Technically a part of the Downtown area, the Quarter is its own entity and what most people think of as "New Orleans". It's the oldest part of the city; in fact, the Creole name for it is Vieux Carre, which means "old quarter." The architecture is decidedly European and at first may feel odd nestled into the southern swamps of the Confederacy.
Because nothing is as easy as it seems in New Orleans, the Quarter is the center of the Italian community in the city. (Black Hand is dominant in this area...go figure.) Ironically, or maybe not, given this is Louisiana, the state Supreme Court sits near the middle of the French Quarter.
Unlike the more modern parts of the city, various businesses are scattered throughout the Quarter, with no more order than if they'd been fired out of a shotgun. You might find an elegant dress shop next door to a dusty pawn shop. Eclectic antique dealers sit beside corner grocers. There's most anything you could want to buy available in the Quarter, but the trick is knowing how to find it.
The French Market, famous for its all-hours coffee shops, has stood in the southeast corner for over a century. Recently, the city has made strides toward modernizing the combined food market and bazaar, roofing large sections of previously open-air stalls. Fresh fish, meat, and produce are all available, often side-by-side with merchants selling all sorts of oddities from all corners of the globe.
Superstition is very storng in the French Quarter. There's more than one alleged voodoo shop as well, but those are mostly tourist traps. For actual voodoo trinkets, a curious Joe is better of looking elsewhere. Still, the Quarter is shrouded in mysteries, many stretching back centuries. Nearly every block has its "haunted house" or at least a ghost story or two.
As far as residences, it's far from the nicest place to live in New Orleans, but it's also not the worst. For that you have to walk a few blocks north to Treme.
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