Beignets and a walk about town (11/1)

It is really cold this morning, 47 degrees and is only suppose to get up to 60 degrees.  Time for my down jacket and anything else warm.  We are walking into the French Quarter to have beignets and coffee.  At least that is what I am having.  It really isn't to bad until the wind hits you.  There is a cold front moving through today and tomorrow.
We take a leisurely walk down St Louis street to Royal street looking for a Chase bank.  We pass the Beignets Coffee house and thought we would stop there on our way back from the bank.  Big mistake, while we were at the bank the line got quite long and it is to cold to stand here and wait.  We continued down Royal street back to St Louis street to Durante street to the New Orleans Famous Beignets and Coffee house.  There is a line here to but at least they have some inside seating.  I was happy to see that we were not the only ones cold, everyone was bundled.
I have never had beignets before so did't know what to expect.  They are also know as the French donuts.  Finally I place my order for them and a bowl of gumbo for Joe.  They do taste like donuts but these were a little greasy.  They put tons of powder sugar on them.  I had to scrape most of it off as it made them really sweet.

Now to just walk around town.  We went all the way down Durante street.  There is another beignets cafe  here and the wait is one and a half hours. They are good but not that good.  We continue to walk going in and out of stores.  We bought a couple of t-shirts as souvenirs.  It is starting to get a little crowded out so we head back towards the park.  We stop at the visitor center to ask questions about the cemeteries. I would like to walk through one of them because they are quite unique.  All the tours are quiet expensive so we wanted to know if you can just go in them or does it have to be with a tour.
You can just go in at no cost and walk around, you just don't get the history.  The St Louis Cemetery is a block away and is the oldest cemetery.  We ask about Marie Laveau's grave and are told it is supposedly in this cemetery.  There is some question as to which grave it is and if it is actually her or her daughter.  While walking around the cemetery we hear a tour guide point out a grave and said this is Marie Laveau's grave, so we waited for the tour to move on and went back to see it.
Here are some pictures from the cemetery.

As you can see some of them are in pretty bad shape.

 The picture to the left is called the Protestant Wall.  It is a wall of tombs that separates the Protestants from the other tombs.
The tomb on the right is suppose to be King Hades.



We finally get back to Marie Laveau's tomb.

 The above pictures is where the tour guide said she is buried and a the plaque next to it is about her.  The tomb on the right is where most believe she is actually buried.  This is where most leave her things and there are X's all over it.  I guess you are suppose to put three X's and turn around three times or something like that, I guess I need to read up on her and Voo Doo a little to know exactly you are suppose to do.  We were watching people and couldn't figure it out.  The first tomb has been restored but the other one is in pretty bad shape.


The cemetery is only about two blocks from our park and there is another one that is right behind us called the St Louis Cemetery number 2, we did not go into that one.  You are warned about going into cemetery's that don't have a lot of people around, it is not safe.  We did not encounter any problems so far even walking around at night.  Joe went out this evening to Bourbon St to listen to bands.  I was a little worried about him walking back because we have to walk down some dark streets that are pretty deserted. He had a fun time but the crowds of drunken people and smokers started getting to him so he was home by 11 pm.  Sure hope tomorrow is warmer.