Louisiana, the one place in the United States where one can experience being in a different country. Southern Louisiana is like no other. It is as much French, as it is, The South, as it is American. Complexity and diversity is the mortar that binds it together. It is as beautiful as it is impoverished. There is a perceivable shifting of influences at play. History, culture, poverty, simplicity and elegance will always appear in shifting relationships of relative strength, and must be understood as the whole. Whether viewing the classic elegance of New Orleans' French Quarter or the tragedy of the Lower Ninth Ward after Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana can be a place of quiet elegance.
