New Orleans, USA
Airing Date: Mar 10th, 2007
The Mississippi River is one of the world's greatest river systems running through, or bordering, ten states in the United States --
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana - before emptying into the Gulf of Mexico about 160 km downstream from
New Orleans.
A great way to experience the river is on the world's largest steamboat,
'The American Queen'. She holds 436 passengers and 167 crew and rises six decks high. Although her designers filled her to the brim with today's technological advances, the many public rooms and accommodations are still true to the style of the original Mississippi steamboats from the 1800's.
The boat is packed with antiques and outside, lacy filigree evokes the memory of the many grand river steamers that both preceded her and inspired her designers. Guests can select a volume from the vast collection in the Mark Twain Gallery, the boat's library, enjoy a sing-along in the Main Deck Lounge, or tap your toes to a lavish show in the two-deck-tall Grand Saloon, the most elegant show place on the river.
The boat stops at various places along the river including a stop at the
Oak Alley Plantation. This was built in 1837-9 by Jacques Roman, a wealthy sugar cane farmer from New Orleans and brother of Andre Roman who was twice governor of Louisiana. The quarter-mile canopy of huge oak trees were already there, and were planted in the early 1700's by a French settler.
In sharp contrast to the romanticism of Oak Alley,
Laura Plantation is very much a working plantation, now as much as in 1805 when it was built. Visitors can do a guided tour which transports you into Louisiana's Creole culture. Named by Lonely Planet Travel as the "best history tour in the US", the one hour tour is based upon 5,000 pages of French documents found in the Archives Nationales in Paris, and upon Laura's "Memories of the Old Plantation Home", dramatically detailing 250 years of true-life stories of Creole women, slaves and children.
