"...dans le milieu de la Ville qui fait face à la place, se trouvent tous les besoins publiques..." : remarques sur la notion de centralité urbanistique en Louisiane coloniale et à New Orleans

The founding of the colonials towns of "La Mobile" (Mobile. Al.) and "La Nouvelle Orléans" (New Orleans, La.) illustrates the original French type of town-planning. In New Orleans particularly, all powers focused on a central square. This "place d’Armes" appears as the basis of the symmetrical grid of the town itself. After the Louisiana Purchase (1803), the place d’Armes, becoming Jackson Square in the name of the general who had defeated the British army, acquired the status of a national symbol in a rapidly growing town. Today (at least before Katrina...), are the "Vieux Carré" and Jackson Square itself, nothing but the image of a city, a frozen area in a touristy and gentrified historical landmark