St. Charles Ave

St. Charles Ave and the street that runs perpendicular to it, S. Carrollton Ave, are gorgeous streets under a canopy of giant oak trees. Humble late Victorian houses interspersed with large Southern 19th c. mansions line the road. It's fun to look at the pretty details of the mansions and houses as you stroll along, avoiding the gaps in the sidewalk caused by the wonderful tree roots! There are an abundance of cute restaurants of all ethnic varieties: Thai, Vietnamese, Latin American, Lebanese, French, Japanese, Greek, Chinese, Italian...you name it! And a cool coffee shop where you can sit outside in the sun, called Rue de La Course, where Oak Street meets S. Carrollton Ave.

Oak Street has many shops, behind cute historic storefronts. A lovely counter-service place to have a pain au chocolat (chocolate croissant) for breakfast, or a delicous bran muffin, is La Madeleine Cafe, where St. Charles Ave meets S. Carrollton Ave. A particularly lush street to walk along is Palmer Ave, where it meets St. Charles Ave. In the early 19th c. this area had mansions surrounded by gardens on large lots. By the late 19th c. the lots were subdivided and late Victorian houses were built in between the mansions where the gardens had been. Thus the Garden District (where St. Charles Ave is located) no longer has that many gardens, but does still have the canopy of oak trees that line the roads, and also has a patchwork of mansions mixed with more humble homes.
This area of New Orleans is on high ground and escaped the flooding that other areas experienced during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. You can take a historic green streetcar from Canal Street (the main tourist area) along St. Charles Ave to S. Carrollton Ave. Note that it goes very slowly, makes frequent long stops, and is not air-conditioned. You can't beat the price though.

Directions

La Madeleine Cafe, 601 S. Carrollton Ave, New Orleans LA 70118, call (504) 861-8662.
Rue de la Course, 1140 S. Carrollton Ave, New Orleans LA 70118, call (504) 861-4343.
Some of the prettiest mansions and oak trees are at the 1700 block of Palmer Ave.
Other restaurants found on or next to S. Carrollton Ave: Lebanon's Cafe, Mona's Cafe (Middle Eastern), Hana Japanese, China Orchid, Bangkok Thai, Thai Mint, Boucherie, Jazmine Cafe (Vietnamese), La Macarena Latin Cafe, Panchita's (Latin). Wow what a nice amount of choices!

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