I've been to quite a few places in America but no city compares to New Orleans. The moment you step off the plane you feel as though you might be on a Caribbean island, an extra in a movie caught somewhere between A Streetcar Named Desire and the Wide Sargasso Sea. The French and Spanish
infuences further add to your sense of inhabiting some world within a world.
 
The French Quarter only makes up a small part of the city that spreads into
the Garden District, Mid-City, the impoverished projects and sprawls into
mall studded highways beyond pretty, pastel-shaded plantation-style
suburbia.
 
Flat as a crepe, a great way to get around the city is by bicycle, but the
pavements regularly lose the battle against the virulent vegetation and
crumble around gnarling roots and triumphant vines. The buildings and plants
vie for space and grow around one another. The old verandah fronted homes in
and around the French Quarter are wonderful to cycle past. People wave to
you from their porches and music comes out of every open window and through every screen door.
 
The people of New Orleans are friendly and fun loving, the whole year they
work towards Mardi Gras. They all seem to have whole rooms dedicated to
fancy dress for the almost month long celebration and they spare no expense
or ceremony making it the most exciting party in the world. Every community
has some involvement in Mardi Gras.

It's the one place in America that seems proud of its cultural heritage and has held on firmly to those principles and qualities of the old world that are rare and precious in modern day USA.