The Spanish French Quarter of New Orleans

We were lucky enough to stay within walking distance to New Orleans' historic district.

The proof is that this beautiful church was just around the corner from our Airbnb. Immaculate Conception Jesuit Church was originally built in the mid-1800s, but was reconstructed in the 1930s due to foundation issues.

A nice man working in the church told us about some of its features while Magnolia got some wiggles out wandering around and carrying Grandma's purse.

After gently wrestling the toddler back into the stroller, we continued down the block to Canal Street, where we got our first glimpse of New Orleans' famous streetcars.

We opted to walk down pretty Royal St. to get to the heart of the French Quarter rather than its more famous parallel street, Bourbon. More on that later. 

Royal St. is full of colorful buildings, many with wrought iron balconies. Fun fact: the architecture is actually Spanish and not French in the French Quarter.

French explorers first arrived in the area in the 1690s. Louisiana was handed over to Spain from 1763-1800 as a result of European wars and treaties. France got it back in 1800, and then shortly thereafter sold it to the U.S. (for a great deal!) in 1803 as part of the Louisiana Purchase.

Much of the city was rebuilt during its Spanish era after a big fire destroyed many buildings in 1788.

We did a lot of window shopping here. Time for actual shopping is not really a thing with babies, so Mom and I had to come back a few days later for that during nap time.

We eventually made it to the impressive Jackson Square and St. Louis Cathedral. 

The pretty park combined with symmetrical buildings and a cathedral felt very European, which of course made me happy.

Magnolia was thrilled to be freed from her stroller and to run through the park on her leash lol. I never really envisioned myself as having a toddler on a leash, but at the moment she's in a phase where she thinks running away is hilarious, so we're doing our best. She loves it and she's safe.. can't ask for much more than that.

After all of that walking, we helped ourselves to beignets at Café du Monde. They were good, but extremely messy and in my opinion... lacking chocolate.

We had lunch in the nearby French Market and all tried a different New Orleans specialty. David loved his jambalaya, Mom liked her muffaletta sandwich, and I enjoyed my bread pudding. Magnolia enjoyed one of her main food groups: French fries. 

Rosalie happily drank her bottle while bobbing her head to the loud jazz music.

They were absolute troopers throughout our long sightseeing day- so proud of my tiny travelers in training!

We walked back to our Airbnb by way of Bourbon St. It is in fact named for the French royal house and not the alcohol, as I'm guessing most people assume. We were there at about 2pm and a lot of places were hopping- can't imagine what it's like at night!

It's definitely the "party" street in town and did not smell the best. No pictures here because we were walking quickly to avoid prolonging the girls' exposure to said interesting scents. Mardi Gras was only one week before we got there.. it might take more than one pressure washing to clean things up!

Not Bourbon St., but it was only 1 week after Mardi Gras so we got to see a lot the decorations.

New Orleans as a whole is lovely and historic- don't let the fact that some people come here to party scare you off. More to come- our southern adventures were not quite over.

If you want to read about our boat ride through the bayou and visit to a plantation, click here.