Virtual French Market -- Walking Tour

We're back at the corner of Decatur and St. Phillip again, having doubled back down Dutch Alley after visiting the Cuisine Market. The Bazaar is the first of the two block-long colonnaded buildings that most people identify with the French Market when they see them in postcards and such. The Bazaar was a post-Civil War addition to the Market, having been constructed in 1870. The building was originally a private development built by Wells and Company on city property. The company leased the building from the city for ten years, then turned the property back to the city in 1881. The original building was leveled by a hurricane in 1915, and the current structure dates back to the PWA renovations of the 1930s.

The Bazaar was originally an open-air soft goods market, not unlike what you would find in a Middle-Eastern setting. In the 1970s renovation of the Market, the Bazaar was converted into retail space for various boutiques and other shops. Today, there are stores and an ice cream place in the Bazaar. The Bazaar is obviously at its best during the day, because that's when the stores are open. In the evenings, the Bazaar becomes sort of an isle of calm when walking through the sea of chaos that is Decatur Street. The lake side of Decatur Street (for those of you unfamiliar with New Orleans geography, we refer to locations based on their relative positions to the two bodies of water that separate the city: the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain) is always full of people at almost any hour of the day or night. For a quieter walk past eight o'clock or so, cross over to the river side of the street and walk past the Bazaar and Butcher's Market. It's a two block reprieve from the madness.

We come now to the corner of Decatur and Dumaine. Resisting the temptation of leaving the French Market, crossing Decatur, and stopping in the wonderful bar of Tujague's restaurant for a cold one, we cross over to the Butcher's Market for the final leg of our walking tour.