Bright Bistro
by Kathy Bassett
Title
Bright Bistro
Artist
Kathy Bassett
Medium
Photograph - Photography - Digital Fine Art
Description
A 'must stop to rest' beams from the hot and dusty street, beckoning my attention to a very informal but haute bistro. I was luck enough to get a seat before they were taken quickly during lunch hour. A memorable and needed break, found by wandering the French Quarter for just this type of place.
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Many of the buildings date from 1803, when New Orleans was acquired by the United States in the Louisiana Purchase, although some late 19th century and early 20th century buildings were added to the area. Since the 1920s the historic buildings have been protected by law and cannot be demolished, and any renovations or new construction in the neighborhood must be done according to city regulations to preserve the period historic architectural style.
Most of the French Quarter's architecture was built during the late 18th century and the period of Spanish rule over the city, which is reflected in the architecture of the neighborhood. The Great New Orleans Fire (1788) and another great fire in 1794 destroyed most of the Quarter's old French colonial architecture, leaving the colony's new Spanish overlords to rebuild it according to more modern tastes. Their strict new fire codes mandated that all structures be physically adjacent and close to the curb to create a firewall. The exception to that rule, The Cornstalk Hotel, also listed on the National Historical Register, still stands today at 915 Royal street and is most photographed hotel in the French Quarter. The old French peaked roofs were replaced with flat tiled ones, and wooden siding was banned in favor of fire-resistant stucco, painted in the pastel hues fashionable at the time. As a result, colorful walls and roofs and elaborately decorated ironwork balconies and galleries, from the late 18th and the early 19th centuries, abound. (In southeast Louisiana, a distinction is made between "balconies", which are self-supporting and attached to the side of the building, and "galleries," which are supported from the ground by poles or columns.)When Anglophone Americans began to move in after the Louisiana Purchase, they mostly built on available land upriver, across modern-day Canal Street. This thoroughfare became the meeting place of two cultures, one Francophone Creole and the other Anglophone American. (Local landowners had retained architect and surveyor Barthelemy Lafon to subdivide their property to create an American suburb). The median of the wide boulevard became a place where the two contentious cultures could meet and do business in both French and English. As such, it became known as the "neutral ground", and this name is used for medians in the New Orleans area.
Before the Civil War, French Creoles had become a minority in the French Quarter.[9] In the late 19th century the Quarter became a less fashionable part of town, and many immigrants from southern Italy and Ireland settled there. In 1905, the Italian consul estimated that one-third to one-half of the Quarters population were Italian-born or second generation Italian-Americans. Irish immigrants also settled heavily in the Esplanade area, which was called the "Irish Channel" Thank you Wiki!
Uploaded
January 8th, 2015
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Viewed 519 Times - Last Visitor from Cambridge, MA on 04/23/2024 at 12:28 PM
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Comments (21)
Laurel Adams
KATHY, Your behind the scenes shares are heArtfelt and I so appreciate the depth they add to your already beautiful work. Thank you for gracing this contest with your entries, your soul spaces and eye for composition and colour. Best to you! Viewers and voters…a must read in the discussion…one might realize colours of chairs are not simply chairs…and tree limbs hold more than leaves and the sky holds more than clouds…and…and…well, check it out!
Luther Fine Art
Congratulations on your fabulous artwork being featured in one of FAA's newer Groups - Camera Art! You are invited to archive your work in the Features Archive thread! group or any other thread that it would fit in! LF
Ludwig Keck
Congratulations! This image was voted a favorite in the Cafe Art Favorites - 2015-2 Contest