If someone were to ask me how to describe this city in one word, I would have to say colorful. Not only are the buildings painted with some crazy colors, but the city is also colorful in art, history and culture. From giant murals and whimsical houses, to jazz music and creole dining, the streets of NOLA are filled with color. Keep reading to learn about the colorful city of New Orleans!

Colorful Shotgun Style Homes

One of my favorite parts of the city, were the colorful shotgun style houses. Before coming to New Orleans, I had never heard of this term until I started looking for Airbnb homes. Basically, this style of home is narrow and long, just like the barrel of a shotgun, with the rooms stacked one in front of the other. We stayed in a double shotgun in Bywater with Caroline and Adam. While visiting, I made it an effort to take as many pictures of these homes as possible, with hopes of including them in a collage style frame.

Street Art

The street art is incredible in this city in all areas! There are incredible murals on buildings and garage doors, art made with broken sidewalk pieces, fun signs outside of businesses, and even people’s porches and doors are a work of art at some homes!

The Music is the Best!

Walk anywhere in the French quarter and you will pass dozens of street performers, especially talented musicians. Our first experience was walking to Frenchman street on our first night, and having the pleasure of hearing a brass band performing right on the street corner. Frenchmen Street is a great place to visit for live music and art. It is super fun, but without the sleaziness of Bourbon street. We had the option to see live music inside, but we had just as much fun watching the street performers. Don’t forget to throw them a few bucks if you like what you hear!

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My favorite musician was this woman named Michaela Harrison and guitarist Joy Clark. I believe she was singing an Adele song when we first spotted her, an I was so drawn in that we walked across the street and sat by the fence to listen. She was singing “no woman no cry” in such a beautiful way that I got very emotional, and started to cry! Hear the clips below for yourself and you will know what I mean!

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Here are some clips of some other musicians we saw which were all so unique in their own ways!

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A fun quick clip of the bluegrass band we saw on Royal I believe.

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Walking home one night we saw this talented violinist.

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Really loved her voice!

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One of the bands we caught inside on Frenchman Street at Cafe Negril!

Another way to hear some cool music is to tune into WWOZ 90.7 for some really cool music from old time blues, jazz, gospel, Brazilian, French music, bluegrass, and more all adding to the colorful city of New Orleans! This was the station playing on the radio in our Airbnb bedroom when we checked in! You can also listen online!

Colorful Experience at a Coffee Shop

I have been getting so far behind on most of my blogging, which isn’t the best method for writing. The memories start to fade a bit once you go on to a new spot. So as I learn from my mistakes, I decided to write most of this blog post at Flora coffee shop. While at Flora, I found it to be quite the interesting, colorful experience. The owner is talking to a homeless older man about some skulls found in a neighbor’s yard. There’s an eclectic art collection (masks, books, bulletin board, and murals.) Also, there’s a guy hand writing a book about a father and daughter in a fantasy world and telling another local character about it, and a stray cat just found his way in!

The people watching is fantastic, hippies, professionals, homeless man comes in to warm up by the fire, and the owner welcomes everyone. How colorful is that? And this is not unique to just this spot!

Visiting New Orleans anytime soon? Be sure to check out places to get great New Orleans oysters and po’boys as well as fun things to do in the colorful city of New Orleans.