My first "date" with my wife was almost exactly described by the Parachute song New Orleans: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKknLB8LXCQ https://www.youtube.com

My first "date" with my wife was almost exactly described by the Parachute song New Orleans: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKknLB8LXCQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKknLB8LXCQ She spent her late teens and early adulthood living in the city, and moved back after living all over the place several times during her life; and so when we met we just got in her car and she took me to all the places that were meaningful to her: shopping on Magazine Street, Ursuline Academy where she went to high school, a book signing with one of her classmates, coffee and beignets at Café du Monde, lunch at Domilise's, etc. It was important to her because she felt that to understand New Orleans was to understand her as a person better. The major detail from the song that was missing was there were no roses bursting through cracks in the sidewalk, but sometimes there was jasmine growing along the fences and walls adjoining the sidewalk and as you walked along you'd just be bathed in the smell of it. Random marching or jazz bands do sometimes pass right by you. Everything you said about the city is true. It's sometimes dangerous, and I wouldn't want to be out in the wrong place at night, but it's honest and raw and real in a way most cities, even my beloved Boston, are not.