At Mardi Gras, gumbo is as much a lifestyle as a soup
Some 80 communities in Louisiana celebrate Mardi Gras but New Orleans has claimed the holiday of unbridled excess as its own. The locals have made the French Catholic cycle of temptation and atonement into something of an art form. If you're not sorry the next morning, cher, then you didn't have fun the night before. Not for nothing does St. Louis Cathedral (below) dominate the skyline of the French Quarter. Mardi Gras in New Orleans is founded on the idea that you need to pack enough warm memories into the week before Ash Wednesday to last the entire 40 days of Lent. If, like us, you can't be in town for the parades and general shenanigans, be sure to visit Mardi Gras World (1380 Port...Read More