THE GLITTER AND GRACE OF NEW ORLEANS.

Byline: Story and photos by Eric Noland Travel Editor

NEW ORLEANS - It's a city of such rich and complicated ethnic layers that as recently as 150 years ago, its chilliest social snubs were reserved for a contingent of newly arrived, newly prosperous bores:

Americans.

That's probably why even today New Orleans feels much more like an international city than a U.S. one. But sorting out the civic pedigree could give you a headache.

Part of a French colony for its first 45 years. A Spanish one for the next 40. Joined America 200 years ago this year, with a pen stroke that sealed the Louisiana Purchase.

All the while, many of the settlers didn't exactly roll into town amid fanfare. The French sent debtors, prostitutes and, later, soldiers loyal to a disgraced Napoleon. The British banished French-speaking Canadians here. Free blacks arrived from Haiti following a slave revolt. Pirates plying the Caribbean found it a welcoming base of operations. Irish, Germans, Jews and Italians in search of a fresh start also poured in.

Such did New Orleans gain its intricate texturing - and also its reputation as a refuge for the wayward (or the soon to be).

That spirit is very much alive today. You hear the people in the aisles of the just-arrived planes, excitedly planning the night's excesses.

For many visitors, unfortunately, New Orleans is synonymous with Bourbon Street, specifically a six-block stretch of the French Quarter where a cacophony of jazz, blues and pop music pours out of clubs, pushy barkers extol the merits of their sleazy shows, scam artists inquire as to where you got your shoes, and tourists with fuzzy expressions (is that the same guy from the plane?) walk about carrying sweet, potent hurricane drinks in neon-plastic cups.

But Bourbon Street is not particularly representative of the French Quarter, just as the French Quarter represents only a fraction of New Orleans.

For a more complete picture, browse through a funky antique shop, clatter along in a streetcar, savor a peppery morsel of shellfish in an out-of-the-way restaurant, wander alleys on a historic walking tour or marvel at a translucently white alligator in the zoo.

New Orleans began at the French Quarter in 1718, and so should you. The city's soul is contained here. But that doesn't mean you have to confine your explorations to the pedestrian parade of Bourbon Street. Avoid it completely, in fact, and you'll miss nothing of a redeeming nature.

Instead, for afternoon refreshment, duck into the Napoleon House for its signature Pimm's Cup - a crackling drink made from a gin-based liquor infused with aromatics, mixed with lemonade and lemon soda and garnished with a slice of cucumber. The 1797 building at 500 Chartres St. (pronounced charters) got its name from Napoleon supporters who envisioned it as a hideaway apartment for the fallen French emperor after they rescued him from St. Helena. (Napoleon died before the plan could be hatched.)

Find a table in the leafy courtyard out back - these sunny, tucked-away patios are pervasive in the French Quarter - and linger over a muffuletta sandwich brimming with meats, cheeses and olive salad.

For the French Quarter's purest form of musical entertainment, meanwhile, be sure to make a nighttime pilgrimage to Preservation Hall, housed in a tumble-down building at 726 St. Peter St. There is no air conditioning here, no drinks or food, minimal seating and no amplification for the instruments - not even a microphone.

Instead, the New Orleans-style jazz popularized by Louis Armstrong 70 years ago is presented in its most elemental form, often by aging musicians who rise creakily from their chairs to dazzle visitors with their ad-libbing virtuosity.

The players change nightly, and during our visit we were treated to the Olympia Brass Band, which had obviously worked a few funerals in its day. It would begin a tune in the slow, mournful manner of the procession, eventually switching to the exuberant tempo of the resurrection celebration. The band - trumpet, trombone, tenor sax, clarinet, sousaphone, snare drum, bass drum - tugged on its audience's emotional strings for ``St. James Infirmary,'' ``Tin Man Blues'' and a tune from the late stages of Armstrong's career, ``What a Wonderful World.''

Outside, the French Quarter was getting wilder by the hour - understandable in a city where you can walk into a bar, order a 16-ounce draft beer in a ``go cup,'' and carry it outside along the street, chugging openly. If you're in search of revelry, you won't have to look far, but visitors should be advised not to stray north of Bourbon Street and to stick to the streets with heavy foot traffic.

The subtle beauty of the Quarter is more evident during the daytime. Also vaguely perplexing. Your eyes aren't deceiving you: That architecture is Spanish Colonial. A fire destroyed about 80 percent of the city in 1788, which was during the period of rule by Spain. So the French Quarter doesn't look the least bit French.

