United States of America - Miami

Our last stop in the United States: Miami! We were especially excited to go there because we had set an appointment with our dear friend Olga who currently works in Haiti. Miami was a perfect spot to meet, rest and enjoy the multifaceted pleasures of western life.

Olga and Axelle in the Everglades

We considered Miami as a puzzling city, famous for its luxury villas and marinas, and for its Cuban immigration. We decided to stay away from the urban bustle and enjoy the life in South Beach, which is in fact an island!

Miami Beach on a cloudy day

Surprisingly, the architecture of Miami Beach has a lot of character thanks to the work of the Miami Design Preservation League. For the last thirty-five years, this non-profit organization has been devoted to preserve the wonderful inheritance of what had become the Historic Art Deco District. Above all it stresses the importance of the architectural harmony of the neighborhood: maintaining the external appearance of  existing buildings while the new buildings should not copy nor clash with the current styles.

The Carlyle

Some buildings still need a renovation

In fact, on a handful of South Beach's streets is located the largest concentration of Art Deco buildings in the world. We attended a very instructive two-hours walking tour provinding an introduction to the Mediterranean Revival and Art Deco style in this recreational district.

Marlin Hotel

Jerry's Famous Deli

Jerry's Famous Deli

On Ocean Drive is located the most photographed building in Miami, a fine example of Mediterranean architecture style. But the mansion Casa Casuarina is mostly famous because the Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace was murdered on its stairs.

Casa Casuarina

Edison, another example of Mediterranean style

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A few kilometers south of Miami we visited the Everglades National Park, the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States. A popular way of going through the park's nature and wildlife is by airboat ride. Fun but noisy!

The Everglades are in fact a very slow-moving and shallow river flowing southwest at about 400 meters per day into Florida Bay. The park is the cradle of a very fragile ecosystem where lives a lot of protected and threatened species.

Our guide

An alligator

Baby alligators sleeping

Kissing a Cane Toad (a poisonous toad), it might not become Prince Charming

United States of America - New Orleans

Royal Street

Welcome to the city of jazz! New Orleans is a really exciting place to visit. The French Quarter constitutes the headquarters for tourists. Every block you pass echoes a live band while the colorful bright-buildings with iron balconies are simply amazing.

 

 Steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi River, 

another landmark of the city

We took the opportunity of attending a jazz concert in a mythical auditorium, the Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro, and saw the Quartet of Ellis Marsalis, the patriarch of a famous family of musicians from New Orleans.

New Orleans still presents a large variety of its historic architecture: French colonial, Spanish colonial like Napoleon House, etc. The district called Marigny which used to be part of the Marigny plantation presents examples of Creole cottages and shotgun houses where every room is just in a line. They are built like that for air flow during the long scorching months.

Napoleon House

Creole style house

Creole food at the French Market

The Garden district is supposed to present a more American style in opposition to the French quarter. The splendid mansions of local notables take up Greek Revival and Italianate elements.

House featured in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

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New Orleans is used to hurricane. Flood gates, levees and concrete walls along the canals are part of the landcape. Our hosts told us that three or four times every year, the TV channels advice the inhabitants to leave the city because of an hurricane arriving. But nobody had ever seen what happened in August 2005. The hurricane Katrina arrived along the Gulf of Mexico north coasts. New Orleans' levees broke open. Fifty ruptures occurred in the Federal Flood Protection System and the city was flooded by the canals. The water entered the city to the point its level was even with the level of Lake Pontchartrain. Once the levees were closed again, the water had to be pumped back into the lake. It took several weeks.

About a third of the population of the city did not come back. One of the changes in New Orleans after Katrina is the raise of the hispanic community which came to work in the reconstruction field. As to its previous inhabitants, some came back, others not. We even met a girl who had lost everything during the hurricane, went to San Diego and came back to settle in New Orleans only one month ago.

This house shoved further in the street

The city and the levees were rebuilt to the condition they were before. The parts that broke were fixed but nothing was further fortified. In some street of New Orleans can still be seen empty houses with barricaded doors and windows. Some of them are tagged with rescue-worker code, listing clockwise: the date that the house was cleared, the "hazards" like if there are any dead animals or gaz leaks in the house, the number of dead people and the number of the unit which inspected the house.

