On Fri, 10 Jul 2009 08:42:18 -0500, wrote:



eastern side areas are pretty much OK (west of the FQ is the Marigny,
which is OK in the center, iffy on the edges),

Not that it really matters, but I was typing fast and doing a coupla things, too
- the Marigny is not west of the FQ, it is on the eastern/downtown side. And
it's pretty cool, too - there are a number of good clubs there, such as
Charmaine Neville's Snug Harbor, etc. Most are along Frenchman Street in the
"heart" of the Marigny. The central area is OK, but the edges, as I said above,
are a bit iffy, esp. the northern/lakeside edge.

As to the whole uptown, downtown, river side and lake side thing, it's how much
is located in NO - for example, imagine a city block - the side toward Lake
Pontchartrain is, surprise, surprise, the "lake side," the side toward the MS
River, is, you guessed it, the "river side," the side toward the CBD is the
"downtown" side, and the side toward "uptown" is the uptown side. The only
screwy part is that even if the thing in question is on the eastern side of the
CBD, i.e., on the downtown side of "Downtown," the "sides" remain the same.

Also, many of the French names, esp. streets, are pronounced in a "local"
fashion - for example, "Conti" is pronounced "con-TIE," "Burgundy" is pronounced
"bur-GUN-dee," "Chartres" is pronounced "charter," etc. Tchoupitoulas, a street
you'll probably wind up going on (it's not in the FQ, but runs, generally, along
the river from the FQ), is pronounced "chop-a-two-la," but most simply call it
"chop," as in, "to get to Tip's (Tipitina's), you go up Chop to Napoleon
(that's pronounced "nasturtium") and hang a right..." If you mispronounce them,
folks will know what you mean, but it'll give you away as a complete "tourist" -
sometimes in NO, that's good, other times, not so much.

TC,
R

PS - I'm kidding about Napoleon's pronunciation - actually, it's pronounced
"luigi"...