Frenchmen Street and the home of jazz

Tourists flock to Bourbon Street but wise visitors head to Frenchmen Street, just outside the French Quarter, to hear cutting-edge jazz. The start of this club-lined strip provides the musical nexus for legendary locales such as Snug Harbor, the Blue Nile, and the Palm Court Jazz Cafe. Frenchmen ends at the Old Mint, now a jazz museum with Louis Armstrong's original horn on permanent display. Yet, in 1768, six Frenchmen were executed there after rebelling against the Spanish. Their crime? Authoring Le Manifeste, declaring the rights of man to form his own government – eight years before Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence. Hence, Frenchmen Street.

Café Du Monde and Jackson Square

From Frenchmen Street, cross the French Market, and smell the scent of beignets baking. Savour the cafe au lait brewing, and hear the saxophones harmonising. Welcome to Jackson Square, the nerve centre of historic New Orleans. St Louis Cathedral sits across the square from Café Du Monde, flanked by the Cabildo and Prebytere museums, all of which are must-visits. Experience the Louisiana Purchase and the Plessy v Ferguson case at the Cabildo. At the Presbytere, feel the fear of Hurricane Katrina's coming waters and the joy of Carnival's parades, balls, and Courir de Mardi Gras. Then, travel back in time to the 1850 House with a Friends of the Cabildo walking tour. Beignet in hand, gaze upon the magnificent Mississippi river.
• Café Du Monde, 800 Decatur Street, cafedumonde.com, Open daily 24/7

Mardi Gras Krewe Rooms

Cut down Pirate's Alley and pass the Royal Street art galleries to the second oldest restaurant in the US. At Antoine's (established 1840), dine on oysters Rockefeller ($14.75), and ask your waiter to tour the Mardi Gras Krewe rooms. Sit in the Rex Room where the Kings of Carnival are enthroned. Look at the photo of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor bowing before Rex – when an actual monarch, albeit a former one, genuflected before a carnival king. (In 1950, it caused an international incident.)
• Antoines, 713 St Louis Street, +1 504 581 4422, antoines.com, Open Mon-Sat 11.30am-2pm and 5.30pm-9pm, Sun 11am-2pm

Congo Square

Walk another two blocks to an elegant supper club with a not-local name - but a truly Big Easy sound. The Bombay Club's melodies and signature martinis make a perfect stopover on the trek to the birthplace of jazz, Congo Square. This where jazz developed from West African rhythms – slaves gathered here on Sundays, their day off, to sing, beat drums and celebrate. Also feel jazz's roots in the second lines of superstitious mourners, blowing horns and beating drums, as their ghosts dance towards St Louis #1 Cemetery, three blocks away. Visit the above-ground crypts, including voodoo queen Marie Laveau's.
• The Bombay Club, 830 Conti Street, +1 504 586 0972, thebombayclub.com. Bar open daily 4pm till close (check website for restaurant opening hours)

The Carousel Bar at Montleone Hotel

To have a Ramos Gin Fizz at the rotating Carousel Bar is to commune with Tennessee Williams, William Faulkner, Truman Capote and the other deans of American literature who gathered in this bar in the early 20th century. They knew that next door, 100 years earlier, Congress allowed the Orleans' Citizens State Bank to print $10 bills or, in French, "dix" notes. Americans called the money "Dixies," and hence the south became known as the Land of the Dixie.
• 214 Royal Street, hotelmonteleone.com. Open daily 11am-2am

Little Gem Saloon

Sidney Bechet and jazz greats played here, and still do nightly. The Little Gem anchors a series of historic buildings, from the shop where Louis Armstrong received his first clarinet to the club where he won his first musical contest.
• 445 South Rampart Street, littlegemsaloon.com. Open Tue-Thurs 11am-2pm and 4.30pm-10pm, Fri 11am-2pm and 4.30pm-11pm, Sat 4.30pm-11pm, Sun 10am-2pm

Serio's Po-Boys and Deli

It is fitting that the oldest continuous railway in America stops here as po'boy sandwiches were created to feed striking streetcar conductors in the 1920s. And the trolley station in front of Serio's sits mere feet from another New Orleans peculiarity: ask a local what to call the wide middle of the adjacent Canal Street, and they shall reply: "Neutral Ground." Today, streetcars traverse the centre of Canal Street. Once, though, Americans feared to cross that neutral ground, the dividing line between the older French/Spanish colonial-era city and the American sector.
• 133 St Charles Avenue, facebook.com/Serios-Mike-Po-Boys-Deli. Open Mon-Sat 11am-3pm

Commander's Palace, The Garden District

The St Charles streetcar passes many landmarks from the National World War II Museum to Julia Street's galleries. Hop off, however, at Washington Avenue for jazz brunch at Commander's Palace on Saturday or Sunday. Then, meander around the monumental mansions of the Garden District, erected when Louisiana sugar sold for $20 a pound – in 1840.
• 1403 Washington Avenue, +1 504 899 8221, commanderspalace.com. Open Mon-Fri 11.30am-2pm (lunch), Mon-Sun 6.30pm-10pm (dinner)

Oak Street

Our streetcar then carries you to Southern Bohemia, Oak Street, with its "FunKay" clothing resale and antique shops, bookstores, and breakfast joints with jazz accompaniment. Anchoring Oak Street's entrance, the Vietnamese have melded into our Creole culture. Just as more Irish came to New Orleans than any city but Boston, and more Italians than anywhere but New York, many Vietnamese Catholics ended up here after the fall of another tropical city, Saigon. They gave us both America's first Viet-American Congressman (Ánh "Joseph" Quang Cao), and the dish pho (or Vietnamese) gumbo. And, you haven't lived until you've had a bánh mì sandwich or, as we call it in New Orleans, a "Vietnamese po'boy".
• Pho Bistreaux, 1200 South Carrollton Avenue, phobistreaux.biz. Open Tue-Sat 11am-9pm, Sun 11am-3pm

Rocky & Carlos restaurant & bar

In St Bernard, just down from the French Quarter, Sicilians settled beside Canary Islanders and Cajuns to create a unique culture. At Rocky and Carlos, fusion means meatballs with gumbo on the side – emblematic of the different strains of Americans who gathered to fight the last-ever US engagement against British troops, just down the street at Chalmette battlefield, ending the War of 1812. The bicentennial of that Battle of New Orleans is in January 2015 and over 2,000 historical re-enactors from Britain and America will dine at Rocky & Carlos after they have recreated the battle itself at the 22-acre Meraux Battlegrounds Living History Park, just a mile from the eatery.
• 613 West St Bernard Highway, +1 504 279 8323, no website. Open Mon-Sat 11am-10pm

Christopher Tidmore is a political columnist, contributing to the Louisiana Weekly. He is also a travel writer, blogging at christophertidmore.com.

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