All that Jazz

The highlight of the day for me was sitting in The Spotted Cat Music Club, catnip* in hand, listening to Macumba playing Brasilian jazz with rhythm and passion on clarinet, bass and piano accordion. I was in my happy place.

It capped off a morning of rambling through the picturesque streets of pastel-painted French style houses, shaded by oaks, palms and wrought-iron trellises. Every house was a photo op, and the camera just enhanced the azure blue background of sky.

We'd started with breakfast in the dining room adjacent to the courtyard - still a bit nippy to brave the open air, and James joined us whilst we ate, making plans over coffee and toast. We meandered our way to Jackson Square via the praline shop, the Sox shop, and the hot sauce shop.

Of course, we bumped into Ron and Deb in the Square and learned that Ron's suitcase was AWOL! And after checking out the mighty Mississippi and watching Dave and Robyn's paddleboat sail upriver, we stopped at the French market for oysters in the half shell. They were very tasty, but we'll below Bluff raw oyster status. We'll have to check again tomorrow to see if N'awlins can do better!

Appetites whetted we ambled through the Frenchmen Street neighbourhood and found the Croissant door café selling heated Swiss cheese, ham & tomato baguettes, and very drinkable coffee. It was a good way to fill in time until the music began.

And later for dinner, we ubered with Linda across town to the Magazine Street restaurants, expecting that they wouldn't be as crowded and over-subscribed as those in the French Quarter. We were wrong. We found an outside table in the little French restaurant Lilette. The food was delicious - I had sizzling shrimps (king prawns) and roasted duck breast, which were both beautifully prepared and full of flavour. We would have liked to sample the very tempting dessert menu, but we were getting colder and colder.

It was back to the hotel to warm up and plan tomorrow's adventures.

* catnip = mango vodka, orange liquer, cranberry & pineapple juice = very yummy!!Read more