There's a lot more to NEW ORLEANS - the "Big Easy," the "city that care forgot" - than its tourist image as a nonstop party town. While having enormous amounts of fun, you're liable to be repeatedly struck by the divisions between rich and poor (and, more explicitly, between white and black). Even so, the city's vitality and joie de vivre are real. The melange of cultures and races that built the city still gives it its heart. One of New Orleans' many nicknames is "the Crescent City", because of the way it nestles between the southern shore of Lake Pontchartrain and a dramatic horseshoe bend in the Mississippi River. Most visitors spend most time in the battered, charming old French Quarter (or Vieux Carré ), site of the original settlement. On its fringes, the funky Faubourg Marigny creeps northeast from Esplanade Avenue, while the Quarter's lakeside boundary, Rampart Street, marks the beginning of the historic, run-down African-American neighborhood of Tremé. A ferry ride across the river from the foot of Canal Street takes you to the suburban west bank and the residential district of old Algiers.