Walk down narrow streets with names like Chartres, Bourbon, Decatur and Toulouse. Peer into hidden courtyards tucked behind iron gateways where banana trees, butterfly lilies and lush tropical ferns flourish. Explore shops that are home to an eclectic mix of eccentricities, souvenirs and luxuries. Stop in at the famous antique stores on Royal Street. When you reach Jackson Square, plan to enjoy the outdoor entertainment: mimes and artists, dancers and magicians. There's always something happening!

From the Mississippi, it is a short drive up Poydras Street, the heart of the business district, to the Superdome, where tours are available. For a different view of New Orleans, ride the historic streetcar down St. Charles Avenue, through the midst of the Garden District. This area was home to the Americans who moved to New Orleans after the Louisiana Purchase. The wide streets and stately elegance of the 19th century homes provide a sharp contrast to the narrow streets and closed courtyards of the French Quarter. A few streets over from St. Charles Avenue, you will discover Magazine Street, where dozens of small cottages sell everything from art supplies and antiques to books, flowers and clothing.

Here, too, are excellent cafes, bistros and restaurants. City Park, home to the newly expanded New Orleans Museum of Art, is another stop everyone will enjoy. In addition to boating and fishing on the picturesque lagoons bordered by some of the state's most magnificent old live oak trees, you'll also find tennis, golf, picnic areas and Storyland a children's fairy tale theme park. Greater New Orleans is a timeless blend of colorful traditions, historical excitement and elegance, joyful music and fabulous food that will turn your vacation into a celebration of one of the world's unique destinations.

U.S. Mint
Near Jackson Square, tour the U.S. Mint, which houses New Orleans Jazz and Mardi Gras Exhibits. Browse through the open-air French Market for jewelry of every description, eel skin and leather, antique dresses, uniquely decorated hats, sculptures, T-shirts, fresh pralines and a variety of local produce. You'll also find a fabulous assortment of Louisiana's Creole and Cajun seasonings, which brings us to the food and music for which this city is world famous. From muf fulettas and po-boys at Italian grocery stores on Decatur to Oysters Bienville and delicately seasoned soft shell crab at the numerous fine dining establishments, it is almost impossible to find anything but delicious food here.

Music
Where there is food, you'll often find music. It’s not uncommon to hear strains of Dixieland wafting faithfully and joyfully down cobbled French Quarter streets. At night, on Bourbon Street and off, a musical bazaar awaits. Preservation Hall and Maison Bourbon are two of the most famous spots.

Mardi Gras
Mardi Gras is an ancient custom that originated in southern Europe. It celebrates food and fun just before the 40 days of Lent, a Catholic time of prayer and sacrifice. Brought to Louisiana by the French, it evolved in New Orleans from a simple carnival event into extravagant parades of ornamented floats, musical bands and ornately decorated masqueraders. Today, big cities and small towns throughout Louisiana enjoy lively festivities at balls, parties, parades, carnival rides, street dances and more beginning as much as two weeks before "Fat Tuesday"!

The rural Cajun towns of Mamou, Churchpoint and Lota celebrate with "Courir du Mardi Gras," copied directly from the old European tradition. Masked horse riders travel the country roads stopping at designated homes and farms where they perform dances and antics to win chickens, vegetables and other ingredients for a large country gumbo everyone shares at the end of the day. The "Carnival" spirit is contagious and wherever you celebrate Mardi Gras in Louisiana, it is always an exciting event.

Music Trail
The Louisiana Music Trail follows a path that meanders through countless cultures and generations of history. It cuts its way through major urban centers and then spreads out to the rural countryside, echoing the constant refrain of diversity as it twists and winds its way through Louisiana. From the grand concert halls to the obscure roadside honky-tonks, from historic Congo Square in Armstrong Park to places where Mardi Gras Indians roam, travelers who travel this trail are treated to the rich and abundant musical legacy that is distinctly and unmistakably Louisiana.

Don't look for any signs or markers along the Louisiana Music Trail. You won't need them. You'll know you're there when your heart stirs at the brassy sounds of a jazz trumpet on a glorious New Orleans night. You'll want to clap and sway to the gospel strains that stir you in a North Louisiana chapel, or two-step to this area's country/bluegrass. You'll understand when your pulse quickens and your toes begin to tap out the tempo of a hot Cajun or Zydeco band warming up the crowd on a Saturday night in a Southwest Louisiana dance hall.

