A Walk to the French Quarter

We walked halfway to the French Quarter down live oak shaded St. Charles Avenue last Monday around lunchtime, snagged a sandwich at a local po-boy (sub) shop, then hopped the classic street car the rest of the way. We walked past and into the beautiful antique shops of Royal St., and looked for great restaurants we'd like to come back to some night, like Susan Spicer's critically acclaimed Bayona tucked away on Rue Dauphine.

We were initially hampered from crossing Canal St. by a cadre of security personnel clad in black due to the filming of action movie 12 Rounds, which is not an unusual as there are currently five movies in production in town including one with Salma Hayek and another one with Forrest Whitaker...and upcoming in June a Jim Carrey movie with Ewan McGregor.

Shopping for a home in NOLA seems complex right now...for those areas most affected by Katrina, there are entire neighborhoods with very few occupants, and yet many of the others seem to be well into the process of repopulating...the parts of town that were less affected have recovered almost completely and, strangely enough, seem to be in better repair than we previously recall. It's as if the rebuilding seems to actually be improving the city to a large degree, and we have come to the conclusion that rumors of NOLA's cataclysmic demise are fading...