People are still rebuilding their houses. New neighborhoods are erected by non profit organizations like Habitat for Humanity or the Make it Right Foundation impulsed by Brad Pitt. For example, a Musicians' Village has been constructed to attract musicians back into the city.

 Musicians' Village

Make it Right Project

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A very popular attraction around New Orleans: a tour in the swamp! We went on a boat around Honey Island through the bayous. The wildlife there is wonderful. We saw small alligators, a family of hungry raccoons, a water snake and some birds. And the fall colours create a magic scenery.

 

Our guide and Bryan the Alligator

Raccoons

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A few miles from New Orleans, one can also visit old plantations, huge farms that mainly worked with slave work, an important part of Louisiana History. Those plantations were growing sugar cane, indigo and so on. Destrehan plantation was established in 1787. The majestic white-pillared mansion watches over the bank of the Mississippi River.

 

Destrehan Manor House

 Slave House on Destrehan property

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Participate to the Couchsurfing community is a great way to meet local people. In New Orleans, we were hosted by two wonderful ladies in their fourties. They had been traveling in Asia this year for some months and we had a lot of backpackers stories to share. Phyllis and Gina were also eager to talk about their home city, their experience with Katrina and ready to answer to all our numerous questions. They drove us around the city, offering us a priceless encounter with New Orleans.

United States of America - Washington DC

Washington Monument, an obelisk built in honor of 

George Washington, the first American president

The centre of Washington DC is pretty unique with a huge green area called the National Mall and Memorial Parks. On this huge surface are disposed the most important buidings for American politics (the White House, the U.S. Capitol, etc.), a lot of memorials to commemorate great men and wars, and huge national museums.

U.S. Capitol

Library of Congress

More than three kilometres separate the Lincoln Memorial at the extreme west from the U.S. Capitol at the extreme east. And one could spend more than a week in that space, exploring the different monuments and countless enormous museums. We enjoyed specifically the National Museum of American History but there are also the National Museum of the American Indian, the National Museum of Natural History, the National Air and Space Museum and so forth.

Lincoln hat when he was shot to death, National Museum of American History

The war memorials remind essentially wars from the Twentieth century: WWII, the Korean and the Vietnam war.

Vietnam Veterans Memorial

The Memorial Park displays monuments to great men, in particular the most significant American presidents from Thomas Jefferson to Lincoln or Frankin Delano Roosevelt. We were impressed by Thomas Jefferson life displayed in his memorial. He was a major actor in the public and intellectual life of his time, from writing the Declaration of Independence and becoming the third American president to creating the University of Virginia! He was also a highly respected farmer who invented many mechanical innovations. 

Thomas Jefferson Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

During our stay in Washington DC occured the inauguration of Martin Luther King Junior Memorial by the president Obama himself! Well the inauguration was originally planned for the 28^th of August but a 5.8-magnitude earthquake stroke the capital of the United States five days before. So we had the opportunity of attending this historical moment!

Thousands of people gathered at West Potomac Park to witness the dedication of the memorial and listen to the speeches. Aretha Franklin sang just before Obama's speech. Those two moments were the highlights of the ceremony. When the president appeared on the two screens, the huge crowd started shaking and burst into "Four more years! Four more years!". A very unique moment!

Martin Luther King Junior memorial

Martin Luther King Junior Memorial Inauguration with president Obama

Martin Luther King Junior Memorial Inauguration

Another event during this week end, the White House opened the doors of its garden to the public. This happens only two week ends every year since 1972, one in April and one in October. We saw there some trees planted by different presidents, a playground area for the presidents' kids and also a beehive and a kitchen garden (an idea of Michelle Obama).

White House

In the White House shop are sold a lot of presidential gadgets and figurines

The green heart of Washington DC is surrounded by enormous white official buildings with a Classical Revival architecture. The original urban planning was influenced by neoclassical landscape design. In fact, the layout of the streets were designed by a French-born American architect, Pierre Charles L'Enfant. The spirit of his his plans still lives in the city.

 Andrew W. Mellon auditorium