Rather, it has the feel of a Caribbean colonial city of New Spain, with brick buildings covered in plaster and painted in shades of coral, yellow, salmon pink, light blue, gray. Dark-green shutters set off many of the festive colors. The Spanish officials also dictated that the two-story buildings be constructed right to the sidewalk, which gives the streets a narrow, charming aspect.

The lacy iron balconies and galleries - initially crafted by African artisans, later forged in Pennsylvania factories - are further design touches introduced by the Spanish.

A guided walking tour is a good way to get a sense of the French Quarter, and the Friends of the Cabildo, a museum group, conducts a reputable one. Soon we were traipsing around New Orleans' famed Jackson Square - where a statue of Andrew Jackson, hero of the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812, rears on his horse in the face of St. Louis Cathedral.

The two-hour tour provided a good overview of the Quarter and the city's origins, but a walking tour's merit hinges entirely on the guide, and ours was spouting a good deal of suspect information.

The Cabildo museum itself, which stands next to the cathedral, filled in some of the gaps, though. The transfer papers for the Louisiana Purchase were signed within these very walls in 1803, and the museum is offering a number of exhibits and programs this year to commemorate the bicentennial.

We were disappointed that Kenneth Holditch, a credible and fascinating guide, had suspended his French Quarter literary walking tour for the summer. New Orleans' literary heritage encompasses William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, Sherwood Anderson and Anne Rice, and Holditch, a literature professor at the University of New Orleans, knows their stories well.

Faulkner's legacy is nurtured at Faulkner House Books, a tiny shop in Pirate's Alley, just off Jackson Square. The author lived here while writing his first novel, ``Soldier's Pay.''

Williams' streetcar no longer runs to Desire Street, but there is one that still runs uptown from the French Quarter on St. Charles Avenue. (Somehow, a streetcar named Canal just doesn't have the same ring to it.) This is an excellent mode of transportation for venturing beyond the Quarter.

You can ride all day on a $5 pass, and hop on and off for explorations of the Garden District, the Magazine Street antique stores and the Audubon Zoo.

The green trolleys themselves provide a time-warp experience. Passengers sit on hard wooden benches, or stand and grasp leather straps, and ventilation is provided by open windows. The cars rattle and rock on tracks down St. Charles' grassy median, and the driver clangs the bell to warn away cars and pedestrians.

We jumped off at First Street and embarked on an 11-block self-guided tour of the Garden District's mansions, aided considerably by National Geographic Traveler's New Orleans guidebook ($22.95).

Lacy grille work adorns the galleries and balconies of the homes, which were built in elaborate Greek Revival and Italianate designs in the middle of the 19th century. It was with these edifices that the nouveau-riche Americans, regarded haughtily by high-born creoles (locals of European descent), made grand pleas for acceptance.

Anne Rice's house (corner of First and Chestnut) features a fence with thick wire twisted like rope. The emblems in the pattern are probably benign, but it doesn't take much imagination - especially when inspired by her fiction - to make them out as skulls.

The stories behind the homes are as intriguing as the architecture. Mark Twain was a guest at one. Another was built by a businessman who went boom, bust, boom. Others were home to businessmen who flourished in tobacco, cotton, sugar ... even gunnysacks.

The neighborhood is beautiful, too, with crepe myrtle trees cascading in pink blossoms, vines growing wildly into iron fences and mature magnolia trees so massive their roots are buckling sidewalks.

The environs are much less attractive a little farther on, in the Magazine Street shopping district. (Exit the trolley at Napoleon Avenue and walk seven blocks south.) Magazine Street is rundown and weedy here, but the 3900 and 4000 blocks are home to a thriving concentration of stores selling fine antique furniture and household items, much of it of European origin.

We were particularly impressed with Ann Koerner Antiques, which carried several notable pieces, including a weathered 18th-century French mirror and an American cypress table of authentically stressed wood.

Elsewhere, Jean Bragg Antiques had an impressive selection of New Orleans and Louisiana paintings, as well as antique linens and bedcovers. Karla Katz European Antiques, rich with the smell of burning candles, carried such items as a 19th-century Swedish grandfather's clock - working.

Then it was back on the trolley and on to the Audubon Park Zoo. A free shuttle carries trolley passengers to the zoo's front gate, or you can follow a walking path beneath spreading oak branches through the park.

Most visitors head straight for the zoo's Louisiana Swamp, since it provides a look into the region's natural world.

After crossing a bayou covered with scum the color of pea soup, you'll soon encounter all manner of swamp wildlife: deadly canebreak rattlesnakes, 8-foot gators, 2-inch cockroaches, bobcats and redfish (swimming, not blackened). But the most fascinating creature is surely the leucistic alligator - which, due to a genetic abnormality, has white skin and blue eyes. It is sometimes inaccurately referred to as an albino alligator.

