Paranormal Road Trip: Destination New Orleans with Suzanne Johnson

Come on boys and ghouls!  It's time to hop on Route 666 for a spooktacular Paranormal Road Trip.  This week's stop is New Orleans and our special guide is Suzanne Johnson author of the Sentinels of New Orleans series.

The Sentinels of New Orleans series is set in New Orleans, Louisiana so it seems fitting that our guide for this week's Paranormal Road Trip be the amazing Suzanne Johnson.  Let's see what terrifying places Suzanne has planned for our tour.

New Orleans' Top Five Spooky Places

There are plenty of reasons why my hometown of New Orleans is considered the most haunted city in America, and one of the most haunted in the world. I mean, you have the whole voodoo thing, an old city by U.S. standards with a very non-American vibe, an extremely violent history, rumors of vampires flying out the attic of a convent (really!), and—oh yeah—we bury our dead aboveground so occasional heavy floods send coffins and skeletons floating down the street.

Man, I love this place.

The ghost of pirate Jean Lafitte is said to hover around the Lafitte Blacksmith Shop Bar and the Old Absinthe House, and half the rooms in the Hotel Monteleone are said to be haunted. But if you really want to send the chill bumps racing up your spine and raising the hair on the back of your neck, check out these five spots, in no particular order.

St. Louis Cemetery Nos. 1 and 2.  These are the oldest of New Orleans’ famous “Cities of the Dead,” with tombs dating back to the 1700s. No. 1, the most well known, opened in 1789, a good 15 years before our pirate Lafitte wandered the streets of the city. Probably the most famous grave in No. 1 is that of voodoo priestess Marie Laveau, although you can also find Barthelemy Lafon, an architect who joined Lafitte’s pirate legions. In No. 2, cozy up to the crypt of Dominique You, Lafitte’s closest ally and alleged half-brother. (Alas, the whereabouts of Captain Lafitte himself are not known. Well, except in my books, where he lives on forever, the handsome scoundrel.) Even if graveyards in general don’t creep you out, I defy you to wander around the maze of St. Louis No. 1 or 2 with its rows of aboveground tombs and not feel a chill breeze or two. Not to mention that crow that hangs around Marie Laveau’s grave.

The Hotel Monteleone.  More than a dozen different spirits are said to hang out at the hotel (not including the ones in my books), and history oozes from the walls of the marble lobby with its antiques and revolving Carousel Bar, where local literati such as William Faulkner were said to imbibe. The thirteenth floor—renumbered fourteenth—is said to be the most haunted, and includes the ghost of a young boy believed to be a child who died nearby in the late 19th century.

The Bourbon Orleans.  Another hotel, this one haunted by the ghosts of the orphaned children the site once housed, as well as the nuns who ran the orphanage. There’s also believed to be a pirate ghost hanging out in the stairwells, and TVs have been known to turn themselves on and off.

The Napoleon House.  A great spot to people watch, original patrons of this 18th-century building constructed as a home-in-exile for Napoleon Bonaparte (he never made it) are said to sit in the upper-floor windows and watch the current, living, denizens of the place. There’s no better spot on a sultry, stormy night.

Six Flags New Orleans. Okay, okay, it’s probably not haunted, but it might as well be. In 2005, almost exactly nine years ago, Hurricane Katrina sent the waters of Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet over and through the levees, putting 80 percent of the New Orleans metro area underwater. Including Six Flags. The park never reopened and, caught in terminal litigation, it still sits there, its rusted swings moving in the breeze, weeds and vines winding through the silent roller coaster and other rides. It is by far and away THE creepiest spot in New Orleans. Maybe anywhere…which is why I had to use it as a setting of a novel, of course!


Thank you Suzanne for giving us such a haunting tour of New Orleans!  To learn more about Suzanne Johnson and her books, please visit her website and don't miss our Q+A with Suzanne Johnson here at From the Shadows.  Also, don't miss my review of Elysian Fields, the newest book in the Sentinels of New Orleans series, and our character interview with Drusilla "D.J." Jaco.  You can add her Sentinels of New Orleans series here on Goodreads.

Readers, was this your first visit to New Orleans?  Have you experienced anything supernatural in and around New Orleans?

What did you think of Suzanne Johnson's picks for spooky places?

Last week on Paranormal Road Trip we visited Savanna, Georgia with J.D. Horn.  Next week we'll be traveling to Manhattan with Melissa De La Cruz.

Join us for another spine-tingling Paranormal Road Trip...
if you dare!

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