»
»
»

United States

Some general information about the USA, especially Arizona, California, Louisiana, New Mexico and Texas.

Parenté :
1. Amérique
2. United States

This page presents the cities and places I visited in 2008 during an internship in Austin (Texas) and in 2013 during one year of studies at the University of Arizona.

History

List of the presidents

This is the list of the offices of the presidents of the United States. The given year is the one when the office began. The president takes the oath on the 20^th of January, just after the election.

Geography

See my page in French about the spatial organisation of the American territory.

Page dédiée : Géographie des États-Unis

Une composition de géographie : « L'organisation du territoire des États-Unis d'Amérique ».

Transports

The main transport systems in the USA are plane and car.

Trains

There are very few trains, but they are quite long compared to French ones.

Education

Here is a list of a few American universities that I had the opportunity to visit.

City	Name	Photo
Tucson, Arizona	University of Arizona
Phoenix, Arizona	Arizona State University
Berkeley, California	University of California
Palo Alto, California	Stanford University
Pasadena, California	California Institute of Technology
San José, California	San José State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico	New Mexico State University
Austin, Texas	University of Texas

Arizona

Page dédiée : Arizona

A guide book about Arizona and its main cities: Phoenix and Tucson.

California

Page dédiée : California

A visit of San Francisco and other cities of the Bay area: Oakland, Berkeley, Palo Alto and San José, as well as cities in the South: Los Angeles and San Diego.

Louisiana

The capital of Louisiana is Baton-Rouge but the most famous city is New-Orleans.

New-Orleans

New-Orleans city is famous for its culture and its architecture. The most famous place is the French quarter, with its balconies and its Spanish-inspired architecture.

The Mississippi is famous and you can still see one of the last steamboats: the Natchez and cross the river with a free ferry.

Jazz music is an important element for the identity of the town. Some people play saxophone in the streets and music festival often take place there.

This city is famous for its "cajun" food, which originates from Acadian immigrants. The most famous cajun dish is jambalaya, which is a creole rice. It often goes with pork meat. Other dishes are crawfishes, shrimps, boudin...

A lot of houses were abandoned after Katrina for a lot of people were ruined. They lost nearly everything and prefered to leave this town and go elsewhere.

Transports

The streetcars in New Orleans, opened in 1835, are the oldest tramways still operating in the world!

Bayous

The bayous are large swamps in which you can see a lot of different animals, from birds to alligators. Several swamp tours are organised near Houma for tourists to see this fauna.

One of the tours proposes a visit in 10 000 acres of swamps, in a private property in which no hunting nor fishing is allowed.

The "Spanish moss" is a flowering plant that grows on trees.

Alligators

The matching period for alligators is July and the young alligators get born in September. Egrets (3 species in Louisiana) and herons eat 80 % of them and only 2 % reach the adult size. Alligators are marked by cutting a scale of their tail.

Birds

Besides the beautiful egrets and herons, some Turkey Vultures, or Black Vultures (Coragyps atratus), which are carrioneaters are present around the bayous.

Other animals

The other animals that you can see there are raccoons and a lot of mosquitos that bite including through the jeans! Fortunately, a lot of them are eaten by the dragonflies.

Plantations

Near New-Orléans, in Houma, you can visit one of the nine last plantations that remain in the United States among the thousands that existed. This one was owned by the family of Laura Locoul Gore (1861-1963). This family originated from Normandie, in France: Guillaume du Parc, Laura's grandfather, was sent to the French navy and became governor of Louisiana. Later, he received 12 000 acres of land and began a plantation. This one was lead by women during 84 years. The leader of the plantation was called the "president". Growing sugarcane was not the only activity of the plantation: it was also the largest wine distributor in Louisiana, importing thousands of bottles from Bordeaux.

A compagny has been created to save this plantation, its 19th century architecture and present a part of the Creole culture, which is the result of influences from Indian, West-African and European people. The visit was inspired by Laura's memories, wrote in English in Memories of the old plantation home.

Before 1916, two languages were used in Louisiana: French (or Creole) and English. The houses where French was spoken had always a lot of colours whereas the English-speaking families lived in white houses. In 1916, speaking French was forbidden in schools and homes, so, all the houses were painted in white.

The main house of the plantation is called a "maison de trente" (houses of 30), which means its length has 30 beams. The way of constructions is inspired by West-African architecture. The house is 200 years old and its beams are in perfect conditions. Despite the ground is very instable (there is no rock under the ground, only alluvium from the Mississippi), the house does not sink, since it is build on 72 brick pyramids. The house is made of "bricks between beams", which was a real advantage in case of fire because bricks don't burn. Indeed, at the beginning of the 20th century, a problem in the electrical circuit caused a fire that entirely destroyed the kitchen. Fortunately, only a small part of the house burnt. Today, there is still a kitchen garden, with a lot of species of plants, from citrus trees to fig trees and several sorts of bananas.

The plantation needed slaves to work. Those were very expensive: a 25-year old strong men costed 100 000 dollars of 2008 and no slave costed less than 10 000 dollars. Before the abolition of the Code noir, they had some rights: for example, the were to be paid when they worked on Sundays, so, 10% of them could buy their freedom. They were forced to be catholic, but had the right (not) to marry and not to be separated from their children until their majority, which was set to the age of 13. They were severely punished when they tried to escape: they could be marked with hot iron on the cheek. After the Code noir was abolished, they were treated like animals, living at two families in a house.

In 1866, after the end of the American Civil War, all the Southern states abolished the Black code and of the slavery. But segregation remained until 1970.

New Mexico

Page dédiée : New Mexico

A visit of some cities and places in New Mexico: Las Cruces, Alamogordo and the Very Large Array.

Texas

Page dédiée : Texas

A guide book about the Texas and two of its main cities: Austin and San Antonio.

Cette page en anglais a été créée par Peter à partir de notes de voyage, 23 mai 2005 et modifiée pour la dernière fois 12 septembre 2021. Son avancement est noté 2/3.

Chargement

Veuillez patienter

Cliquez pour fermer la fenêtre.