Next day, head back downtown New Orleans…to meet the tour bus I’m scheduled for. It’s a Grey Line tour featuring a bus ride out of town to a sugarcane plantation named the Oak Alley. Timing was a little awkward as the shuttle picked us up at 4 PM or 8 PM and the plantation tour returned at 4:45. So I’d have to find something to do for 3 plus hours after returning. I had two hours to kill after being dropped off by the shuttle too.
Note the clouds. Looked a little ominous over the city. Wasn’t cold or anything but I did bring and early on wore my light jacket.
And soon the bus was loaded and we were on our way.
Tour cost $62. And I should have chosen the Viator tour instead. I didn’t because this gathering spot was so handy. Soon after we boarded the bus and it left the station, the driver started talking over the amplified speaker system. And he talked, and talked, and talked, the entire nearly two hours of the trip to the plantation. I could have strangled the guy. Give it a rest once in a while, will ya?
Well, he didn’t, so after an hour of his non-stop jibber-jabber, I grabbed my hearing aids and plugged them into my ears without turning them on. A little relief anyway.
That’s not to say he didn’t have an interesting historical tidbit now and again. He did. It’s just that he’d never pause. Right on with the next subject as soon as he’d finish one, not giving us time to absorb what he’d just told us. Annoying as hell. As a result, I can’t hardly remember a thing told us on that trip. 
And finally we pulled into the plantation area. 
This sign in the picture below is on the levee. For a hundred years and more, property owners were in charge of their own section of the levee. And the kind of condition it was in often reflected the condition of the plantation it fronted. Oak Alley had a fine levee. But floods upstream and downstream occurred often as many owners could barely be bothered with maintaining it. This is our destination, The Oak Alley Plantation.
This place made granulated sugar from sugar cane. And made quite a bit of money from it. And slaves not only built the buildings, but they created the wealth the family lived with. Sugar produced this way is very labor intensive. The family that owned this plantation owned nearly all the plantations 8 miles up and down the Mississippi from here. And they owned almost 1,000 slaves to work them.
Started my tour by visiting the slave quarters. A row of rebuilt shacks a couple hundred yards from the massar’s estate. When this place became a museum, all that was left of these shacks were the foundations. After emancipation, the former slaves lived on the estate and rented these places, because that’s all they could afford. They were economic slaves rather than actual slaves.
This is a native oak. They’re all over the plantation. Planted first in the early 1700’s by some early settler whose name is lost to history. By 1721 they were mature trees and the settler was gone and forgotten. Whoever it was planted a quarter mile row of oaks, an alley, that lead to the river. No one knows why, for what purpose, except perhaps for some future building that never occurred. The oaks are now 300 years old, which is middle age for Virginia Oaks. Other oaks were planted around the plantation by various owners over the centuries in keeping with the Oak theme I suppose. And then a rich sugar farmer bought the land and did build a giant house near the end of the row of oaks, completed in 1839. There had been smaller houses on the property of course, the big one was build for the owners new bride as a wedding gift.
And then it was time for our guided tour of the grand house. And first room is the main living room. Not as big as our living rooms these days, but more cozy. I thought this chandelier was pretty cool. Hmm. I didn’t really show the room though. Well, you’ll have to go yourself.
Here’s our guide, dressed in period clothes.
And the first owners wife.
O_o, nice. 
The black marble surround is actually fake. It is original. It’s painted wood, but such a great job that you wouldn’t know it if the guide hadn’t pointed it out.
Out on the front porch for a look at that Oak Alley. It’s really curious why the individual would have done this back around the year 1700. Planting a quarter mile long, dual row of trees 80 feet apart, in what essentially was a sparsely populated farm area. Leading…nowhere. It was in 1722 that some friars took note of the oaks as being ‘mature’ in some of their documents for their new local parish. But no mention of who planted them or why. The story reminds me of something like this done on the outskirts of Pompeii before the volcano that archaeologists scratch their heads over. It wasn’t until the mid-1800’s that a house was built at the end of the oak causeway.
Here’s the dining room. The table is original and lower than today’s tables because people were shorter back then.
