Lagniappe 10, Bernadette, student 5

Bernadette has so much she would like to share with everyone.  Do take a moment to look at her photos and read her commentaries.

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Snapshots from New Orleans and Louisiana

We probably have seen more or less the same things, but not the same way, not with the same eyes… I was, of course, fascinated by the The French Quarter, “Le Vieux Carré”, with its beautiful lacy iron balconies and creole cottages. But I was struck by the weird mixture of old and new, of past and present in New Orleans.

On the traditional side : Preservation Hall

Half of the group standing in line waiting to be admitted in this famous “Jazz Temple” for the 8  o’clock concert, while the other starving half went searching for sandwiches and got some very hot “hotdogs” !

But New Orleans is also the Mississippi, the muddy and mighty Mississippi, “Father of Waters” and the famous “Old Man River”. It’s a kind of mythical river that we could watch from “The Moon Walk”, a few minutes away from the French Market. The Mississippi with its Twin Bridges and its paddlewheel-from-another-time riverboats.

The question is : how does this impressive paddlewheel work?

The answer is here, in the boat’s belly !  But if you need more explanations, please ask Pierre Brun.

If technology is not your cup of tea, maybe you can meditate upon this interesting example of “trilingualism and French à la Louisianaise”, picked up somewhere on the Natchez.

I was also fascinated by the gorgeous plantation houses located along the Mississippi, from New Orleans to Baton Rouge. Oak Alley Plantation is beyond all I could dream of when I was trying to imagine Ashley's “Twelve Oaks” in  "Gone With The Wind".

But what can be seen from the far end of this magnificent oak alley, leading to the levee of the Mississippi flowing behind it?  A boat, making its way towards Baton Rouge...

The group, on the same levee, but a bit further north, next to Nottaway Plantation, before our last dinner in Louisiana…

There were many other dream-like places : City Park, Jungle Gardens, Atchafalaya Basin which are worth keeping in mind, but how could I do without talking about the people, these friendly and picturesque people, who showed us how to “laisser les bons temps rouler”, “ne pas lâcher la patate” and gave our week in Louisiana this colourful and unforgettable print of Cajun culture:

This student in microbiology at LSU (Louisiana State University) was going to play in the evening concert at LSU Rural Life Museum. He asked us where we were from and he couldn’t believe the group was from Grenoble…Strange coincidence, he said he was going to spend 3 months next summer at Joseph Fourier !... 
Maybe we’ll meet him somewhere....

And we won't forget the smile of Bobby, our coach driver, who always gave a hand to ladies stepping out of the coach and did it so kindly that some of the ladies were inclined to get on again so as to be able to get off the bus a second time…

All that is :

 Bernadette
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-snapshot =   
1) an informal photograph that is taken quickly
2) Here, it is a quick view or a small amount of information that tells you a little about what someone or something is like. 
-weird = strange