Jazz streams out into the moonlight, French doors open to the night breezes, sweet olive scents the air. Nearby there is laughter, a cork popping, and café brûlot aflame. Welcome to New Orleans. Here, in this little corner of Europe and the Caribbean in the American South, the history is as colorful as the local architecture; the food is the stuff of legend.

Haitian and African Creoles developed an exotic, spicy cuisine. The street names are French and Spanish, and the European and Creole architecture comes in a carnival of tropical colors. The magic is irresistible. New Orleans may be the most fragrant city in the world. The scents are ubiquitous and intoxicating. Sweet olive mingles with gardenias; the magnolias intertwine with honeysuckle and night-blooming jasmine. The air is dense and sweet, drifting as currents do along the river breezes. Fragrance, however, is the only atmospheric excess.

True, occasionally it rains with tropical abandon, making music as the drops hit wide banana leaves and palm fronds, but the torrents are short-lived. The original city planners chose high ground for the French Quarter, so it doesn’t flood. The climate is mild and pleasant most of the year—a cross between the Mediterranean and the Caribbean.

Reprinted, with permission of the publisher, from 50 FABULOUS GAY-FRIENDLY PLACES TO LIVE (www.FabCities.com) © 2005 Gregory A. Kompes. Published by Career Press, Franklin Lakes, NJ. 800-227-3371. All rights reserved.