Elysian Fields
Avenue is a straight, lengthy street in
New Orleans,
Louisiana, which brackets the
Faubourg Marigny district and constitutes an extended border of the
French Quarter. The
avenue, named in accordance with the
French (and
European) penchant for reusing
appellations from the
Old World in
America (see
Champs Elysees), runs from the
Mississippi river all the way to
Lake Pontchartrain, thus connecting the two bodies of water between which
New Orleans sits in its humid,
flood-prone bowl.
In the Faubourg Marigny, Elysian Fields is peppered with old shotgun houses, decrepit French buildings, neighborhood grocery stores, and the occasional ancient, quiet bar. As it moves further away from the original city, its linear trajectory takes it through Gentilly, where one-story 1950's era houses and conspicuous palm trees seek to evoke a tropical town that never was (and perhaps mask the poverty of the neighborhoods, which are nonetheless relaxed and easy places to live), and finally through Lakeview, a more modern suburb, replete with strip malls and hideous brick office complexes. Elysian Fields Avenue terminates at Lakeshore Drive, a contrived scenic road that runs along Lake Pontchartrain, over which runs the longest bridge in the world.
For its duration, Elysian Fields is wide, with an especially thick neutral ground (elsewhere known as a median), which sometimes features gardens and miniature parks built by the city. At a few points, the avenue intersects major highways and freeways, like I-10 and the 610 loop.