French Quarter

Prowl the French Market's seven buildings from the Bazaar and the Red Stores to the Flea Market for souvenir bargains in local products, tee-shirts, jewelry, masks, and assorted oddities.

Window shop along Royal, Chartres, Bourbon, and the narrow French Quarter streets for the beautiful to the bizarre: eccentric wares, strange cards, posters, clothes, voodoo potions, jewelry, and costumes.

Stroll around Jackson Square and look over the artists shoulders as they sketch and paint; enjoy the street musicians and dancers, and mock the mimes. At the Cafe du Monde, $2.50 buys cafe au lait, beignets, and a window onto the heart of the Vieux Carre with its thronging crowds.

Where Bourbon Street and St. Phillip Street meet is one of the oldest buildings in the French Quarter. Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop.

See the Spanish-inspired architecture of St. Louis Cathedral free. (Many concerts there are also free.)

Former Faulkner residence, Faulkner House Books at 624 Pirate's Alley offers a stunning selection of browseable books.

The Pharmacy Museum houses a 19th-century apothecary shop at 514 Chartres.
For just $5 a pop, learn how the French and Spanish arrived and the Creoles lived.
The Louisiana State Museum maintains five French Quarter Sites:
The Presbytere
Cabildo
Madame John's Legacy,
the 1850s House, and the U.S. Mint.
Other Historic sites and museums, like Hermann Grima, Beauregard-Keyes, Gallier House, and the Old Ursuline Convent 419 Decatur.

French Quarter, Jackson Square