You'll also learn that Cajuns - the exiled French-Canadians who gravitated to the backcountry - put anything they could catch into their spicy gumbo pots: shellfish, catfish, duck, frog, turtle, raccoon, alligator, gar fish, nutria, opossum, armadillo.

As night descends on New Orleans, you'll find that this inventive cooking philosophy - if not the complete list of ingredients - infuses the restaurant landscape. When French cooking methods converge with the spicy ingredients of the region, the foodie is the net winner.

Commander's Palace, Antoine's, Brennan's and Emeril's attract the most attention, but we discovered that delicious and inventive fare can also be had at any number of moderately priced establishments.

At the top of that list is Clancy's, an uptown bistro where you can't go wrong with red snapper in a meuniere sauce and crawfish tails or the smoked pork loin with creole mustard and green peppercorn sauce.

If you're looking for a spot in or near the French Quarter, try either of two restaurants run by New Orleans' Brennan family. The seafood gumbo at Mr. B's Bistro was the best we had in the city, and the signature barbecued shrimp dish was spicy, messy and tasty. The Palace Cafe served up sauteed catfish filets crusted with pecans and a nice shrimp remoulade, though its wine list was found to be a bit on the pricey side.

Another New Orleans dining experience is a simple one - though quintessential. At least one morning during your visit, you should grab a table at Cafe du Monde, just off Jackson Square. Yes, you have plenty of tourist company at this sidewalk cafe, and you're herded in and out brusquely, but you'll find locals, too, at this 140-year-old institution. The warm, doughnut-like beignets, dusted with powdered sugar, are fluffy and decadent, and the cafe au lait is exceptional (order a small to be assured of getting a porcelain cup).

Best of all is the human parade on Decatur Street. Fortune tellers. Street performers. Musicians. Artists. Revelers who seem to think Mardi Gras is a year-round proposition.

A motley mix, sure. But in New Orleans, it has ever been thus.

Eric Noland, [phone]

eric.noland(at)dailynews.com

IF YOU GO

AUDUBON ZOO: 6500 Magazine St. Summer hours: 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekends, 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays. Admission is $10 for adults, $6 for seniors, $5 for children ages 2 to 12. [phone]; www.auduboninstitute.org/zoo.

CABILDO MUSEUM: 751 Chartres St. Open Tuesday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and students. Children under 12 are free. [phone] or [phone]; lsm.crt.state.la.us.

CAFE DU MONDE: 800 Decatur St. Open daily, 24 hours.

CLANCY'S: 6100 Annunciation St. [phone].

FAULKNER HOUSE BOOKS: 624 Pirate's Alley. [phone].

FRENCH QUARTER WALKING TOUR: Offered by the Friends of the Cabildo. Tour meets on the east side of Jackson Square at 523 St. Ann St. Two-hour tour is offered Monday at 1:30 p.m. and Tuesday through Sunday at 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Reservations not necessary. Cost is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and students. Information: [phone].

LITERARY WALKING TOURS: Kenneth Holditch's Heritage Tours, [phone]. Tours offered October through May.

MR. B'S BISTRO: 201 Royal St. [phone]; www.mrbsbistro.com.

NAPOLEON HOUSE: 500 Chartres St. [phone].

PALACE CAFE: 605 Canal St. [phone]; www.palacecafe.com.

PRESERVATION HALL: 726 St. Peter St. Open daily from 8 p.m. to midnight. Admission is $5. Because no alcohol is served, the performances are open to all ages. No reservations accepted. [phone]; www.preservationhall.com.

CAPTION(S):

7 photos, box, map

Photo:

(1 -- 3 -- color) New Orleans is a colorful city - quite literally given the bright paints that dress up Pirate's Alley, top, and the rest of the French Quater. In Jackson Square, above, Andrew Jackson, hero of the Battle of New Orleans, rears on his horse in front of St. Louis Cathedral. Elsewhere, quaint streetcars still rumble along St. Charles Avenue, above left.

(4 -- 6) A visit to New Orleans reveals a quiet beauty not always associated with the city: ornate Garden District mansions with lacy iron fences, left; the Napoleon House, a 1797 building that was a would-be retirement home for the exiled ruler, above; and American folk items on display at the Country at Heart antiques store on Magazine Street, right.

(7) If you're looking for a party, the neon glow of Bourbon Street illuminates revelers every night of the week.

Eric Norland/Travel Editor

Box:

IF YOU GO (see text)

Map:

NEW ORLEANS

Gregg Miller/Staff Artist