Ugly New Orleans.

You've heard the story of the ugly duckling that became a swan.  This is the story of the ugly New Orleans that became the place where good memories that will last a lifetime are made every day.

If it quacks like a duck, it's a duck.  If it soars like a pelican, you're in a New Orleans state of mind.

Quack!  Quack!  New Orleans!

Someone noticed my eyeglasses the other day and asked if I knew where there was a good optical shop in "N'awlins."  I answered that New Orleans has a few, all of them Uptown.  I go to Art & Eyes on Magazine Street.  

"Oh, you must be new here.  It's pronounced 'N'awlins.'" she corrected me.

I said, "Ummmm, no.  People who live here say New Orleans.  We never say N'awlins.  Never.  We may write NOLA for shorthand, but we never pronounce it Nola unless we're talking about Nola.com.  It's an informal city but we call our city by its full name.  It's New Orleans.  We respect how lucky we are to live here and to be a part of this culture."

She said, "I moved here last week and I've been saying N'awlins and Nola and nobody has corrected me."

I said, "Let me guess: you're living in the Marigny right now."

She said, "I do."

Most of the alligators you'll see in New Orleans are painted, not real.

I'm not going to tell you the rest of the conversation.  If you spend enough time in New Orleans you know where this conversation concluded---on the best of terms.  

I deduced her address not only from her outlook but by how she was dressed and what she was drinking (this situation unfolded at a bar, where else in New Orleans?).  The Marigny isn't ugly New Orleans.  Far from it.  There are very few places in New Orleans that I would call outright ugly.  I'm trying to think of a neighborhood right now.  No dice.

I'm no native.  I am always up front about that.  There is no point in pretending to be something I'm not.   I am a New Englander by birth and by natural inclination.  I've made my home here in New Orleans for the past nine years.  Frau Schmitt has, too.  Frau Schmitt is the better half of this operation.

A view of authentic New Orleans.  This can be your headquarters while you visit this wonderful city we call home.

We were talking to Patrick the other day in a bar (where else) and Pat told us that we should officially be called New Orleanians.  "Us old timers know more about the city before Katrina than you do, but you know about the city after Katrina than we do.  You belong here.  You two aren't part of ugly New Orleans."  That is a real compliment.  Thanks, Pat!

Your New Orleans goodwill ambassador.

You a friend in New Orleans.  I know two of them that live on Esplanade Avenue.  You'll make more friends when you are here.  There are no strangers in New Orleans.  Everyone is a friend you haven't yet met.  

Ranked the #1 place to stay in New Orleans since April 2014 (and #2 in the U.S., and #16 in the world), La Belle Esplanade is a small craft hotel with only five spacious and unique suites.  Plan ahead early and make that reservation today.  Go to our website: LaBelleEsplanade.com. You can spend a lot of time there whetting your appetite of some authentic New Orleans adventures.  To see what we have available when you'll be in New Orleans, the "Check Availability" button is light blue and it appears in the top right of your screen.

We look forward to meeting you.

Have a great New Orleans day, today!
-La Belle Esplanade

You have two friends on Esplanade Avenue.  The best New Orleans memories are made on our street.

You Have a Friend in New Orleans

When do you wish the wind to stop blowing?  In New Orleans in summer, let it blow.  Let it blow.  Let it blow!  Every breeze is welcome.  You have a friend in New Orleans.  I know.  I live here.

Breakfast is served.

Everyone is happy to be in New Orleans.  If you are bored here, you've got a whopper of a hole in your imagination.  Everyone is happy in New Orleans.  Everyone has a friend in New Orleans.  Even the ducks:

Quack. Quack.  Quack!  Quack.

19 million tourists visited New Orleans last year.  That's more than the number of people who visited Hawaii.  If the great State of Louisiana can be compared to the great State of Hawaii, then New Orleans is Wikiki.  Fun and frolic.

In Hawaii they have "aloha culture."  In New Orleans, we have "laginiappe culture."  What's lagniappe?  It's a little something extra, a small top-off surprise after you've paid for what you bought.  Lagniappe is more.  Welcome to the New Orleans state of mind.

