New Orleans Webquest

Welcome to New Orleans !

click on the saxophone to continue !

J.DESIRONT AC-REIMS

Find Louisiana on the map of the USA !

Click on the symbols and the names to learn more about Louisiana !

Play the games when you have finished completing your worksheet !

HURRICANE KATRINA

Hurricane Katrina is a tropical storm that struck the southeastern USA in August 2005 and also one of the deadliest hurricanes : 1.836 people died. The storm caused more than $160 billion in damage.Many people had to be rescued by helicopter because people were surprised by the storm. 80% of New Orleans were flooded for weeks.

HURRICANE KATRINA

Hurricane Katrina is a tropical storm that struck the southeastern USA in August 2005 and also one of the deadliest hurricanes : 1.836 people died. The storm caused more than $160 billion in damage.Many people had to be rescued by helicopter because people were surprised by the storm. 80% of New Orleans were flooded for weeks.

It is an Disney film set in the 1920s in New Orleans. Watch the extract, complete the lyrics and write all the symbols of New Orleans that you can see.

VOODOO

Voodoo first came to Louisiana with enslaved West Africans, who merged their religious rituals and practices with those of the local Catholic population. New Orleans Voodoo is also known as Voodoo-Catholicism. It is a religion connected to nature, spirits, and ancestors. The core belief of Voodoo is that one God does not interfere in daily lives, but that spirits do. Connection with these spirits can be obtained through various rituals such as dance, music, chanting, and snakes. Today gris-gris dolls, potions and talismans are still found in stores and homes throughout the city – a reminder of the New Orleans fascination with spirits, magic, and mystery.

Number of inhabitants : 376, 971 (2021)

THE PELICAN STATE

A FEW FACTS ABOUT LOUISIANA : Population : 4.590.241 (July 2022) Parks : 5 national parks and 21 state parks. The name of Louisiana comes from Louis XIV. Lousiana doesn't have an official language : English, French, Spanish and Vietnamese are spoken there.

The nickname for Louisiana is The Pelican State. The brown pelican is the state bird and appears on Louisiana's state flag, great seal and official state painting.

New Orleans is in the south oh the USA. It's near the Gulf of Mexico. The city is at the mouth of the Mississippi River and it's port is one of the busiest in the word. In the 1800s boats brought cotton and other products, down the river to New Orleans. Louisiana was officially proclaimed a French territory and named in honour of King Louis XIV by explorer Cavelier de Lasalle in 1682.

The territory subsequently changed hands several times—ceded to Spain in the Treaty of Paris in 1763, recovered by France in 1800, then, three years later, sold by Napoleon to the United States—but these shifts of allegiance did not lead to the disappearance of French in the area. They produced a specific cultural mélange !

BEIGNETS

New Orleans is world famous for its unique and very distinctive cuisine. It is known for specialties like beignets or Fried Oysters and other creole dishes, the most famous one is the Jambalaya Shrimp dish. The Jambalaya dish is composed of meat, rice and vegetables. Gumbo is a soup composed of stock (bouillon), meat or shellfish, celery, bell pepper and onions (creole versions).

GUMBO

SHRIMP CREOLE

JAMBALAYA

CRAWFISH BOIL

DOWN TO THE BAYOU

The Bayou was created by the Mississippi river but the water is stagnant so it became what we call a swamp. Flora and Fauna Louisiana's bayous are home to American Alligators, blue herons, shrimps, white-tailed deer and fish. People of Bayou Country Choctaw Indians have inhabited Louisiana's bayous for centuries. The native United Houma Nation also live in the bayous. In the 18th century, the French Canadian Acadian people migrated to Louisiana's bayous. Many of Louisiana's bayou residents, called Cajuns, speak a form of French unique to the region. Cajun music, called zydeco, includes African rhythms. American jazz and folk songs. Tourism in the Bayou Fishing, hunting, nature and photography enthusiasts make up the base of the Louisiana bayou tourism industry.

New Orleans is home to the most famous festival Mardi Gras which is French for "Fat Tuesday". Fat Tuesday is the last day of the Carnival season as it always falls the day before Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent (Carême). The next one will be on February 13,2024. Mardi Gras is about music, parades, picnics, floats and excitement. It's one big holiday in New Orleans! Revelers wear costumes or at least dress in purple, green, and gold, and adorn themselves with long beads caught from the floats of previous parades. You'll see a lot of crazy costumes, kids with their families are everywhere, and both locals and visitors having a great time. Parade goers will sit on the ground, throw balls, play music, eat great food and watch the crowds walk by between parades. On Mardi Gras day, the majority of non-essential businesses are shut down because of the celebration.

New Orleans Jazz

Jazz, America's original art form, began in New Orleans in the late 19th century. By the turn of the 20th century, jazz could be heard all over still-segregated New Orleans, performed by both black and white bands. New Orleans musicians, hired to perform on paddlewheel riverboat cruises on the Mississippi River and its tributaries, spread the music to Memphis, Saint Louis, Kansas City, and Chicago. Jazz's very first hero, however, was the legendary and un-recorded Buddy Bolden, whose powerful style had a deep impression on a very young trumpeter named Louis Armstrong. A jazz festival is now organized every year : The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (commonly called Jazz Fest or Jazzfest) is an annual celebration of local music and culture and attracts thousands of visitors to New Orleans each year.

Louis Armstrong

Louis Daniel Armstrong (1901-1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", was an American trumpeter, composer, vocalist and actor who was among the most influential figures in jazz. Armstrong is renowned for his charismatic stage presence and voice as well as his trumpet playing. By the end of his life, his influence had spread to popular music in general. He was one of the first popular African-American entertainers to also be popular with white audiences. He was able to access the upper echelons of American society at a time when this was difficult for black men.