The Badly Behaved Women
Who Made New Orleans Tour
with extra cocktail stops
2 Hours, 15 min. Duration
Tickets $30
2 PM
Friday-Sunday
Private tours offered - call for details!
ALL TOURS ARE SMALL GROUPS, 15 GUESTS MAX
Ages 18+
The founding mothers of New Orleans, when it was a French colony, were shipped from Paris prisons, and built the greatest red light district in the western hemisphere. Later, at the turn of the century, brothel queens decked in diamonds lived in palaces of marble and mahogany -- and the early pioneers of jazz music entertained in their bars. There was even a circus brothel, with onstage performances!
We'll also discuss a other famous women who broke all the rules, like the Baroness Pontalba, Voudou Queen Marie Laveaux, and more!
We share laughs and answer the group's questions. Our tours bring these incredible time periods to like with fun extras like a book of visuals, a take-home Polaroid of your group, & more!
Take home a piece of New Orleans you won't forget!
Ages 18+
- TOUR ITINERARY -
Part One
1 Hour & Change
We begin with refreshments, coffee or cocktails are both available! Then we'll see vice districts like Gallatin St., the roughest street in the U.S. in the 1800s. We'll see old brothels, hear how our early French king Louis XV became a sex trafficker, and even wrapped the Ursulines nuns up in his bizarre schemes!
We'll see real brothels of the past, even one reported to be the House of the Rising Sun (or is it "rising son"?). Hear about the many famous and respectable citizens who knowingly rented to madams and profited immensely off prostitution.
Hear about Marie Laveau, our famous Voudou queen -- wait, what is she doing on this tour? She wasn't a... high-end madam whose clients were the most powerful men in the city? Let's talk. On this tour, you get the real New Orleans history, not fit to print on most tours.
Cocktail Breaks!
We'll visit three bars along the way, two with suggested historic
cocktails like the Vieux Carre and Sazerac!
1 Hour & Change
Part Two
See old Basin St., where our first madams hung red lanterns outside of old wooden shacks in the French colonies. Blocks away, see Storyville, our turn-of-the-century red light district, where Madams ruled like queens, in palaces of marble, walnut, and mahogany. They made millions and controlled New Orleans politics. Even before prostitution was legal, a queen-madam killed her U.S. Senator lover in the city and got off scot free!
These pleasure-palaces weren't built to last, there's not much Storyville architecture left to see. Instead, we take you to Louis Armstrong Park, which overlooks Basin St. and what used to be Storyville, where there's usually plenty of seating where we can show you photos of the wildest madams you've ever heard of, their brothels, and discuss the rich history of the place.
We've authored a number of five-star tours, and there's really nothing like this one! It's our favorite!!
Tickets $29
2 PM Friday-Sunday
Private tours offered - call for details.
Meeting Place: The corner of Decatur & Barracks Sts.,
by the old U.S. mint