You a friend in New Orleans.  I know two of them that live on Esplanade Avenue.  You'll make more friends when you are here.  There are no strangers in New Orleans.  Everyone is a friend you haven't yet met.  

We look forward to meeting you.

Have a great New Orleans day, today!
-La Belle Esplanade

You have two friends on Esplanade Avenue.  The best New Orleans memories are made on our street.

You'll Never Guess What I Saw in New Orleans.

I'm often surprised that more children's books aren't set in New Orleans.  You'll never guess what I saw in New Orleans.  It was a pleasant surprise, as most things that I see in New Orleans are.  In New Orleans, even more than in Chicago, it's your kind of razzmatazz and it has all that jazz.

New Orleans is a city full of magical vistas.

Life and death.  Pleasure and pain.  Angels and devils.  Samaritans and Philistines.  Gain and loss.  Providence and misfortune.  Laughter and tears.  A rollercoaster.  Orange and blue.  Sunny and rainy.  Day and night, and day again---and night, again.  

Shall I list all the streets where you can find pleasant surprises in New Orleans?  Not here.  We don't have the space.  There are books written about New Orleans street names.  You'll never guess what I saw in New Orleans.  You won't find it any book unless Frau Schmitt chooses to publish my posthumous memoirs.  Frau Schmitt is the better half of this operation.  I doubt she would inflict my memoirs on the world.  Tulane University Press, though, that's another story.

Welcome to the New Orleans state of mind.

Life is a parade.  More so in New Orleans.  Life goes on.  It goes on, and on, and on, and on, & on, & on, & on....  One blessing follows the one before it.  Guess what's going to happen tomorrow?  If you said more blessings, you're right.

Spend a week in New Orleans.  Let New Orleans get under your skin, deep in the heart of you.  Let it get so deep that New Orleans will become a part of you.  Then, you'll be changed for the better.  Outside the Garden of Eden, there is no place so nice on God's green Earth as New Orleans.  Many people leave their heart here; then they come back to find it.  New Orleans never disappoints.

You'll never guess what I saw in New Orleans.  We live in a kaleidoscope of a city.

New Orleans is calling you.  You know where you should stay, dontcha?  La Belle Esplanade, the #1 place to stay in New Orleans (according to TripAdvisor) since April 2014, and the #2 small hotel in the United States and the #1 small hotel in the world (as I never get tired of repeating).

You should read the blog on our official website, too.  Here, you are getting a different version.  La Belle Esplanade gone acoustic and uncensored.  On either site you can spend a lot of time trawling through the archives to discover New Orleans secrets and get yourself into a proper New Orleans state of mind.

Speaking of the New Orleans state of mind.  Follow La Belle Esplanade on Facebook.  We post items 2, 3, 5 times a day to share what it is like to live in this wonderful city we call home.  No pictures of Bourbon Street and rarely pictures of the French Quarter.  La Belle Esplanade is located in authentic New Orleans, the part of the city where people live out their lives and make good memories.  You can make good memories here, too.  You should.

Get off the tourist radar and stay at La Belle Esplanade, a small craft hotel on the second-most beautiful street in the city.  Our address is in a very interesting neighborhood full of small museums, nationally famous restaurants, off-the-beaten-path diversions, and all the things that will help you know what it means to love New Orleans.

We're here for you,
La Belle Esplanade
Wednesday, June 26, 2019.

Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.

We are just simple micro-hoteliers here at La Belle Esplanade.  I know more than one person just spit coffee out their nose when they read that sentence.  To be honest, Frau Schmitt, who is the better half of this operation, is the nicest person you will ever meet, and I, your humble narrator, am a raconteur extraordinaire (I didn't give myself that moniker), a dandy, and a man-about-New Orleans. La Belle Esplanade, the small artisanal hotel we run, is ranked highly on TripAdvisor, and we know it is unlike any other hotel, but we don't like feeling too big for our britches.  Price is what you pay.  Value is what you get.  La Belle Esplanade is no Hilton.  

That's a good thing, too:

La Belle is the orange house in the middle.

