Arriving on a sunny Monday, we stopped for lunch of Po’ Boys at the Parkway Bakery and Tavern, then walked in City Park, the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, and the Garden District. We had an excellent dinner at Commander’s Palace.

Tuesday we took a riverfront history tour led by a National Park Service guide, ate beignets at Café Du Monde, explored the French Quarter, shared half a muffaletta (quite enough for two) from the Central Grocery, explored Audubon Park and Tulane, and finished with dinner of barbecued shrimp at Pascal’s Manale.

Heavy rain stopped just in time for our Wednesday morning tour of Lafayette Cemetery; we then toured the National World War II Museum (probably our least favorite stop). We returned to the French Quarter where we visited the Mann Gallery’s exhibit of French Modern Impressionist Luc Didier’s paintings (about half of them have already sold at more than $20,000 apiece--nice that an artist can support himself!). Later we explored Fauberg Marigny, ate a delicious dinner at Elizabeth’s in Bywater, and ended the evening with a wonderful concert by Delfeayo Marsalis and his Uptown Jazz Orchestra at Snug Harbor on Frenchmen Street.

After touring the Cajun Country, we returned to Audubon Park and Tulane (Amistad Research Center and Jazz Archive) the following Monday. A woman walking her black standard poodle in the park suggested we have lunch at Tartine’s, near the Ochsner Clinic and the levee; we enjoyed the food and casual ambience very much. We’d hoped to climb atop the levee to look at the Mississippi, but the levee was closed for  what looked like replanting and renovation.