Not to sound smug, but I wrote my first blog post in New Orleans. There are few cooler places to be able to say that.
It’s a city that’s has more colloquialisms than any other I’ve encountered – the Big Easy, the Cresent City, The City that Care Forgot, the Birthplace of Jazz or just NOLA. Some of the names are self evident, others a little more obscure. The Big Easy has various connotations – some say that it refers to the chilled pace of life and relaxed morals of its inhabitants, others to the fact that historically it was the easiest place for black musicians to get gigs.
It’s been named the Cresent city, referring to the core of the city resting on a big bend in the Mississippi river. The name NOLA has gained footing in the past decade and notably after Katrina. It comes from the letters from putting together New Orleans and the abbreviation for the state it rests in – Louisiana (LA). Now you’ll find NOLA plastered across signs, fridge magnets, T-Shirts, bars and establishments.
Just uttering the name New Orleans, Louisiana gives off a murky exotic sense of a city different from others.
In NOLA, sometimes fiction is better than facts. The town’s inhabitants and its tour guides are storytellers first, historians second. They never let facts get in the way of a good story. Tourists don’t helped either- we’ve invaded Bourbon Street and created our own traditions inaccurately copied from those of old. The locals just shrug and at best let “us” get on with it – at worst they’ve propagated our errors.
For a city so steeped in tales, here’s ten fascinating “facts” about New Orleans to get you started delving further into the turgid history of NOLA.
Four Feet Under (And You Thought It Was Meant to be Six)
Bourbon Street - the heart of the French Quarter - in all its glory
One of the big pulls for visitors to New Orleans has been to see their “cities of the dead” – cemeteries with overground burial tombs.
The city started burying overground after copying the French and Spanish ways, but there is a more practical element. New Orleans cannot bury six feet under as there is the potential that you may see those bodies again. There’s water that far down and regular storms and floods have actually moved bodies in times gone by.
You will still see underground burials, most notably among the Protestant families, but this is done by going four feet down and then having two feet above ground.
Move Over Venice - NOLA Is Sinking, and It's Sinking Faster
The Commander's Palace Restaurant in the Garden District, one of the few areas of NOLA still above sea level
You now know that you can’t (or shouldn’t) bury six feet under in New Orleans, but did you know it’s also sinking?
Half of the city is already at or under sea level with few areas, like the French Quarter and the Garden District, still riding high over sea level. The NASA Airborne satellite proved that the city is sinking faster than previously thought – the old figure was around 2 inchs every 100 years.
Recent data shows this decreases to be 2 inches a year in some areas, 100 times faster than previously thought. One of the worst areas is the Lower Ninth at 1.6 inches a year and not surprisingly, one of the worst hit areas from Katrina.
You cannot go to Venice without people jokingly telling you now is the best time as it might not be around for much longer. If you want to compare it, Venice sinks 0.1 inches a year. Yes, 0.1 inches. This is only 1/20th the rate of the worst areas of NOLA.
The Catholic Church Didn't Allow Cremation Till 1963 But NOLA Has Been Doing It For Centuries
Gifts from families from Mardi Gras festivals to the dead are popular in NOLA - behind are the tombs where the dead were burned by the heat of the atmosphere
Hang on, haven’t we been talking about overground burials?
Well, yes we have, but one of the more unusual aspects of NOLA burials is that due to the heat reaching around 40 degrees outside, the temperature inside the tombs is about three times as much. It is literally an oven in which the body is cooked to death and naturally cremated. Whereas bodies in the ground take years to decompose, the system in New Orleans does it in one year, and often over one summer alone. They literally cremate to bones.
The upside of this for a city that has at turbulent times of its past needed to bury many people due to natural disasters or diseases such as yellow fever is that many of the tombs have up to 70 people. Every 1 year and 1 day you are allowed to bury a new family member. The anniversary is used to preserve their memory and then they next day you can use the tomb again..
