Café du Monde is open for coffee and beignets. Artists hang brightly colored paintings for sale along the iron fences surrounding Jackson Square. A band plays in front of the St. Louis Cathedral and mule-drawn buggies wait to give tours of the historic district.

But the vendors outnumber the tourists. And many of them are in the city to gawk.

"It's amazing when you see it," said Glen Miranda, a first time visitor to the city. "It wasn't just one little block that was destroyed - it's block after block. It just keeps going."

Three months after hurricane Katrina, much of the French Quarter is open for business, but it isn't business as usual.

While the hotels are nearly full, restaurants are busy and Bourbon Street is loud and rowdy again, most of these patrons are made up of relief workers, construction contractors and insurance adjusters.

Bars that used to stay open all night are shuttered by a citywide curfew and just a fraction of the city's famed restaurants have reopened.

Tourists who do venture out of the French Quarter - which escaped flooding because the historic district was built on the highest land in the area - find neighborhoods that are completely dark, without returned residents or power and basic utilities.

There are still a number of devoted fans who won't let the destruction keep them from supporting a favorite haunt.

Retiree Nancy Epting and her husband wouldn't let a hurricane stop them from making their regular Christmas visit. Instead they came a month earlier to see what had happened to the city damaged by hurricane Katrina.

"You don't quit loving your friends less when they get sick. You love them more," Epting told AFP.

Tourism and the convention business used to pump 4 billion dollars into the New Orleans economy every year. And with the Convention Center closed until June, businesses are especially dependent on a fresh supply of tourists.

Artist Raquel "Troya" Brown returned last week for the first time since the storm to sell her paintings in Jackson Square. By mid-afternoon, she had only spoken to one out-of-town visitor but she remained hopeful.

"I'm happy things are coming back to normal. New Orleans has to come back. It's so beautiful," Brown said.

While the city hasn't gathered any official figures on tourism, there is reason to be hopeful said Hans Wandsluh, general manager of the Royal Sonesta Hotel on Bourbon Street.

A few weeks ago his hotel housed only people working for FEMA, relief agencies and the media or New Orleanians who had returned to assess their property damage or needed temporary housing while work is done on their homes.

Now, tourists are driving in from the surrounding region.

"You have to remember, so much entertainment around us is gone," he said. "But the French Quarter is open. It's the biggest attraction within a one to five hour drive."

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