Another part of Frenchman Street

The Fauborg Marigny Historic District

Every morning, it is my habit to head down to the Marigny when everyone else in the house, except for Frau Schmitt, is asleep.  I head down Esplanade Avenue and turn downtown at Henriette de Lille Street.  I do a quick zigzag, Leclerc to North Rampart, then I head straight on until I hit Frenchman Street, where I stop.  While this is a pleasurable motor scooter ride, I am here on business.

This corner of Frenchman Street isn't where most of the guests who stay at La Belle Esplanade see.  They tend to visit where Frenchman starts at the foot of Esplanade Avenue.  That's where the nightlife is, where the music is, where the guidebooks say the locals go.  While our guests may not see this part of Frenchman Street (only about three blocks from the lakeside border of Washington Park), they do get a taste of this side of Royal Street.

The Binders have been in business since 1914

I go to Alois Binder Bakery, where I pick up a loaf of fresh po’ boy bread and some pastries.  At 7:00AM, when they open, there are five or six of us regulars.  I usually pick up a bit of gossip while I’m down there, too.

The green, green grass of New Orleans

The products of this corner are not limited to baked goods, as most of our guests know.  We buy our pralines from Miss Loretta, diagonally across the street.

Loretta Harrison has been in business over 30 years

We used to buy other pralines, but we weren't quite satisfied with them.  Since I knew where Loretta's main shop is, we stopped by one afternoon and met the lady herself.  A half hour later we left with our scooters two pounds heavier.  We've been back a couple of times since, following the laws of supply and demand.

Loretta owns two outlets, one in the Marigny and one in the French Market.  We could go the French Market, but we choose to shop here, where we can take our time and chitchat with whoever is in the shop.  It makes for a pleasant outing.

*****

On the way home from this very neighborhood yesterday evening, I had to take this picture:

An effective use of neon on North Claiborne Avenue

About two months ago, we were in an antique shop on Chartres Street and a foreign couple, perhaps they were tourists, asked the proprietor for directions to a Cajun seafood market on North Claiborne Avenue that they had read about and wanted to try.  The proprietor answered, "You don't want to go there.  If you want to go to someplace to eat in that direction, go to Port of Call.  They have excellent hamburgers and you'll still be in the Quarter."

An excellent suggestion for people looking for boiled Lake Pontchartrain blue crabs and a pound of boiled crawfish at a place where the locals go.  

We waited outside for the couple to leave so that we could give them directions, but they took too long.  "That wasn't right what she did," Frau Schmitt said to me.  She was right, as always.

*****

There is more to New Orleans than the French Quarter and there is another side to Frenchman street.  Frenchman Street is very long.  Maybe someday, I'll tell you about McKenzie's Chicken in a Box in the Gentilly neighborhood.  If you stay at La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast, make sure to ask me about it.

A votre sante.