Evangeline's New Orleans; A Virtual Tour Part I

Hey, y'all! I know it's been a while, but I have been exceptionally busy in real life. We're moving across town at the end of the month to a safer neighborhood with cheaper rent. Rental prices are finally coming down since Katrina-- yay!-- and this new place is going to be perfect for us.

So I thought that since I may not have much time for blogging, I'd start a series of posts called "Evangeline's New Orleans", to act as a sort of visual journal of the world I've created for my novel, EVANGELINE. I find inspiration for my writing every day in this city (which may be part of the reason I'm stalling on my WiP set in Belle Epoque Paris, but that's another post), in its sights and smells and situations. There's no place in the world like it.

This is Evie's house.


It's actually a house in my current neighborhood that is one of the oldest houses in New Orleans, and dates back to the 1700s. Right after I chose this house to be "Evie's", it went up for sale for $1.7 million. For a brief flickering moment I thought I'd be the Anne Rice of Bayou St. John and buy the house my characters lived in when I was obscenely famous and wealthy...
That pipe-dream didn't last long, and the house sold later at auction.

But is it any wonder? Not only is the house beautiful and historical, it's located in one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in the city, and right along the bayou. Isn't it gorgeous at night?


There are turtles and egrets, and plenty of people kayak and canoe on the bayou. There are fish-- mullet-- that leap out of the water and skip along the surface like a silvery stone. The Fairgrounds are nearby for easy access to Jazz Fest, and the New Orleans Museum of Art is just up the bayou at the bottom of City Park. City Park is about 1500 acres of trees and moss and walking paths (and derelict golf-courses after Katrina, but the city is slowly fixing them) and beautiful bridges, many of which are WPA projects that date back to the Depression Era.



Since it's so huge, it provided the perfect place for Evie to test out her increasing strength after school. And the Botanical Gardens there, with its variety of plantlife, provided the perfect place for Penny to do her dirty work.



In real life, the Botanical Gardens is also a local music venue, but it is worth your time to check out the sculpture here, too. It is a relaxing kind of place, not the dark and terrifying unknown that I make it into in my novel.




Hope you enjoyed this little tour of Evie's modern New Orleans. Next time, we'll take the streetcar to the French Quarter. Keep your head and arms inside the vehicle at all times. Ya-heard-me?