Hurricane Katrina Damage Tour
Segment Two (03/28/2006)
Place d'Armes Hotel

Once we arrive in New Orleans, we drove around the French Quarter until we located our hotel, Place d'Armes Hotel . One thing that is really amazing about New Orleans is how much space is in the center of each city block. While walking and driving around the city, one feels a little cramped, but on each block there is plenty of room. In fact this motel has more that 83 rooms but has plenty of space and even has a medium sized courtyard and pool in the center.

The Place d'Armes Hotel is a remodeled and upgraded, historic property centrally located at Jackson Square in the heart of New Orleans' French Quarter and easily within walking distance of all major downtown New Orleans attractions - Bourbon Street, Royal Street, the French Market, and Canal Street. The Place's 83 guest rooms are set in eight historic renovated and restored townhouses which surround a lushly planted courtyard pool. One way the motel saves space is it parks your car on the roof, great idea, however; we had to wait three hours when the elevator broke down to get our car. Expect an additional parking fee which is not stated up front, so add about $20-30 to the room price for parking. Even with that, it was still worth the stay. Pat picked this hotel because it is listed as a haunted hotel. Now while I am a huge skeptic, I did have a very haunting dream that actually woke me up that night. I dreamed that a floor lamp was shacking back and forth and was so startled that while waking up I got the camcorder out and started taping. Once I was fully awake, however, I realized that there were no floor lamps, but only a table lamp in the room. Later after talking to the receptionist while at checkout the hauntings have always occurred in the rooms in our area, with most occurring in the room next door. Maybe I was being visited by another dimension, what a rush. I am however still a skeptic!!

Paul J. Lossner

Photos of Place d'Armes Hotel

Central Courtyard at Night

We got an many opportunities to see what is going on personally. The local workers who once lived in homes and apartments in New Orleans have been displaced to Slidell, Covington, Lacombe, or Mandeville. All of those towns are North of Lake Pontchatrain and result in over a 45-minute to an hour commute. While the residents are frustrated they try to take it in stride, one must wonder if they feel it is worth it to drive that far in unexpected and unplanned traffic, pile into houses or apartments, for the lower wage jobs that badly need employees. It was like all were commuting and no one seemed to have local housing. If you’re looking for a service job, head for New Orleans and hopefully you can locate housing. And these employees are required to bring the tourist activity up and keep New Orleans running!