ATTRACTIONS - City Tours - French Quarter Art & Literature Tour

The unique culture of the "Big Easy" has attracted some of America's preeminent writers and inspired their greatest work. Look forward to seeing streets, shops and cafes which bring their characters to life. The tour will include a visit to the working studios and galleries such as Madame John's Lecacy, circa 1788.

Madame John’s Legacy was one of the first houses built after the 1788 fire. It is purported to be an adaptation of a French plantation house, a replica of the house that stood on the site before the fire. It is constructed using the technique “briquette-entre-poteaux”, or brick infill between timber posts. The roof is pitched steeply to shed rain. It extends to cover the gallery on the second floor, allowing the French doors to be protected from both the rain and sun. Malcom Heard writes, “Madame John’s Legacy, on of the Quarter’s landmarks, is so named not because any living woman named Madame John ever inherited it, but because George Washington Cable wrote a charming story in which she did; he identified the house convincingly, linked the fictional character to it, and the name has stuck.”