Welcome to New Orleans!

New Orleans is different from anything you've ever seen about the United States

Here they have a heavy French influence

because of the colonization

But actually it's a big mix of cultures

French, Spanish, Caribbean, African

In this video I will focus on the essence of New Orleans

The things that you have to do and see if you have little time in town, just like me

The place to go is the French Quarter. This is where everything happens,

including Carnaval, which is one of the biggest Carnival celebrations in the world

You should also consider staying in this area

New Orleans has such a rich history that it's very worth it to go for a guided tour

I signed up for a free walking tour that starts very soon, here in the main square

and while I wait I'll go for a typical breakfast

Cafe Du Monde is the most traditional coffee shop here in New Orleans

It's basically in front of the square, and it's been here since 1862

But whenever you get here people are standing in line. Today, there's like 100 people here

So as we don't have time,

we're going to option number two

The specialty here in New Orleans is a sweet, called beignet, that kind of reminds me of a churro

but with a lot of sugar

I love it!

Jackson Square has some of the oldest buildings in New Orleans. That one for example,

that's the oldest cathedral in the United States still standing. But some centuries ago,

public executions used to occur here

Today, street artists are the soul of this place

As you make your way through the streets of the French Quarter, you'll see that half of our streets

they are named after the French royal family members, the other half after Roman Catholic saints

The French government needed to populate this new colony, so they issued a forced immigration here

They emptied out the Bastille. They forced all bad people to immigrate to the city of New Orleans

And this included convicts, criminals, felons as well as prostitutes

New Orleans has two very distinct sides symbolized by two streets that are side by side

Here along Bourbon Street you see the parties, the drinking, the celebrations, carnival in general

This was actually the red light district, and just one block away it's the opposite

Along Royal Street you see the nice constructions,

elegant restaurants, shops and galleries

Exactly the opposite

We were French for the first 40 years

Then by the year 1762, the French government, they were not making any money off of us

They were involved in a war with England known as the Seven-year war so they could not afford this new colony

So King Louis XV of France, he turns towards his ally, King Charles III of Spain

and he says: "take Louisiana"

So overnight, by 1762, we're Spanish here.

But we were never really culturally Spanish within our city, so French was our spoken language

The cool thing here is to wander around, get inside the shops, see the antiques, the voodoos...

In that day of March 21st, 1788

856 buildings out of 1100 would burn down

here within our French Quarter

And in 1788 our French Quarter was our original and only portion of our city

We had not expanded into any outlying area

So that fire devastated nearly 80% of our city that day

By now you probably realized how unique the architecture here is, right?

Two other things make this city very special:

The music, of course! This is the birthplace of jazz

And also the food

So creole cuisine focuses mainly on local Gulf fish and shellfish

Cajun cuisine, pork, pork, pork, pork, pork

If you all were to take a tour of the swamps

chances are you will see wild boar in that area

So pork, poultry, wild game, and sausage

for Cajun cuisine

And the main difference between the two, Creoles they add tomato to their dishes,

Cajuns do not. Thank you very much! I just simplified everything for you all

The Ursuline nuns they were a Roman Catholic order of nuns that were brought into our city

to educate our young women

Also, the Ursuline nuns they were attributed to bringing in with them in the 1720s

what we called "Cosette girls". These were marriageable aged girls that were educated in France

They were brought into our city to marry some of our more affluent gentlemen

In the year 1803, Napoleon, he'd sell the territory of Louisiana to the United States

Louisiana back then, we were much greater in scale than the small state that we see today

the Louisiana territory encompass close to one-third of our present continental United States

Guys, live music everywhere! Not only jazz

Here they also have the oldest bar in the United States

and rumor has it it's haunted, so let's go check it out

Original!

Built between 1722-1732, this is the oldest structure used as bar in the USA

This bar here is from the 1700's

Still from those days of Spanish and French colonization

I guess we're fine, thank you

Cheers!

You can find the addresses of everywhere I've been on my blog. And also some ideas

of other nice places to visit and things to do here in New Orleans if you have some more time

Can you move, please?

_ "I'm not doing anything" _ "Yes, it's your shade there"

Baby!

Is that a real bride? How cool!

And this is not far from the New Orleans' madness