I went on the Mardi Gras train ride where tickets cost £11

THINGS have taken a turn since the flaming Café Brûlot cocktail at lunch. 

I’m now a jumble of Mardi Gras sequins and feathers, and there is a giant eagle mascot lying at my feet.  

An hour earlier, the waitress at Antoine’s, in New Orleans, had ignited a punch bowl of the brandy-and-citrus coffee then ladled it on to our tablecloth in a fiery spectacle.  

Established in 1840, the French-Creole restaurant still has old-world charm, with chandeliers, wooden beams, and a jazz band roaming the tables at its Sunday Brunch.  

It had set us up nicely for the nearby Mardi Gras Museum Of Costumes And Culture, where curator Carl Mack encouraged us to play dress-up in the warehouse-sized closet.  

So here I am, in a sparkly purple gown, 5ft-wide shoulder collar, and a precariously balanced headdress. Another member of the tour has pulled on a bird of prey mask.  

We are in the Louisiana port city several weeks too early for its world-famous annual carnival, which starts in January and culminates on Fat Tuesday (“Mardi Gras” in French), the last day of street parades, colourful floats and letting loose before Lent — but the myriad museums and year-round party atmosphere have given us a taste of it. 

Our railway journey across America’s Deep South had started several days earlier in a city that has ruffled a few technicolour feathers with its claim that it is the “birthplace of Mardi Gras”.  

Mobile, in Alabama, says it hosted the very first celebration in the US, in 1703 — some 15 years before New Orleans was founded.  

As with any “healthy sibling rivalry”, though, “if either city was in trouble, we’d have each other’s back”, Mobile historian Cart Blackwell insisted.  

It is just as well, because the country’s national rail carrier, Amtrak, has reconnected the two Gulf Coast destinations after 20 years with its twice-daily Mardi Gras Service. 

It takes 3hr 45min from Mobile to New Orleans — or Nola as the locals call it — with stops in Mississippi cities Pascagoula, Biloxi, Gulfport and Bay Saint Louis.  

The dramatic 233km stretch across rivers, lakes and marshland has been a resounding hit with residents and tourists who, like us, have no desire to tackle interstate traffic.  

Train fares start from £11 for coach class, the seats and footwell are generous in size, and most of the main attractions in each city are within walking distance.  

Southern comfort food 

Blackwell, the curator at Mobile’s Carnival Museum, stresses its Mardi Gras is more family-friendly than New Orleans’, but is hopeful the trains’ early-morning and evening departure times will allow revellers to attend parades in both cities on the same day.  

After admiring the regalia from mystic societies’ former kings and queens, including intricately hand-sewn robes with trains weighing up to 50lb, we boarded Gulf Coast Tour’s white vintage-style streetcar. 

Tour highlights included the awesome USS Alabama battleship and fighter plane pavilion and neighbourhoods of charming Creole cottages and Colonial and Greek Revival houses.

The city is fast-becoming a foodie haven, and downtown’s Dauphin Street is the main entertainment and restaurant hub.  

Think streets lined with Forrest Gump’s childhood home, all in varying sizes and pastel tones, with wraparound porches, shuttered windows and swing chairs.  

The book about a loveable Alabama man, later adapted into the hit 1994 film, was written by Winston Groom, who lived for much of his life in Mobile.  

The city is fast-becoming a foodie haven, and downtown’s Dauphin Street is the main entertainment and restaurant hub.  

Stops on Bienville Bites’ walking tour served historical anecdotes and Southern comfort food including hickory-smoked Conecuh sausage, pecan bread pudding and oysters “fried, stewed and nude”.  

At the bustling 87-year-old Wintzell’s Oyster Bar, there are diner-style brown leather booths and walls covered in thousands of multicoloured plaques with more of the founder’s witty sayings.  

“Y’all should try” its sampler of 16 fresh Gulf oysters smothered in rich toppings like jalapenos, bacon and cheddar. 

For beer and meat-lovers, the family-run Callaghan’s Social Club has won awards for its juicy burgers (from £7.50).

A favourite with locals for 80 years, the dive bar has walls draped in neon lights and littered with family portraits, Irish memorabilia and pictures of local legends who have performed there.  

The city drew worldwide attention in 2019 after archeologists working the Mobile River, found the burned wreckage of the last- known slave ship to land in America.

The Clotilda transported 110 captured West Africans to Mobile Bay in 1860 — 52 years after the US had outlawed importation of slaves. It was then sunk to hide the evidence.  

At the Africatown Heritage House, a ten-minute taxi ride away, a deeply moving exhibition tells some of the individuals’ stories through written accounts and artefacts. 

It is a sobering reminder that much of the economy of the Deep South once relied on slavery.

Back downtown, we stayed at The Admiral, a quirky Versailles-inspired hotel, which has rooms decorated in a Mardi Gras colour palette of purple (justice) and gold (power).

It’s a five-minute walk to the station for our sunrise departure to Biloxi, once known as the “seafood capital of the world”. 

Its past can be explored at the Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum but to see the trade first-hand, we strolled along the Small Craft Harbour, where shrimp boats with recognisable outriggers and nets are moored, and pelicans perch on pilings.  

We then dived into tasty shrimp-and-crabmeat gumbo (a heavily seasoned stew) for just £6 at Mary Mahoney’s. Built in 1737, it is one of the oldest houses in the US, and even Elvis Presley once dropped by.  

One of the main draws to Biloxi is its big-name hotels and casinos, but Mississippi is most famous for founding the Blues. So an evening at actor Morgan Freeman’s  Ground Zero Blues Club is a must for live music. 

And, for a hotel oozing Southern charm, the White House, dating back to the 1890s, has white-stucco pillars and views of the Mississippi Sound. Less than an hour on the train and we were in Bay Saint Louis, which has a vibrant small-town vibe.

Tourist-heavy Bourbon Street provided blocks of hedonism, though we preferred the jazz and brass bands on Frenchman Street.

The seafront main strip has boutiques, antique stores, lively late-night wooden watering holes painted lime green and yellow that wouldn’t look out of place in the Caribbean, and The Pearl hotel, which is modern with spacious rooms overlooking the marina. 

Paddle-wheel steamboat 

We embraced the slow pace in the day — golf buggies are the vehicle of choice — and joined athleisure-wearing locals at the Mockingbird Cafe, the place to be. 

Bay Saint Louis also boasts a cultural gem — the 100 Men D.B.A Hall where blues and jazz greats including BB King and Etta James have played.  

Our final stop, New Orleans, proved to be a glorious assault on the senses.  

Tourist-heavy Bourbon Street provided blocks of hedonism, though we preferred the jazz and brass bands on Frenchman Street.

Strolling along the banks of the Mississippi, we took in the sight of a cruising paddle-wheel steamboat, one of the last of its kind, and spent hours wandering the French Quarter’s beautiful brick townhouses with floral wrought-iron balconies.  

For a behind-the-scenes look at carnival we toured Mardi Gras World to see floats and the artists who build and paint them.

And there was time for a more sobering trip, to the vast National WWII Museum.

There we saw a Higgins vessel, a shallow-water bayou boat built in Nola, that was instrumental in the D-Day landings.  

And confirming why it is frequently-named the “best food city in the world,” we indulged in beignets (powdered-sugar doughnuts), Po’boys (crusty bread filled with slow-cooked roast beef), and, given its close proximity to swampland, alligator (yes, tastes like spicy chicken). 

It has never been easier to navigate the party-loving Deep South, so make tracks for Amtrak’s Mardi Gras Service.