You "Wouldn't Touch It With a 10 Foot Pole" But At Least You Could Be "Saved By The Bell"
One of the Tombs in Lafayette Cemetery where the trees have woven into the rock
After the mandatory 1 year and 1 day roasting in your tomb, the bones are then shoved to the back of the tomb with a ten foot pole where they then fall off the shelf to an area at the bottom of the tomb. The locals call this space at the bottom where all the bones are kept the “caveau” after the French for cellar. Hence the expression “I wouldn’t touch it with a 10 foot pole”
My favourite saying though comes with more morbid beginnings – “saved by the bell”. New Orleans has over the years been inflicted with numerous diseases, most notably yellow fever. Before there was a realisation that yellow fever was a mosquito carried disease, it was believed to be a curse, and infectious. Residents would lock their loved ones away and sometimes people would get to the point that they were so still, they were mistakenly buried alive.
The city started to tie bells to the limbs of people buried and cemetery attendants would patrol at night listening out for the muffled ring of bells. So those that were buried wrongly and woke up entombed could potentially be “saved by the bell”.
The Most Haunted Mansion in the U.S Sits in New Orleans
Skulls on sale in NOLA Gift Shops. Voodoo and Mysticism is a big part of life in the city.
The year is 1834 and the mansion in question lies at 1140 Royal Street in the French Quarter. Madame Delphine Lalaurie, the owner, was a belle of the New Orleans world. As the rich locals did, she threw plenty of parties and had a host of slave labour to call on. Questions started being asked of Madame Lalaurie when a young slave girl combing her hair hit a snarl. They say Delphine stood up like a monster and started to run after the slave, who clambered out of a window and fell three floors to her death.
The authorities took Delphine to court and all her slaves were taken away from her. But such was her wealth and the deficit in the legal system, that not only was she allowed to buy slaves back – she bought the specific slaves back she had lost.
Then we reach March of 1834. Madame Lalaurie was throwing another party when the scent of smoke permeated the mansion. They found a fire and a girl chained to the stove in the kitchen who admitted to starting the fire herself. Before she died, her last words were “I’d rather die than go to the attic”.
Concerned citizens put out the fire and entered the locked attic to find the body of mutilated slaves. Some were chained to walls, others had surgeries completed on them. Madame Delphine and her husband (who they say had nothing to do with the deaths) escaped in a waiting carriage, and as most stories go, were never seen again.
Those familiar with American Horror Story will know that the 3rd season Coven is based on this mansion and external filming happened just two doors away as they weren’t given the permission to use the LaLaurie mansion. Madame Delphine is played by Kathy Bates.
The mansion is said to be haunted by the ghosts of Delphine’s slaves and since 1834 the mansion has never been owned more than 5 years at a time. Death, bankruptcy and insanity has been known to plague its former inhabits.
But did these events actually happen? Well, as I said, no New Orlean will get a good story stand in the way of fact, and every night multiple ghost tour groups gather at the house inbetween 8pm and 11pm to hear the tale of NOLA’s most notorious serial killer.
Nicholas Cage
St Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter sits just a few minutes walk from Nicholas Cage's Mansion
From an old story to a much newer one that involves crazy good ol’ Nic, a man generally disliked by the population of New Orleans. In April 2007 Nic Cage decides to buy a house in the French Quarter for $3.45 million. He pays the local council off to retain his anonymity, not wanting people to know he has bought or moved into one of the biggest houses in NOLA.
The first day he moves into his property, settles down and in the evening looks out the window to see crowds of people taking pictures of his house.
He rings the authorities furious, adamant that fans are disturbing his privacy and ask them to do something about it. But instead, he finds out that he’s unwittingly bought the LaLaurie mansion and the local authority are flabbergasted that he wasn’t aware of the fact. They suggest he goes on one of the ghost tours.
He turns up on the ghost tour, stands outside his own house, and hears the story. He is so freaked out that he leaves the tour early, checks into a hotel and never stays another night in his own house.
