New Orleans was founded by the French on the banks of the Mississippi in 1718, taken over the Spanish in 1762, regained by Napoleon  in 1800 and sold to the United States in 1803. New Orleans has survived yellow fever and cholera epidemics, floods, hurricanes, Indian wars, slave uprisings, the American and French Revolutions, the Civil War, racial riots and political corruption.

New Orleans is known for its port. The port is why the city was founded and why it survived. New Orleans became a commercial center, connecting Europe and the West Indies with upper regions of the Mississippi.

Today, New Orleans is known for its cuisine and jazz, its Vieux Carre (French Quarter), and fabulous Garden District.

The Vieux Carre Bike Tour will start in Jackson Square, the heart of the French Quarter and the best place to get a feel for the city’s unique history. Here, you are surrounded by the river, St. Louis Cathedral, the Cabildo and Presbytere and the Pontalba Apartments.

Jackson Square is filled with artists, street musicians, jugglers and other sights and sounds that can entertain you for hours. As you ride through the narrow streets of the Vieux Carre to the outer parts of the quarter, you will see graceful colonial buildings, wrought iron balconies filled with plants and flowers, the famous bars on Bourbon Street and the antique shops that fill Royal Street.

As you travel along, take time to read the historical notes on your que sheets and on the historical markers along the route and you will learn about the pirate, Jean Lafitte, voodoo and its queen, Marie Laveau, and about Madame Lalaurie’s tortured slaves.

The Uptown–Garden District Bike Tour will take you along St. Charles Avenue, home to dozens of mansions constructed by the Americans that came to New Orleans after the Louisiana Purchase. Creoles, the original settlers, had their roots in the French Quarter area. They considered the Americans barbaric and thoroughly unsavory. In the early 1800’s, the Creoles did not mix socially with the Americans.

These gigantic antebellum homes, with their vast lawns, look exactly as they looked more than a century ago. A few are still in the same families. The University section is located in the Uptown area. Tulane and Loyola Universities reside side by side on St. Charles Avenue.

So now, let’s start our tours. The French Quarter tour is best enjoyed early on Sunday morning. There will be little traffic in the Quarter and you can stop often and enjoy the sights. After touring the quarter, you can cycle uptown to enjoy lunch at one of the nice restaurants on Magazine Street and then continue on to Audubon Park. This is the best place to start your Uptown-Garden District Tour.