After the dining room, we all went upstairs and got a look at the bedrooms, nursery, etc. 
Not a bad way to live. 
The nursery. One of the funny things about how people lived here was back then, the mid 1800’s, only husbands, wives, women, girls and children lived in the big house. Boys, aged 15 and older, and unmarried men lived in a different house on the grounds. Like in a men’s dorm. Also, if a friend, businesses associate, or distant male family member came to visit? They wouldn’t stay here or in any of the many bedrooms in the big house. They’d be sent over to the men’s quarters. Strange huh? Not a bad idea though with teenaged boys and raging hormones.
A view from the veranda. Off in the distance is the Mississippi. Couldn’t really see it because of the levee though.
Our guide. I asked her about the summer heat and wearing clothes like that, which I mentioned was really pretty on her…which she’d told us was the outfit of the times for genteel woman that visited or lived in the big house. White women that is. She told me that the outfit was uncomfortably hot during the summer months, but that she could get some relief from the heat by swishing the dress back and forth, causing hot air to spill out and fresh, cooler air to be drawn in around her legs. Hah! So that’s why they showed women doing that in all those old period movies I’d seen. Those actresses were trying to cool off.
We were given the opportunity to just hang out here on the upstairs veranda that almost surrounds the building. We had access to 3 sides of the house. Or all four. I forget.
This was the garden put in by the last owner. The woman and her husband that worked so hard to restore the big house and plantation as a historical piece. They had a lot to be proud of. She died in 1972…26 years after her husband, and after setting up a foundation to maintain and allow the house to be shown to the public. He bought the place when it was a dump. The big house had been virtually gutted by scavengers and the roof had gone bad decades before. They first lived in the tiny jail on the grounds until they got the roof fixed, then worked on restoring room after room while they lived there. The guy had a single minded purpose…to bring back the glory of this old place for future generations to visit and learn from. He did well.
The bell is original, 1848, and used to signal work time, breaks, emergencies, etc. Still used these days to signal start of tours inside the big house.
A couple other guides in period dress.
The owner’s office.
And here I am next to the cart where I bought myself an authentic Mint Julep. Yum. Another guide in period costume after finishing her tour came out the door so got another picture. I have to say, those gals really did look nice in those outfits. 
After my tour of the big house was over, I high tailed it back to the slave quarters as the Grey Line tour didn’t give you enough time here at Oak Alley, just two hours. The plantation is large, with lots of things to see, but I didn’t have time to do so. I would have prefered 3-4 hours. There’s a cafe and snack bar, but again, not enough time to enjoy yourself and sit awhile.
We’re back on the bus and someone must have said something to the driver because he jabbered a little, then shut up the first 1/2 hour of the return trip. Ahh. 
Last look at Oak Alley and the Big House from the bus as we head back home.
Right next door to the property. Lots of room for horses.
Here’s the next door plantation. This area is called ‘Plantation Alley’ and it wasn’t until the 1930’s that people decided it needed to be preserved.
Old slave quarters and living area.
Another slave home. The roof is modern of course, but the building started out as slave quarters.
Back across the Mississippi.
But our driver could not shut up for long and soon was talking continuously again. So in went my hearing aids for some quiet. 
Big ol’ gators off in there.
Finally we get back to downtown and the driver asked if anyone wanted to get out at Harrah’s casino instead of going back to the pickup/dropoff point. I jumped at the chance to get the hell out of there and get some peace and quiet. In my hurry, I didn’t notice that I’d dropped one of my hearing aids. So there goes $200. I don’t care (now), I had to get out of there. Driver was driving me nuts!
Back downtown in the French Quarter and ran into this on the street. Nice restoration.
They have bunches of these horse (rather, mule) drawn carriages. I was going to take a ride but never got around to it. Notice the weather has gotten nicer. 
I did have a 3 hour wait for the RV park shuttle to pick me up so wandered around the FQ again.
Had a recommendation for a joint on the main drag that was suppose to have good steak. I found the place, tried the steak, but was disappointed. Half of the slab was fat and gristle.
And soon, back at the RV park and some relaxation time. Another nice day in New Orleans. Interesting too. Really enjoyed the plantation tour.