Sin and Salvation A Guided Walking Tour

2 hours Free cancellation

Sin and Salvation A Guided Walking Tour, photo 2 — Photos: the activity supplier, via Viator

About this activity

For nearly three centuries, New Orleans has lived somewhere between the sacred and the scandalous. Sin & Salvation explores the complicated relationship between faith, vice, morality, power, forgiveness, and reinvention in a city that has never fit neatly into anyone’s definition of respectable.

Beginning at Jackson Square, guests look toward St. Louis Cathedral while hearing of notorious Gallatin Street and Bricktop, then enter the religious heart of the city through Père Antoine, the Ursulines, Marie Laveau, Henriette Delille, and the Sisters of the Holy Family. Mardi Gras, Lent, temperance, Storyville, jazz, sex-work, and the lives of Josie Arlington, Lulu White, and Norma Wallace reveal a city where sin and salvation have always existed side by side.

We begin looking at a cathedral while talking about sin. We end seated in a former bordello talking about salvation, asking: Who gets to define sin, what does salvation look like, and who gets to be saved?

Private and Luxury Cultural Tours Historical Tours Walking Tours Short term availability Weather Dependent - Moderate

At a glance

Duration: 2 hours
Confirmation: Instant confirmation
Ticket: Mobile or paper ticket accepted
Group: Up to 15 people
People per booking: 1–15
Guide: English
Operated by: DuPont and Company

Ages: Adults (13–99 years)

What is included

Included

Included: Expert Guide with ancestral ties to New Orleans sin and salvation

Not included

Not included: Snacks
Not included: Alcoholic Beverages
Not included: Gratuities: Tips are appreciated but never mandatory.

Itinerary

St. Louis Cathedral

15 min

Cross into the religious heart of the French Quarter to explore Père Antoine, Catholic New Orleans, confession, forgiveness, and the Ursuline sisters, whose work in education, healthcare, and care for vulnerable people helped shape the early city.
French Quarter

one hour

Explore Marie Laveau’s Catholic faith alongside Louisiana Voodoo and consider a spiritual world in which Catholic and Afro-Creole traditions did not necessarily require choosing one over the other. Continue through the Quarter while exploring temperance, drinking, gambling, prostitution, morality campaigns, and the repeated attempts to make New Orleans behave. Discover why the city often responded to vice not by eliminating it, but by moving it.
Storyville District

15 min

Enter the world of Storyville through two of its most famous madams. Compare Josie Arlington and Lulu White while examining prostitution, race, the Blue Books, female power, exploitation, wealth, reinvention, and the complicated meaning of respectability.
May Baily's Place

30 min

End the walking portion inside a former nineteenth-century bordello. Hear the story of May Baily, explore prostitution before Storyville, finish the remarkable life of Norma Wallace, and sit together for a final discussion about morality, forgiveness, reinvention, saints, sinners, and the soul of New Orleans.

Meeting point and pickup

Everyone meets at the meeting point.

Meeting point

Meet in front of May Baileys place.

End point

Cancellation

Free cancellation

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

If you cancel	You get back
At least one day before	100%
Less than a day before	0%

The operator may cancel if the weather does not allow it; you then get another date or your money back.
The operator may cancel if too few people book; you then get another date or your money back.