Today's topic is the GHOST TOUR.
There are these little agencies all over the French Quarter and surrounding area that offer tours---all kinds of tours-- and from many different companies (we wanted to try one of the Voodoo Lady tours, but the tours we ended up going on were by a different company. They were good, but we wonder what the Voodoo Lady had to offer...except for the voodoo outfit she wears). There were vampire tours and voodoo tours, scandal tours and mystery tours--but we never made it to those. There were tours of the city or specific areas, such as the Garden District--but, again, never made it to one of those either (and we were busy).
We did go on a Ghost Tour though...and that was kind of fun.
We got our tickets from somewhere on the street--as I said, there were ticket agents all over the place--and we were told to meet at Reverend Zombies House of Voodoo, which is right across the street from Pat O'Brien's. The tickets for the tour came with a free Hurricane cocktail from the little bar next door to House of Voodoo (NOT O'Brien's) and these little cocktails were worlds away better than the dreck at O'Brien's!
Once our tour started (and there was quite a big group of us), our tour guide Mikko led us around to various buildings and sites and told us stories of notorious crimes committed in those areas and of the ghosts that supposedly still haunt them to this day.
Mikko was a great guide and story teller. He's also an actor--of course. We made several stops along the way, including an allegedly haunted bar (where we stopped for 15 minutes so everyone could grab a drink for the rest of the trip--Ha!)
One particular BIG house (once owned by actor Nicholas Cage, but he lost it during his run in with the IRS) is supposedly the most notoriously haunted house in the city. It is rather large and was owned by a woman, the notorious Madame Marie Delphine LaLaurie, who got her money by marriage when her husbands died.
I don't remember much of the story, but it involves an upper story room and slaves she kept up there just to torture/kill for her amusement (or something like that).
The little section of the 2nd floor that is set back is where this room was supposed to have been. On the street below you can see yet another (NOT the Voodoo Lady) tour group being told the same story on a similar tour.
There were lots of stops and some great stories--one about a honeymooning couple and after they got home and developed their photos discovered that there were several of them taken during their wedding night---but no one else had been in the room with them. Ha! But that's all it was---some historical true crime horror and the alleged hauntings that followed. No ghosts showed up during the tour. However, the weather acted appropriately during the tour--and was miserable! What do you need on a Ghost Tour? A dark and stormy night--that's what we got! RAIN! It was really the only rain that bothered us (there was a little rain on some other mornings, but nothing that interfered with anything we did--other than this one tour). I am not a rain fan, but I thought it added to the atmosphere of the evening. Erich was in a rage though...because he had brought an umbrella with him, but had left it in the hotel room. We were soaked by the time we got back to our room.
It's late. I need to get to bed--I work tomorrow and need to be up at 5 a.m.---but I wanted to get this off first.
More to come--graveyard visits (yes, PLURAL), the ill-fated swamp tour, Mardi Gras World and the WWII Museum, adventures in dining and MORE!
Stay tuned.
CHEERS!
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