I don't like to boast or to brag, and, even though I usually post our TripAdvisor award badges at the end of each post, I don't think too much of them.  Not that I dislike them, mind you.  Frau Schmitt and I are humbled that La Belle has been ranked the #1 place to stay in New Orleans since April 2014.  And, we are even more humbled to be counted among the 0.0001% of hotels awarded the Travelers' Choice Award every year.  For those of you who don't know, this award is bestowed on the top 25 places to stay in each country and then the top 25 in the whole world.  We've been named the #2 place to stay in the United States and the #16 place to stay in the world.  Price is what you pay.  Value is what you get.

That said, the wall next to our breakfast buffet table is starting to look a little TripAdvisor heavy.  We don't really need all these framed certificates to go all the way to the ceiling.  We have twelve-and-a-half foot ceilings in the house:

Sure, there's still empty space but when is enough enough?

We just got two more certificates in the mail today: our 2019 Certificate of Excellence and our 2019 induction into the TripAdvisor Hall of Fame.

I haven't framed them yet.  They're just laid out on a table.

Again, I'm not complaining but I don't think anyone outside the hotel industry, knows what it means to be in the TripAdvisor Hall of Fame.  While La Belle Esplanade is flattered and humbled to be inducted, once again, does Joe or Jane Doe care?  They will when they get here and experience what we offer as a small artisanal hotel but before they see the certificates on our wall and ask about them, will they know what the Hall of Fame even is?

It means we've been awarded a certificate of excellence five years in a row.  A certificate of excellence is not a Travelers' Choice Award.  One is a chicken egg, the other is caviar.  Both are good but one is commonplace while the other is sublime.  We're aiming for five Travelers' Choice awards in a row.  Three to go.  

Our TripAdvisor ranking is all based on reviews from people who have stayed at La Belle Esplanade.  Frau Schmitt and I have no control over our ranking.  It is all driven by how our guests have experienced their stay at our small craft hotel.  You know how the best beer comes from a small craft brewery?  It's the same way with hospitality at a small craft hotel.  The best New Orleans memories are made on our street.  Visit like you belong in this wonderful city we call home.

Let your imagination be your guide.

As of this moment, we've received 646 reviews on TripAdvisor.  634 of them rate our inn Excellent.  12 rate our inn Very Good.  Nobody has said their stay is Average, Poor, or Terrible.  Why would they?  La Belle Esplanade is like the Ritz, if the Ritz were in a colorful old mansion and run by only two people.  Only a churl could not be delighted by a gourmet curated breakfast accompanied by good conversation about all things New Orleans.

Price is what you pay.  Value is what you get.  We try to deliver better value than what our prices lead you to expect.  Why?  Because in New Orleans there is the theory of lagniappe.  Lagniappe is a Creole word that means something extra.  At La Belle Esplanade you will always get something extra, be it personally tailored recommendations, candies on your bed, a selection of locally brewed beer and soda, or, most importantly, a chance to be inducted into the authentic New Orleans state of mind.

There is touristy New Orleans.  You don't need me to tell you about it.  You'll find it.  Your friends who have already visited for bachelor parties or professional conventions or destination weddings or cruise ship stops have already told you about that part of New Orleans.  Then, there is real New Orleans, the authentic city where people live, laugh, and love as they go about their lives raising families and building legacies.  Ours is a city with a culture that is densely woven and richly textured.  You never know what pleasant surprise you'll find when you turn a corner.  New Orleans is not just sugary alcoholic drinks, dueling piano bars, and novelty tee shirt shops.

Walk your boots to La Belle Esplanade.  This is real New Orleans.

When you are ready for real New Orleans off the usual tourist treadmill, you know where to find us.  We are the bright orange house with blue shutters on Esplanade Avenue.  New Orleans is called "America's Most Interesting City" for very good reason.

Check out our website: LaBelleEsplanade.com.  Read our blog there.  There are three years (at least) of archives.  If you think we'll be a good fit for your New Orleans expectations, make a reservation.  The "Check Availability" button is in the upper right of every screen.  Plug in your dates to see what suites we have available.  We only have five suites so we tend to fill up early during the busy seasons.

You have two friends on Esplanade Avenue,
-La Belle Esplanade   

Price is what you pay.  Value is what you get.