The name Vieux Carré is French and means old square in English, which refers to the historic French Quarter neighborhood located in downtown New Orleans, Louisiana.

The French Quarter is considered to be the heart of the historic district, and is famous for its Cajun restaurants, flower covered iron balconies, horse drawn carriages, jazz clubs, rowdy bars with potent cocktails and vibrant nightlife. The boundaries of the French Quarter are roughly contain within: Esplanade Avenue on the northeast, North Rampart Street on the northwest, Iberville Street on the southwest and the Mississippi River on the southeast.

Within the French Quarter, quieter and narrow streets lead to Jackson Square. On the northwest side of Jackson Square (and opposite to the River) is Chartres Street and the location of the soaring spires of Saint Louis Cathedral. On either side of this cathedral are found two Louisiana state museums.

Moving from the cathedral back towards the river, aside Jackson Square and along the two streets, Saint Peter and Saint Ann are the red brick, four story Pontalba Buildings, built in 1850, which towering building seem to enclose Jackson Square. Here in the Pontalba bulidings, one one can find gourmet food, local crafts and specialty shops of all kind. Not including Decatur Street, the three streets, Chartres, Saint Ann and Saint Peter are for pedestrian use only and enclose Jackson Square forming a venue for a large variety of vendors including: artist, musicians, street performers, food stands, bicycle carriages, panhanlers and many others.

Not far from Jackson Square, in fact only diagonally across Decatur Street is probably my favorite of all cafes to visit, which is known as the Cafe du Monde French Market and home to what I believe is the best coffee and beignets on earth.

However, this city, of which I hold claim to call the city of my birth continues to draw me to it, not only because of all which has been described above but also because of the colorful century old buildings with cast-iron balconies and the old architecture with French design roots.

Up at sunrise and after coffee, I head into Louisiana and soon arrive in New Orleans. I drive first to the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park and have to circle a second time before I find a parking spot, a free one at that.

I go into the visitors center to get a map, stamp and patch. I talk with the ranger for a while and get directions to the Jean Lafitte visitors center.

Next, I walk around in the French Quarter, visiting Jackson Square, Cafe du Monde, and walk into the Pepper Palace, a store with every imaginable kind of hot sauce.

One of the first places that I stop at is Cafe du Monde, a place that I first visited as a child with my dad′s mother, and we had gone there for hot chocolate and beignets.

Now, however, I go for coffee and beignets.

The building known as Lafitte′s Blacksmith Shop Bar, located at 941 Bourbon Street is an historic structure at the corner on Bourbon Street and Saint Philip Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana and was probably built as a house in the 1720s during the Spanish colonial period. The building is estimated to have been built during the years 1722 and 1732. However, it was not used by the Lafittes until the 1770s.

Lafitte′s blacksmith shop is one of if not the oldest surviving structure in New Orleans. Its name comes from when Jean Lafitte, aka John Lafitte owned a business here in the late 1700s to the early 1800s, most likely involving the illegal seizures and sales of contraband. The name blacksmith shop is not coincidental because there was likely a smithy here during the days of reliance on horses, who had to be regularly shod. Jean′s older brother Pierre Lafitte was a blacksmith.

Now, the business that currently operates within the building is a bar and café which began as such in the 1940s.

The blacksmith shop is a Creole Cottage architectural style found indigenous to the Gulf Coast of the United States from about 1790 to 1840 in the former settlements of French Louisiana in the states of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi.

In the city of New Orleans, the term Creole cottage tends to be more narrowly defined as a 1+1/2-story house with a gabled roof, the ridge of which is parallel to the street.

The house normally has four squarish rooms with no hallways and is built up to the front property line. The primary difference between these cottages and those elsewhere is the lack of a full front porch.

Jean Lafitte was a privateer, entrepreneur, sailor, diplomat, spy, and hero of the Battle Of New Orleans. Lafitte led a colorful and mysterious life in the New World. It is unclear where and when Lafitte was born, but his presence in New Orleans and Bartaria dates to about 1770.

Lafitte turn out to be the man to see for whatever one wanted. In 1814, as the British lay at the mouth of the river, Lafitte proved to be the man who provided what was needed to beat the British. Lafitte rushed powder, flint, and troops to General Jackson who was camped in the American rampart at Chalmette.

Rather than coming up against a poorly supplied, out-manned force, the British stepped into a screaming hell of pirates, woodsmen, Indians and free people of color, who while under cover of a dense fog and an even more dense anti-British attitude, totally routed the British forces.

With his good deed done, Lafitte, now referred to as the hero of the Battle of New Orleans headed to sea and continue with more familiar works of relieving British merchant ships of their heavy burdens.