The Original French Market Coffee Stand named Cafe Du Monde on Decatur Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, is literally a world famous location. It is open 24 hours a day, and seems to always have a sizable crowd despite the time. Tourists come to New Orleans from all over the world, and the Cafe du Monde is one of the most popular sites to visit in the city. Why do so many people visit this place? The Cajuns of Nova Scotia brought many French recipes with them as they began to settle the Gulf Coast region, including Louisiana. One of them was the beignet, a deep fried pastry which is similar in flavor and texture to a donut. Beignets are made from pate a choux, a dough that contains no leavening agent such as yeast, but the high moisture content of the dough causes a heavy flow of steam during the cooking process, which puffs the pastry. At Cafe du Monde, beignets are the only food item on the menu, and they serve thousands of them per day. Just a few bucks will buy you a paper bag of beignets, nested within copious amounts of powdered sugar. As a matter of fact, it is common to find small piles of powdered sugar on benches and planter walls throughout the French Quarter, where tourists were previously enjoying their beignets. The popular drink of choice served at Cafe du Monde with beignets is another Cajun French recipe, chicory coffee. The Wild Images Team wanted to capture an image to give a sense of the round-the-clock popularity of Cafe du Monde. Here we captured an image at midnight, while the cafe was still as crowded and popular as ever. And of course, we stopped in for our own bag of beignets afterwards. The Wild Images Team has captured many other great images in New Orleans including the prominent Hotel Monteleone and surrounding buildings, beautiful French Quarter ironwork view through the cornstalk fence, intricate designs of a house facade and lamp shadows, nice reflection of a bridge in the Louis Armstrong Park, dynamic view as a Canal Line streetcar passes a St. Charles Line streetcar, the eerie nighttime view of Pirates Alley of the French Quarter, an example of an urban art sign stenciled on the wall, the distant building and colorful lights of the French Market, chance encounter with a teddy bear silhouette in French Market window, more north can be found an ornate mausoleum of Greenwood Cemetery, elsewhere is a heavenly scene over Cypress Grove Cemetery, more south was a sunset over the Mississippi River delta, all of which are available for sale in our store. Our blog posts of New Orleans document the midnight crowd at always busy Cafe du Monde, the dimly lit stocked shelves of Loa Bar in the International House Hotel, the colorful French Quarter Wedding Chapel at night, the happy couple leading a wedding procession on Chartres Street, far down the French Quarter where intricately colorful balconies stand above Chartres Street, the moment when entertainers welcomed crowds to the Jax Brewery, the street performer human statue Uncle Louis poses with a visitor, the pink hues of a rare colorful mausoleum in Greenwood Cemetery, the long shadows of bikes chained to old pump lamp posts, reflections of the bus commuters in front of a St. Charles Line Streetcar, a view of the city reflected in the Steamboat Natchez searchlight, the nighttime view of lighted tugboats along the Mississippi River, the steampunk view of the PBF Petroleum Refinery along the Mississippi River, the St. Charles Avenue Irish House Guinness Toucan Time For A Pint clock, the humorous but serious condominium listing warning that the place for lease is haunted, the listing that creates relief by being not haunted, our always entertaining Team Coordinator Christina in Cafe Maspero, and again our Team Coordinator under the Guinness Toucan clock. A distance away from New Orleans to the west are the enormous swamps of the Atchafalaya Basin, where we have captured numerous great photos such as the alligator with cypress tree reflections, a group of alligators with dragonflies, a very large cypress tree and Spanish moss, a thick cypress tree grove reflects in the still water, a large swarm of dragonflies congregate on a marsh plant, a very red sunset through the cypress trees, and a reflective sunset through the Spanish moss, each of which is available for sale in our store. Another image captured much further away to the west along the Gulf of Mexico coast is this very remote cemetery near Cote Blanche Bay, and much further away to the north up the Mississippi River is the Myrtles Plantation front yard walkway, each of which are available for sale in our store. We have also documented much of our time in Louisiana in many different blog posts such as in the Atchafalaya Basin where we encountered an open style honeybee hive and Spanish moss and down near the gulf coast with another view of the remote cemetery near Cote Blanche Bay.
To see more photos, please visit our store