New Orleans: Lafayette Cemetery No. 1

The day after we took a tour of Saint Louis Cemetery No. 1 in New Orleans, we were wandering around the Garden District somewhat aimlessly. When we came upon Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, I was thrilled to be able to explore a Nola cemetery without the time constraints and restrictions of a guided tour. I did see people on a tour, but unlike Saint Louis Cemetery, Lafayette is open to the public.

Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 was established in 1833 as a non-denominational cemetery and is home to more than 7,000 permanent residents, approximately 1,100 family tombs and at least one friendly lizard. I enjoyed our brief tour of Saint Louis Cemetery, but I fell in love with Lafayette. I have the tendency to get overwhelmed and forget about time constraints, especially in beautiful cemeteries. I easily could have spent all day at Lafayette, but I did have to meet up with the rest of our group eventually, which was probably for the best.

I feel as if we were cheated out of seeing Marie Laveau's tomb knee-deep in offerings, so I was pleased to finally get to see some proper cemetery decorations adorning many of the tombs, including fake flowers, beads (when in Nola) and various other offerings. A lot of the grave decorations that you find in modern cemeteries seem sort of cheap to me—plastic decorations, stuffed animals, resin statues—but there's something about just being in New Orleans that gives everything a voodoo / altar-like meaning that made me instantly a fan of sun-bleached flowers and beads draped over headstones.

Like Saint Louis, Lafayette is an above-ground cemetery and while it doesn't have the Nicholas Cage pedigree, it does have a tomb for the Society for the Relief of Destitute Orphan Sons from 1894. It was used as a filming location for Interview with a Vampire and you can even by an entire mausoleum—I'm assuming the purchase price also includes the acquisition of current residents Mildred and Bobbie?