New Orleans Travelsketching Solo

I left on november 18th for my first solo travelsketching trip.  My destination: New Orleans.

I was quite nervous as I never travel alone before, but luckily I speak english and if I encounter bad guys, I will just have to pock them in the eyes and run.  So there was no actual reason to be worried.

My trip didn't start quite as smooth as I would have liked though: A migraine kept me awake most of the night before my flight and sticked around until noon the next day.  But I was determine to sketch so I did manage to get the plane sketched anyways... Ouf!

To make things better, when I got to the hotel my credit card wasn't working...  All I wanted is to go to bed and hope that it wasn't a preview of how my vacation will go...

So here I was alone in New Orleans to sketch.  I've done it.  Well at least I got there, now I needed to go out and actually sketch... hehe

On my first morning in New Orleans, I took a magic pill to try to get reed of my migraine took my sketching bag and went to the discovery of this beautiful town.

I ended up renting a hotel room on the west bank so I had to get to the ferry terminal and cross the Mississippi in order to get into the interesting part of New Orleans.  Or so I thought.  On the first day I decided to walk to the terminal... it took about 90 mins.  Most of the walk was boring but when I got to Algiers historic district, I fall in love with the trees on Opelousas Av. which I sketched a little further in my trip.  It was also a very nice little neighbourhood with an architecture that varied a from the french quarter so I decided to sketch some of them.

For my first sketch in New Orleans I picked the St-Louis Cathedrale.  It was a pleasant experience as I could listen to the various street bands while I was sketching.

I really enjoy the architecture of the French Quarter.  But it wasn't easy to sketch as if you put everything it just look like a mess...

I also explore a little more:  Went to Charles av and did a ride on board a street car.

I, of course, waited over 45 minutes to savour those famous beignets from the café du monde...

Did some touristy activities as well: a Cruise on the Mississippi River on board the Creole Queen, a visit of a and a boat ride in a swamp looking for alligators.  I also visited a sugar can plantation that I sadly didn't have time to sketch.

One of the thing that I found a little more hard about travelling alone was the meals...  The waiters were quite nice though, and I did a few sketches to pass time...

And Here's a few more sketches

All in all I'm quite happy with my experience.   The people of New Orleans were very nice.  Sometime people would stop by and talk to me about my work which I appreciated as it made me feel less alone.

I thought I would have more sketches done, but I ended up doing a lot more walking around than I planned. I found it very hard to choose what I will be sketching, maybe there was going to be something more interesting further?  might as well walk a little more....  And sometime I ended up walking for hours telling me the same thing without sketching nothing hehe

Next planned travelsketching trip? Kenya and Tanzania in March!  I'm soon excited!