The Big Easy gets easier

With new direct flights to New Orleans, Anthea Gerrie lets the good times roll in this tantalising US city

Sipping cafe au lait from exquisite china in the brick-paved courtyard of a secluded 18th century carriage house, I reflected with only slight regret that I’d soon be sharing these rarefied pleasures of old New Orleans with more Britons than ever. British Airways’ new non-stop flights from London to this uniquely tempting city, mean that paddling down the Mississippi on a steamboat, sipping a Sazerac cocktail to the strains of live jazz, or surveying elegant Greek revival mansions from a streetcar very like the one named Desire are now just that bit closer to home.

Despite — or perhaps because of — the tropical weather conditions which have threatened the city over the centuries, most recently Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is a city built for pleasure. Cocktails, music, art and simply superb food are the stuff of life for locals; visitors get to ride the bandwagon as long as they skip the tourist traps and follow the insiders.

Seek out the less well-known corners of the French Quarter, still an essential on every first-timer’s list for its historic landmarks and vibrant buzz, but also the city’s other neighbourhoods; from Magazine Street’s great shops and restaurants or family-friendly Mid City with its lovely 1,300 acre park housing the New Orleans Museum of Art, to the Warehouse and CBD (central business district), less picturesque but where virtually all the best restaurants are to be found,

It’s hard to find a more enticing base though than the Quarter or FQ , as locals refer to those few square blocks of colonnaded old buildings, their lacy