On the last day I was there, I took a walking ghost tour, which is exactly what it sounds like. They walk you through the French Quarter and tell you about ghosts.
I have to preface this with saying, I don’t believe in ghosts. At all. The guide asked who didn’t, and I was one of only a few that raised their hands. So I am supposing that I am in the minority about this.
We were encouraged to take lots of photos and see if we caught a picture of a ghost. I wonder what kind of special ability a camera (made by man) has of getting a picture of something that is apparently not visible by man’s own eyes? There’s some voodoo going on at the Apple manufacturing plant? (well, that’s a given, but for other reasons.)
Because perhaps you believe in ghosts, it’s time to play:
Spot the Ghost!
The rules are simple, I post the photos of the ghost tour I took in New Orleans, and you tell me if you see a ghost in any of them. I personally didn’t, but maybe my unbelieving eyes aren’t capable of seeing them.
Our first destination was pirate’s alley. Hilariously enough, as our guide was telling his pirate story, a pirate walked by, causing our entire group to silently stare at him. Maybe we had a group hallucination?
Walking down into pirate’s alley
The most important thing I learned in pirates’s alley is that even ghost pirates love rum. Keep that in mind in case you end up having one haunting you, apparently they can be bribed.
We went by the Omni Hotel next. The story there is true, and it’s pretty horrible. There’s a lot of information out there about this one, because it just happened in 2006. Check it out here. I could have swore I took a picture of the place where he jumped, but I couldn’t find it at all when writing this post. Sure, it could have been the ghost that deleted it, but it also could have been a faulty SD card. Or my faulty memory.
Walking around some more, we came to a theater that we didn’t go in, but we did go to the pub next door to encourage us to buy more drinks. At that point, I decided I had drank way too much already, so I just sat quietly and stared at the wall to the theater.
Probing the wall for it’s mysteries!
Apparently an actress hanged herself. And then cursed some performances. Some people are just so bitter about their former workplaces.
Across the street, I sensed a heavy police presence.
Woooooo I think I see a cop!
I think there may have been too much action going on for ghosts to show up. I don’t know much about ghosts, but I feel like they like things that are nice and quiet.
We continued on, where we passed this house that was decorated by corn. Unfortunately we did not hear the story of the corn house, but instead heard a story about the inn next door.
Vegetables are under utilized as decoration.
This story kind of gave me a creepy feeling, assuming it was true of course. Back in the day of using camera film, husband and wife are staying at the inn, carefully using their allotment of pictures on things people actually want pictures of. Nearing the end of their vacation, they see they are out of pictures way before they thought they would be. When they go home and develop their pictures, the last 3 pictures are of them. Taken from above their bed while they were sleeping. Creepy. Naturally they complain, but the inn management claims they didn’t do it, and are baffled by it.
Not far from the corn house, is the most famous haunted house in New Orleans: The house of Madame Lalaurie.
The ghost(s) demand impeccable maintenance of the house!
If you don’t know who this is, you should google her, because what she did was so gruesome I don’t think I want to go into the full details. Basically she tortured and murdered her slaves. But if you know her from American Horror Story, I watched that out of curiosity when I got home, and wow, what a terrible show. The most horrific thing about it was how boring it was.
Kitchen/slave quarters to the left, main house to the right.
Moving on from there, we went inside a haunted house. Or more specifically, an apartment sitting on top of a restaurant, accessed by this super creepy hallway.
Inside, we heard that this building used to be a brothel, and a prostitute that worked there was so upset by her life that she drowned her young child in the well outside, and then hung herself in the corner pictured below.
Even though it happened right in the room, I sensed nothing unusal or out of the ordinary. Although I did notice that the bathroom bin was overflowing with trash, so someone should get on that before the ghost is angered.
After a comment from the guide about how non-believers are poor tippers, the tour was over. Self fulfilling prophecy I’m guessing.
Did you see any ghosts?