Day 5 – Folsom LA to New Orleans LA

For anyone wondering, the horses were very well behaved and quiet for our sleepover. When I got up in the night, I peaked into their room like a mother checking on her babies and saw them both sprawled out, fast asleep and gently snoring.

The next time I got up was at a much more reasonable hour so I went to make us both a cup of tea. It was cold in the barn so I quickly hopped back into bed to enjoy my tea and plan the day ahead. Suddenly, to my shock and horror a woman swung the door open with her dog and dumped her bag in our bedroom. I stared blankly at her as she fumbled with her things and eventually manged to say “um, can I help you?”.

It turned out that she had let herself in at 8am when check in was at 2pm and not realised our things, car and of course us.

Now very awake and ready to get up and go, we packed up and went to the local favourite coffee shop, Giddy Up Folsom.

After fueleing up, caffeine-ing up (new word) and fed, it was time to go to my favourite place of the whole trip… New Orleans.

I think my love for new Orleans comes from the film, The Princess and the frog. Tiana is hands down my favourite Disney princess and the voodoo aspect of the film is so beautiful and creepy at the same time.

Another world record breaker for the blog, to get to New Orleans we drove across the world’s longest, continuous bridge over water. This bridge takes just over 20 minutes to drive across and stretches just shy of 24 miles. I thought the 8 mile Confederation Bridge was long when we rode to PEI but this was something else!

I had three things on my list that I wanted to do in New Orleans. Enjoy some live music, visit a voodoo shop and to eat a beignet.

I didn’t need to stress too much about getting these done because as soon as we approached the main street, there was a man singing jazz. I dropped some money into his hat and immediately got very flustered and giddy as he started singing directly to me.

Once I stopped giggling, we started to circle the town to scope out the best place for a beignet, whilst doing some exploring of course!

We shopped around the French Market and stopped there for a delicious bowl of Gumbo. This is something I’ve wanted to try for so long and it did not disappoint!

The next stop was Madame LaLaurie’s mansion. I won’t go into the history too much as it’s pretty gory, but for those who don’t know, she was a socialite of New Orleans who tortured and murdered the slaves of her household. When a fire in the mansion revealed her ghastly torture chamber, she was chased out of town by locals and eventually fled to Paris.

From it’s beautiful exterior, the average passer by would have no idea what dark secrets are hidden behind those walls. Some ghost tours do allow admission inside but as this is a privately owned building and is unaccessible to the public.

I spotted two voodoo dolls outside of a shop and decided this was where I would cross the voodoo shop from my list. When I entered the shop there was strange music playing as a voodooist practiced her craft. I tried my best not to stare but it was so fascinating!

After buying a voodoo doll for the Jetta, we eventually wandered over to the church.

When we came outside the band was in full swing and everyone around was swaying to the music. It was amazing and exactly what I had imagined New Orleans to be like.

Eventually we looped back to the first cafe we saw and sat at a table. There was powdered sugar everywhere. People were completely dusted, the floor was covered and it hung in the air like a poof of smoke.

I had my beignets with an Americano and of course got absolutely covered in sugar. They were a lot like mini doughnuts but much lighter. Shamefully, I could of eaten a couple more!

Sadly it was time for us to move on. I promised myself one say I would be back, this time I would bring my sister along too, as she is also obsessed with New Orleans and would love it as much as I do.

As always thank you so much for reading. If you enjoyed this post please let me know by leaving a like, comment or buying me a coffee it really helps me out! Also make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss the next post!