Started the day getting picked up to do a city tour..It went for 3 hours and we went everywhere...we drove around the French Quarter first checking out all the houses..So many Gunshot houses..originally built because you paid taxes on the width of your property, so they built them 1 room wide with no hallway..just doors and you walked through each room to get to the next..quite cute they are..so they have singles and double shotguns and some times triples.
from there we went to Ward 9 which was one of the hard hit areas from Cyclone Katrina ..we visited the Musicians Row..where Brad Pitt & Harry Connick jnr have rebuilt homes and they were to encourage musicians to return to the city.(.After a previous Cyclone a lot of the Muso's left the city and didnt return) They pay a nominal amount for the house but have to promise to work on other projects for 500 hours...like the Pay it forward program...about 80% of the homes are occupied by muso's and the rest are just people who needed homes..We saw the Levee banks that broke and also the pumping stations, we saw homes with holes in the roof where the residents had moved to the attic when the flood hit then they had to chop their way out through the roof with an axe so they didnt drown or die from the heat.
We visted the City park and their sculptures and we visited the UP Cemetery...Some of the tombs are just amazing..I think I might build one for us...They get very extravigant and quite flash... We came home via millionaire row...St Charles Ave..where the Mardi Gra floats go and the trees are covered in coloured beads .. We saw the homes of John Goodman and Anne Rice and Sandra Bullock..Woo Hoo..
After the tour it started to rain so we got dropped off at the "Two Sisters " restaurant where they have a midday buffet of local fare...Huge pig out !! Tried the Grits again but still did not much for me..
The rain continued so I decided to leave Jo and go back to the Hotel...about 12 blocks away, wearing my trusty tourist orange poncho...waterproof !!! no sooner than I left the weather turned cyclonic , the Balconies in the french quarter provided very little protection, the downpipes had hols in them and squirted directly onto you as you passed and water was coming up through the little metal plates on the footpath...the wind blew the roads flooded and signs were blowing over...a roof on Canal Street collapsed..I ended up in barefeet...I honestly thought HK2 was here (Hurricaine Katrina 2nd) Managed to get home though only got half wet..it went on for 2 hours...
when the rain stopped I met up with jo and we went for a walk collected some last minute souveneirs and on the way home we came across a movie set being set up, just 2 blocks from our Hotel..we were very excited..turns out its the movie "2 Guns" starring Denzel Washington and Marky Mark Wahlberg...EXCITING ! Anyway we cruised around took some photos and just did a general sticky beak... I ended up talking to a local dude and got him to pose for a photo so I could pretend he was Denzels Stunt guy...just so I could earn some more star spotting points with my friends..hahaha..thats a movie I will have to see..Apparently they are filming the opening scenes..may end up on the cutting room floor..
There are currently 5 movies being filmed here at the moment..Brad Pitt is also in town filming but had zero luck finding him, but we did see Benjamin Buttons house !!
Off to Natchez tomorrow..