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Anne Rice loves New Orleans, and she has been true to it in her books. The old weight of New Orleans, the art and soul of the place, is not literary fabrication. The places Rice has written about are real and fascinating. If you're planning on visiting the city, here are a few Anne Rice landmarks you shouldn't miss.

Café du Monde

On the Carre in the French Quarter, David Talbot sat in a café overhearing a conversation between God and the Devil. Telling Lestat about it changed the course of Vampire history. As you recall, David was drinking coffee and beignets. Well, Café du Monde is right where it's supposed to be. They serve coffee, hot chocolate and beignets. The beignets are light dough balls with a covering of powdered sugar - they're mouth watering. From under the green striped awning, you can watch the people on the square, or visitors to the market adjacent to the café. You can imagine that the empty table next to you is occupied…

Lafayette Cemetery

Where everyone is buried, really. The Mayfair family has its tomb there, Louis mopes through it in the darkest of nights. New Orleans is sinking, so the dead must be buried above ground lest they decay into the water system. Small houses are built for the dead - some have graves no younger than two hundred years but fresh flowers adorn their gates. In the back rows, crumbling mortar gives glimpses of brittle ivory that once walked the mortal world. Visit during the day.

Plantation Houses

Louis burnt his down, unfortunately, but behind the levees west of the city, the grand houses of slave owners still stand. Shadowed by twisted live oaks, their branches strung with parasitic Spanish moss, the rooms of these houses ring with the sounds of elegant balls - and the screams of tortured slaves. Voodoo still lurks in the swamps - closer to the houses than the road in some cases. Gators await your evening stroll.

The House of the Mayfair Witches

On the corner of First Street and Chestnut in the Garden District, you don't want to be looking too closely through the back yard fence. This is where Michael first saw the spirit Lasher. This is the dark home that Rowan Mayfair renovated into a purple and green mansion. It stands today, fresh and bright, but it hides dark secrets. Notably, it occasionally houses a certain gothic horror writer.

It has been said the Anne Rice writes the soul of New Orleans. If this is true, then that soul lies in the places she has chosen to immortalize. They are a part of you now, if you've read the books. Visit New Orleans, and you can become a part of them.