Fairs and Festivals
From jambalaya in Gonzales and boudin in Broussard to sugar cane in New Iberia, strawberries in Ponchatoula, cotton in Bastrop and corn in Bunkie, Louisiana celebrates its unique foods and abundant harvests. They showcase musical wealth in festivals like the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the Baton Rouge Blues Festival and Opelousas' Zydeco Festival. Louisiana’s cultural heritage is important, too: Artbreak in Shreveport, the Louisiana Folk Life Festival in Monroe, Festivals Acadiens and Festival International in Lafayette, Contraband Days in Lake Charles and Heritage Day Festival in St. Francisville. At Christmas, few events can compare to Natchitoches annual Festival of Lights, one of Louisiana's many unique holiday offerings. Civil War reenactments and living history exhibits are another side of the state’s offerings.

Louisiana's Climate
The weather in the Louisiana’s coastal region is quite diverse. The moody Gulf of Mexico is the state's weather-maker and gives Louisiana its subtropical climate. Snow rarely falls in the southern sections, with only small snowfalls usually recorded in the northern areas. The statewide annual rainfall is about 56 inches a year, with the northern regions averaging 46 inches and some of the southern coastal parishes averaging as high as 66 inches of rainfall a year. Annual average temperatures range from 66 to 69 degrees (Fahrenheit), with July averaging 82 degrees and January averaging 53 degrees.

Plantation Country
Bounded on one side by the Atchafalaya Basin and on the other by the countryside stretching north from Lake Maurepas, Plantation Country is a pocket of mystery, elegance and majesty. There are historic towns and rural customs, rich delta lands, and the culture of the people who drew their life and wealth from the alluvial soil. Inevitably, the Mississippi is the center of vacation.

Cajun Country
Cajun Country has a mystic charm, a land of towering sugar cane, winding bayous, Acadian cottages, and crawfish ponds. You can explore historic towns and cities with vibrant folk life, colorful carefree traditions, a specific way of speaking that will make you wonder if you really are in the U.S.

Crossroads
Here, in central Louisiana, you will discover the roots of Louisiana's cultural bounty for, in a sense, this is Louisiana's birthplace. Natchitoches, founded by Louis Juchereau de St. Denis four years before the founding of New Orleans, is the oldest settlement in the Louisiana Purchase Territories. St. Denis was the commandant of Fort St. Jean Baptiste, the site from which the first French settlers defended the land against the Spanish. A replica of the fort is open to the public today at the Fort St. Jean Baptiste State Historic Site. And Natchitoches, with its unique brick streets, has grown into a vibrant and beautiful historic town made famous in the movie Steel Magnolias.

Sportsman's Paradise
Old South elegance and gleaming glass skyscrapers nestle comfortably amid the natural splendors of Sportsman's Paradise, bearing rich testimony to Louisiana's amazing diversity. Named for the rolling, wooded hills and the plentiful lakes, rivers and bayous that have yielded their bounty to eager hunters and fishermen since prehistoric times, Sportsman's Paradise is home to sophisticated cities, historic towns and abundant entertainment.

Area: 51843 sq.mi, Land 43566 sq. mi., Water 8277 sq.mi.

Location: 30.44896 N, 091.12604 W.

State Capital: Baton Rouge.

Population: 4,372,035; 22nd, 12/99.

Coastline: 397 mi., Shoreline 7,721mi.

Border States: Arkansas - Mississippi -Texas.

Agriculture: Seafood, cotton, soybeans, cattle, sugarcane, poultry and eggs, dairy products, rice.

Industry: Chemical products, petroleum and coal products, food processing, transportation equipment, paper products, tourism.

Flag: The design consists of the pelican group from the state seal, in white and gold, and a white ribbon bearing the state motto, "Union, Justice, and Confidence", on a field of a solid blue.

Largest Cities: New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Shreveport, Lafayette, and Kenner.

Geographic Center: Avoyelles, 3 miles southeast of Marksville.

Highest Point: Driskill Mtn. 535 feet; 48th.

Lowest Point: at New Orleans; 8 feet below sea level; 2nd.

State Bird: Eastern Brown Pelican.

State Flower: Magnolia, magnolia grandiflora.

Motto: Union, justice, and confidence.

State Nickname: Pelican State.

Origin of state's name: Named in honor of France's King Louis XIV.

State Song: Give Me Louisiana.

Statehood: April 30, 1812.

State Tree: Bald Cypress - Taxodium distichum.