New Orleans

Day 1 · ~0.7 km

1. 

   1

   Pirate's Alley

   A flagstone cut beside the cathedral, with the house where Faulkner finished his first novel at the end

   Morning · 20 min

   Walk it from the square end towards Royal, early, before the tour groups fill it, and look up at the galleries on both sides.

2. 

   2

   St. Louis Cathedral

   Three churches have stood here; the one you walk into is the 1850s rebuilding, not the Spanish one

   Midday · 30 min

   Go in and look up at the ceiling paintings, then come out and cross to the far side of the square to see what the three towers do to the skyline.

3. 

   3

   The Presbytère

   Built as a priests house and never used as one, it now holds the Carnival and Katrina collections

   Midday · 90 min

   The building gives you the hurricanes first, on the ground floor, and Carnival upstairs. Take them in that order and let the first one sit under the second.

4. 

   4

   Jackson Square

   The parade ground the city was laid out around, and where the whole plan is still legible

   Morning · 45 min

   Stand at the river end with your back to the water: church in the middle, the Cabildo on one side, the Presbytere on the other, and the fourth side left open. The two flanking buildings came seventy years after the plan, but they hold the shape it set.

5. 

   5

   Pontalba Buildings

   Row blocks flanking the square, built by a baroness whose father-in-law shot her four times and then killed himself

   Any time · 30 min

   Walk both blocks and look up at the cast-iron galleries, then look for the initials worked into the ironwork.

6. 

   6

   Washington Artillery Park and the Moonwalk

   The steps that put the cathedral over your shoulder and the river at your feet

   Any time · 30 min

   Climb the steps for the square and the cathedral in one frame, then drop down the far side onto the boardwalk and walk it upriver with the working river beside you.

7. 

   7

   Café du Monde

   Chicory coffee and beignets on the same corner of the market since 1862

   Morning · 30 min

   Order at the table under the awning rather than the takeaway window, and let the coffee cut the sugar.

8. 

   8

   French Market

   A market on this ground since the Choctaw traded here, though the shed you walk through is largely 1930s

   Midday · 45 min

   Start at the upriver end where the produce and food stalls are and walk downriver until the stalls turn to souvenirs, which is where most people should turn around.