One of the most pleasant features of a sojourn to this extraordinary river city is landing at the Louis Armstrong Airport and hearing the comforting sounds of the jazz impresario, wafting leisurely in the atmosphere.
You just feel good when you disembark.
The city has upgraded its airport with an elegant design, allowing it to showcase one of the most attractive and pleasant terminals anywhere. Satchmo’s resplendent rendition of “Way Down Yonder in New Orleans,” on the house speaker system, elevates your mood and takes the stress out of the baggage claim routine and ordering transportation to the Vieux Carre, the heart of a city that has a bevy of influences — Spanish, French, and African.
On occasions when I have visited Thomas Jefferson’s home in Monticello and his memorial in our nation’s capital, I always toasted one of his greatest decisions: the Louisiana Purchase, which he orchestrated. I gave Napoleon Bonaparte equal applause when I stood by his tomb beneath the dome of Les Invalides in Paris. Our young country, led by a visionary president, paid France roughly $15 million dollars in 1803, which effectively doubled the size of the U.S. of A.
My introduction to this vibrant city came in 1957 when UGA track coach Spec Towns had money left over in a budget and had to spend it or lose it. He paid the way for three of us to fly to New Orleans and take part in a cross-country race of five miles down the city’s historic Canal Street. I still have the medal I was given for participating in the race. It was known as the “Turkey Day Race,” which took place on Thanksgiving morning. Since that time, I have made countless trips to “Nola,” one of the city’s many nicknames, and have many friends here. How sweet that is.
One of the most interesting introductions to the city came from a book I read while traveling along the Seine River in France one summer.
A friend who owned a boat was taking a trip up the Seine to Compiegne and invited us to join him. He had a book, Pegasus Bridge, by the historian Steven Ambrose, which I read on our Seine excursion.
On my next trip here, I went out to the University of New Orleans to meet Ambrose. He subsequently invited me to his 50th anniversary seminar on the D-Day invasion. He also connected me with a dozen or more WWII participants from Canada to the U.K., France, Belgium, and Germany. I treasured spending time with each of them on their turf and hearing their accounts of the war.
Ambrose’s D-Day conference also included NBC’s Tom Brokaw, who wrote the book The Greatest Generation, and Tom Hanks, who was the lead actor in Saving Private Ryan.” He also invited Viscount David Montgomery, the son of British General Bernard Montgomery. “Monty” was praised for his success at El Alamein (Egypt) but castigated for his vanity and arrogance.
You could spend a week at this terrific museum and find yourself needing to return for more — it is a splendid documentation of WWII. It is masterfully presented with the best in technology, offering insights and definitive detail that illuminate the war’s captivating history.
Those who spend time in the Crescent City and feast on its food, jazz, and limitless attractions and don’t incorporate time for the World War II museum, would be like going to Commander’s Palace and ordering scallops with dehydrated citrus peel, oven dried kale, salt-cured breakfast and watermelon radishes, whipped Louisan blue crab roe, and then passing on the popular restaurant’s creole bread pudding souffle.
Fortunately, with frequent stops here over the years, I have dined at most all the famous restaurants. I have taken side trips throughout the state, including to Breaux Bridge and Lafayette, and have attended the Cajun Grand Ole Opry in Eunice, where everyone had a good time. I have also visited Avery Island.
The only thing I haven’t done, which is regrettable, is that I never found the time to spend time fishing the bayous, swamps, and rivers of a state that bills itself as a “Sportsman’s Paradise.”
I’ve enjoyed New Orleans and “all that jazz.” I have driven across the state, taken a French writer-friend on an extended tour of the Louisiana hinterlands, and experienced triumph and heartbreak in the Superdome.
I’m a passionate aficionado of N’awlins and will always eagerly wait for a return trip to a city that most of us can’t get enough of.