The French Quarter in New Orleans

The French Quarter of New Orleans -

Street musicians - a Rasta man playing guitar, a single man playing the saxophone, a group playing music with a woman singing, a man with an African bass harp accompanied by another man on drums. One black man was playing trumpet while another was singing, two oriental girls playing guitars and singing and another woman with a violin accompanied by a man with a guitar. And that's just the start....

The French Market, basically a flea market.  Some of the displays would be at what the islands call the "straw market".

Beignets at Cafe du Monde, warm French donuts covered in confectioners sugar, as mentioned by Jimmy Buffett in the song "The Wino and I Know".

Wrought iron balconies on buildings.

Fortune tellers, Tarot card readers, mimes and artists in the park - along with the street musicians.

Horses pulling carriages full of tourists.

Bicycles pulling carts of tourists.

Characters - a man painted all in silver, a girl on a multi-colored bike with multi-colored hair.

Doors to stores, bars and restaurants open with music spilling out.

Signs outside bars offering drinks to go.

A sign in a public restroom that states "Please use these sinks for handwashing only".

Signs in most shops and restaurants stating "No Public Restrooms".

Old homes and buildings with wooden shutters that are actually used.

Great paint jobs on these old homes and shutters.

Carnival beads hanging all over, even though carnival over was weeks ago.

I thought the French Quarter was unique, but today, my first impression was - it's very much like Key West. After walking around the area for hours, I realized that in addition to Key West, it reminded me of other places I've been - parts of it reminded me of the islands. One street in particular gave me a deja vu - it seemed that I was transported back to one street in Porlamar, a city on the island of Margarita, Venezuela.

The French Quarter is so large that it has way more ingredients than any one place and it's no surprise that it keeps drawing tourists from all over.

For a slide show of the French Quarter - follow this link - http://youtu.be/-UenK-GaW6A