New Orleans is a major city on the southeastern coast of the United States where the majority of The Vampire Chronicles and Lives of the Mayfair Witches trilogy novels are set.
The city has had such a great success thanks to Anne Rice's novels that it has become a kind of symbolic place for fans of vampires all over the world, making New Orleans a symbol of Gothic literature as in the past Bram Stoker's Dracula made the Eastern Europe and Transylvania the place of vampirism par excellence. It has become so popular that there is even an Anne Rice's tour to places of interest in New Orleans mentioned in the novels.
Places of interest[]
2301 St. Charles Ave.[]
This spacious, two-story white house was Rice's childhood home.
2524 St. Charles Ave.[]
Rice's family moved into this traditional-style raised villa when Anne was 14. It's prominently featured in her novel Violin.
Boyer Antiques Doll & Toy Museum, 241 Chartres St.[]
In the Interview with the Vampire movie, this is the shop where Claudia admires a doll and then deals with the patronizing shopkeeper in typical vampire fashion.
Café du Monde, 800 Decatur St.[]
Lestat visits this restaurant in The Tale of the Body Thief, and Michael and Rowan snack here in The Witching Hour.
Coliseum Theater, 1233 Coliseum St.[]
In the film version of Interview with the Vampire, this is the theater where Louis sees Tequila Sunrise.
Commander's Palace, 1403 Washington Ave.[]
Rice readers will recognize this restaurant as a favorite of the Mayfair family.
Court of Two Sisters, 613 Royal St.[]
Characters in The Witching Hour dine here.
First Street House (The Rosegate House), 1239 First St.[]
Once the home of Anne Rice, this house served as the inspiration for the Mayfair family home in the Mayfair Witches novels.
Galatoire's, 209 Bourbon St.[]
Characters from several books, including The Witching Hour, dine here as well.
Gallier House, 1132 Royal St.[]
This famously preserved museum is said by Rice scholars to be the model for the house on Rue Royal that was home to vampires Lestat and Louis in Interview with the Vampire.
Hotel Monteleone, 214 Royal St.[]
This was Aaron Lightner's house in The Witching Hour.
Jackson Barracks, south of the French Quarter along the Mississippi.[]
This area was used for numerous exteriors in the Interview with the Vampire movie, including the scene where Louis and Claudia run for their ship after setting Lestat on fire.
Jackson Square, French Quarter[]
It's here that Claudia makes an important decision regarding Lestat's fate in Interview with the Vampire and that Raglan James meets Lestat in The Tale of the Body Thief.
Lafayette No. 1.[]
This centerpiece of the Garden District is also a frequent setting in Rice's work, especially as a roaming ground for Lestat and Claudia in Interview with the Vampire and as the graveyard for the Mayfairs in The Witching Hour.
Madame John's Legacy, 632 Dumaine St.[]
In the Interview with the Vampire movie, this is the house from which the caskets are being carried as Brad Pitt's voice-over describes Lestat and the little vampire Claudia going out on the town: "An infant prodigy with a lust for killing that matched his own. Together, they finished off whole families."
Marsoudet-Caruso House, 1519 Esplanade Ave.[]
A few blocks north of the French Quarter at the intersection of Esplanade and Claiborne avenues, this is the house where Louis scents the smell of old death in the Interview with the Vampire movie and finds the moldering Lestat shrinking from helicopters in a musty chair.
Omni Royal Orleans hotel, at 621 St. Louis St.[]
Katherine and Julien Mayfair stay here -- it's still the St. Louis Hotel -- in The Witching Hour.
Pontchartrain Hotel, 2031 St. Charles St.[]
This upscale hotel and its restaurant, the Caribbean Room (Renovated and reopened in 2016), appear in The Witching Hour.
St. Alphonsus Church, 2030 Constance St.[]
This is a small church with a stunning interior. It was the O'Brien family church -- Anne's parents married here, and she was baptized and received communion here. Readers will recognize this as a setting in The Witching Hour.
St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, 400 Basin St. []
A tomb with the vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac' s name is located here in The Vampire Chronicles books.
The property at 1515-17 St. Charles Ave.[]
Rumors that Rice was going to open a Lestat-themed cafe here were still circulating at press time, but it was unclear whether or not she was selling the property along with the rest of her Garden District holdings.
The stretch of 700 to 900 Royal St. []
Quite a few of the exteriors for the Interview with the Vampire movie were filmed along this stretch.
