city of a million fleurs-de-lis

  

Katie and I had been talking about going on a road trip since well before we were able to drive, and finally, at the end of June, we did it: six days in Louisiana. We rented a car, whom we christened Jean Claude, and went on a leisurely tour of southern Louisiana, from the city to the bayou to the "Venice of Louisiana" to the lake and back to the city at the end.

We spent our first and last couple of days in NOLA, where we wandered around the French Quarter, Tremè, and the Warehouse District eating anything that wasn't nailed down: two rounds of Johnny's (fried oyster po boy + shrimp grits), dinner at Cochon, late-night Mexican in the back of a club on Frenchmen Street that I didn't catch the name of (kicking myself, because the food was awesome), and of course the requisite beignets and café au lait at Cafe du Monde.

While moseying through the city we came up with a fun game to play if you're ever in New Orleans: count the fleurs-de-lis (first to ten wins). It can be a little tricky outside of the French Quarter, but once you're in the FQ you're basically shooting ducks in a barrel, so after the first round was finished, we came up with the following rules:

1. The fleur-de-lis must be voiced and acknowledged by at least one other player for it to count.

2. No Saints symbols. (I mean, you could be done after a single store window if that were allowed.)

3. Once a player has found a fleur-de-lis of a certain category, she may no longer use that category for another fleur-de-lis during the same game. Example: once she has spotted a fleur-de-lis on a flag, she cannot call out any more flags. Same goes for signs, bumper stickers, Christmas tree ornaments, pottery urns, garbage cans, fencepost toppers, decorative belts, and beverage containers. (Note: we spotted all of the above.) As you become more advanced at the game, you can be more specific about just what constitutes a category. We decided that a pottery plate and a pottery urn were different categories, for instance, but you might not!

4. Bonus points for particularly excellent spottings may be awarded at the other player or players' discretion. Example: combination fleur-de-lis/American flag. Generally the number of bonus points would be two.

5. However, in spite of the fact that we never saw one, we decided that five points should be awarded for a fleur-de-lis tattoo. (We felt it was acceptable to make an exception to our no-Saints-symbols rule for tattoos.)

6. If the tattoo spotted as per #5 is on the person's face, automatic game over. You have spotted the most magical thing that could ever be.

Even if you are playing the advanced version of the game as delineated above, you can still point out fleurs-de-lis that fit into already taken categories, so that the players can let the glory of the fleur-de-lis wash over them. Don't worry if you lose to a particularly sharp-eyed player whom the fleur-de-lis has graced with its blessing. Everybody wins when you spot fleurs-de-lis!