsible travelers.
The city, as always, is a dream of dripping bougainvillea, soft notes on a trumpet, and the sound of ice clinking in a glass. There’s gumbo on the stove, jugglers in Jackson Square, and streetcars clanging up the avenues.
The best place to experience New Orleans is in one of her famed courtyards. It’s in these enclaves, both large and small, scented with flowering jasmine or dazzling with marquee bulbs, that the city worms her way into your soul.
They are settings both timeless and festively new, filled with seersucker suits, intoxicating gossip, historic architecture, and ice-cold absinthe, like always.