Of course, this story has two happy endings for the residents of NOLA. Firstly, since Nic Cage bought this house, strangely his movies have got worse and worse, a potential manifestation of the curse. Secondly, years later after not paying any taxes and filing for bankruptcy, the IRS seized his properties in New Orleans which also included another mansion in the Garden District.
Even In Death You Can't Keep Nic Cage Out
Nic Cage's Pyramid Tomb, sitting grandiose but ugly next to its neighbours in St Louis Cemetery No.1
So New Orleans has heard the last of Nic Cage? Well, not quite.
St Louis Cemetery 1 is the oldest in the city, and apparently according to the authorities there is no space left for new graves. But that hasn’t stopped Nic Cage from buying a plot, putting it under perpetual care which means the state looks after his tomb, and building a big ghastly pyramid on its spot with the motto “Omnia Ab Uno”. It means “Everything from one” and if it sounds familiar, that’s because it was used in Nic Cage’s film National treasure. Cos, like Latin and pyramids are cool right, Nic?
This has lead to the NOLA joke that his tomb is the only thing that they can’t throw Nic Cage out of in New Orleans.
The Voodoo Priestess Has Mystery, Even In Death
Another shot of Bourbon Street in New Orleans
INOLA is known for its love of voodoo, and the most famous voodoo priestess of New Orleans was Marie Laveau, also a resident of the St Louis Cemetery Number 1.
Such was the mystery surrounding her death that she has three purported tombs in the cemetery. It’s widely accepted that she’s now buried in a white tomb near the front of the cemetery, and her descendents have been seen visiting this spot. However there are two further tombs labelled “faux Laveau” that before Google especially people would go to and mark “XXX” on. Voodoo practitioners say the marks have nothing to do with the practice of voodoo, but people believe it is akin to leaving an offering and asking for luck that is meant to mirror the three knocks on a door to signify the father, son and holy ghost.
Strangely in the last few years many have visited the faux laveau number 2 and sensed a powerful presence. Some have even avoided it. This is at odds with the commonly held belief that Marie is buried at the front of the cemetery. Around the time people started feeling this, the Archdiocese had months before put a black bin next to the tomb. So maybe it’s less about evil presences and more that people don’t like smelly bins!
But of course they still want to keep a little mystery. Even the “actual” tomb of Marie Laveau has a little plague that describes it only as the “reputed” burial place for her.
Hairdressers and Doubles
Jude Acers plays Chess down near the Mississipi in the French Quarter - he doesn't do much gossiping, unlike Marie Laveau
So was Marie Laveau the most powerful mystic ever or just good at reading people?
The voodoo queen had two famous powers – the first was the ability to read minds and the second was the ability to teleport. I can’t tell you whether her powers were real, but I can tell you that her day job was as a hairdresser. As we all know, when you go to the hairdresser, you talk. Maybe not about politics and religion – best to stay away from those topics. But your holiday, your family, who you saw the other day, what’s happening in the neighbourhood. So if you’re a hairdresser, you learn a lot of gossip. They say this may have been the reason Marie could read minds – she heard all the gossip down the hair salon.
Secondly, Marie Laveau had a big family, including a daughter who looked identical and was called Marie Laveau too. So people would rush across town and see Marie in other places she could not have possibly got to and say “I just saw you the other side of town”. Marie would say “yes child that is my power”. Funnily enough no one ever saw Marie across the other side of the country – maybe her teleporting powers didn’t go that far.
Crap Street
Night time on Canal Street - Crap Street used to end on this very street
The game of craps was invented in New Orleans and the city also had a Crap Street. Early visitors to New Orleans would always take pictures of them against the Crap Street signs until a petition eventually forced the city to change the name. You’ll now find it at the top of the French Quarter and renamed Burgundy Street.
There’s a lot more to the city of NOLA, and I hope that these 10 fascinating “facts” about New Orleans have made you want to visit yourself and be enthralled.
Was everything I told you the truth?
Of course it was.
I think.