“Leaving New Orleans also frightened me considerably. Outside of the city limits the heart of darkness, the true wasteland begins.”— John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces
The Big Easy, The Land That Care Forgot, is the island in Louisiana containing the ruins of New Orleans and its suburbs (Bogalusa, Kenner, and Metairie among them). The Big Easy is surrounded by a mire formed when the lakes Borgne, Pontchartrain, and Salvador flooded beyond capacity. It has taken centuries of labor to keep the island from sinking into the gigantic swamp around it.
The land has a deserved reputation for debauchery: from the bawdiness of a Vieux Carré honky tonk to the pomp of a Tuloya fête. Liquor, music, and soft company draw in travelers from as far away as the Corpse Coast and the Gold Coast; not to mention points further north.