New Orleans, Louisiana

The population of New Orleans is slightly less than 500,000, but its list of famous citizens is long, and includes musicians Mahalia Jackson, Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Fats Domino, Allen Toussaint, Dr. John, and the Neville Brothers.

Every year about 10 million people visit New Orleans, which bestows its charms on those willing to accept her contradictions. Founded in 1718, it has never completely abandoned its affection for Old World style and is deeply infused with cultural richness.

New Orleans is noted for its architectural styles, a tantalizing combination of Old-World romanticism and industrial revolution functionality. It includes brick and masonry cottages; columned antebellum mansions; Spanish-inspired stucco shops festooned with wrought iron, living quarters above and hidden courtyards within; and working-class shotgun houses with decorative scroll work.

It's possible to spend an entire week in the French Quarter, another wandering through the Garden District and browsing antique and junk shops along Magazine Street, and a third enjoying the Uptown area, Audubon Park, and the zoo. But each trip to a certain street provides only a glimpse at an often-contradictory paradise. But the city's musical richness is its greatest glory. The ethno-cultural influences of French Louisiana gave rise to jazz, Dixieland, rhythm and blues, and Cajun and Zydeco music.

New Orleans has clusters of delightful shops in picturesque neighborhoods: the Chartres/Royal Street area of the French Quarter, art gallery row in the Warehouse District, and Magazine Street, which runs along the back of the Garden District/Uptown area to Audubon Park. Many fine French Quarter antique shops have been operated by the same families since the turn of the century.

For more information, please go to Visit New Orleans | Official New Orleans Tourism Website .