Map of the stages for French Quarter Festival 2013
Use the excellent schedule maker to select your own schedule each day for the French Quarter Festival, which has to be one of the greatest events in the U.S. to hear music while experiencing the center of our beautiful city.
French Quarter Festivals Inc. – New Orleans, Louisiana – Schedule.
As I read through my TWLF schedule to plan my day, I treat myself with a breakfast at Satsuma in the Bywater. Green egg sandwich, wheat grass shot (grown by a MidCity neighbor Jeff on his screened porch) and an immune booster juice.
There is a special delight in spending a day on the streets along the Mississippi, with their graceful curves and views of massive ships slowly passing at eye level. Narrow sidewalks open to old dusty brick walls and uneven stairs with acoustics that encourage fascinating side conversations and allow odd snippets to be overheard…
“Do you know the history of Utah and the Mormons before US intervention?”
“Did you replace the whole machine or just the part that was dripping?”
“I could use a Bloody Mary; actually I would abuse a Bloody Mary right about now…”
“I think that bag would work great for sneaking stuff into JazzFest.”
Another amazing picture from local photographer Roy Guste
While locals watch tourists frantically search for shade and some room on the sidewalk in the French Quarter (while down in the French Market District) those same locals know to duck behind Cafe Du Monde to use this alley. It’s one of the few places in the Quarter where some peace is nicely merged with a bit of activity.
Even though the alley is next to the Mississippi storm gates, the name has nothing to do with the language of the Netherlands and their triumphant engineering over waterways, or from any emigration patterns. It, in true New Orleans form, is named for Mayor Dutch Morial and his 1980s era of civic renovation. It’s joined by its neighbor the Moonwalk, which is the riverside path parallel to the alley, which was named for 1970s Mayor Moon Landrieu, father of the current mayor as well as our senior US Senator.
Ironically, the French Market owes its location to the Choctaw Indians, its name and founding to the French, its structures to the Spanish and its present day doldrums to politicians who keep finding a way to put their names on the stuff!
However, some smart local artists have taken this rather confusing intersection name and made it the home of cooperative marketing as Dutch Alley Artists Co-op. Take a right turn while on Decatur going downriver (around Joanie on her pony a.k.a. the Joan of Arc Statue) and chat with some great local artists while you load up on your gift-giving.
French Quarter block by block 
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