NEW ORLEANS — There are few cities like this one.
There are few places in the world so special.
New Orleans is an ancient relic from a bygone era, preserved for generations by its own people, themselves cut from the colorful fabric of this place. They are guardians of America’s most historically festive neighborhood, a more than 300-year-old, 78-square-block hub of merriment that hugs the Mississippi River.
The French Quarter, or, in its native tongue, Vieux Carré, this city’s beating heart, has endured like a timeless but complicated piece of art. Somehow, through hurricane winds, torrential floods and high crimes, the Quarter continues to exist, hanging there like a brilliant painting, mesmerizing visitors with historical charm, tempting them with life’s most exquisite pleasures and mystifying them with a crumbling infrastructure.