We had walked the full length of the French Quarter on Rampart St, then along its downriver edge on Esplanade, turning upriver onto Royal St, more or less heading back to our hotel in the Central Business District. Starting on Royal St at that end, one encounters quite a few residential buildings, with a few shops scattered around, on the ground floor. However, with but a few exceptions, as one approaches St Phillip St, things change, with shopping and galleries lining both sides of the street. Now, many of those buildings do have residential floors above, but the ground floors have been given over to the retailers, and gallery owners. The “mall” area, from about St Phillip to Bienville, is replete with great stores and galleries for window shopping, or even better yet, actual shopping inside – so many wonderful places, and many unique to New Orleans.
On our stroll, we did detour for a moment, taking St Ann St, in front of the Lower Pontalba Building, to go to Jackson Sq, and then the Washington Artillery Park. We returned to the Royal St Mall via St Ann St, so as to not miss the artists at Place de Henriette Delille, and also stopped into the Rodrigue Studio, at Royal and Pere Antoine Alley.
With the Winter sun shining in a clear sky, it was a wonderful day to stroll the Royal St Mall – though all we did was look this time, with no purchases.