No photographs accompany this entry about Esplanade Avenue, New Orleans, LA. Let it be said at the outset that this is one of the stateliest, most beautiful streets in a fair city known for its beauty. Magnificent mansions line Esplanade Avenue from old U.S. Mint across from the apex of the Marigny Triangle, all the way to the elevated statue of General P.T. Beauregard in front of City Park and the New Orleans Museum of Art.
Roughly three miles long, or 11,537 arpents, the measurement used for most property lines in this part of the back of town, Esplanade Avenue is a wealth of architectural details and the humdrum anonymous details that make up any given day in a vibrant city. Of course, New Orleans is not just any city. It is New Orleans. As Tennessee Williams said, "America has three cities: New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans. Everything else is Cleveland." This is not a city in which people drive isolated in their SUVs with satellite radio to keep them company. It is a city in which people walk or bicycle where they need to go, dancing to the music of the neighborhoods.
New Orleans is an organic city, more than the sum of its plumpest parts. New Orleans is its buildings, but it is also its homes. New Orleans is its people.
Start where Elysian Fields Avenue kisses the start of Esplanade Avenue. Stroll. Take your time. Enjoy the play of the shade from the old, twisted oaks in the wide neutral ground. The dictionary tells us that an esplanade is a picturesque, park-like walk. That definition fits Esplanade Avenue, New Orleans like a silk over-the-elbow glove that a distinguished Creole lady wears to the opera.
There are bars and restaurants scattered along Esplanade Avenue's banquettes. There are grocers, coffee shops, pharmacists, and a laundromat. There are parks. The parks are tiny, tidy, picturesque vest pocket islands of respite in an urban paradise.
The 91 bus runs down Esplanade Avenue every half hour, and you can always take a cab, but the best way to experience Esplanade Avenue is to walk it, from one end to the other as it goes through all its wondrous variations. From head to toe, this street keeps its dignity. From start to finish, the magic never ends.
I walk Esplanade Avenue every day and I always discover something new, something about what it is like to live in a city that is old and handsome, in a city that lives by its own rules and its own code, in a city in which everyone is a friend I haven't met yet. Every day, I have that chance.
Use your imagination. Walk down Esplanade Avenue and you will imagine yourself living there. What is it like? New Orleans is a world of its own and Esplanade Avenue is a microcosm of that. Living in New Orleans is time spent in a charm-filled daydream that doesn't stop when the sun goes down.
The tourism brochures say that tourists go to the French Quarter and that the locals go to Frenchman Street. There are 180.6 square miles of land and 169.7 square miles of water in New Orleans. All the locals don't go to Frenchman Street, and all the tourists don't go to the French Quarter. They may visit both locales to see them, but there are plenty of other things to experience in The City That Care Forgot. Plenty.
If you are thinking of visiting New Orleans, you can make your headquarters at La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast, at 2216 Esplanade Avenue, right at the fulcrum. After you make a reservation for one of our suites, you can read up on Fauborg Marigny, the Vieux Carre, Treme, Bayou Saint John, and Broad Community Connections. After you check in, you can walk Esplanade Avenue and soak up the ambience of the most beautiful downtown street in the city. You may be tempted to turn on Claiborne Avenue or North Broad Street. Don't resist the temptation. Surprises are around every corner.
No matter how much you have read, you won't be prepared for the ineffable delights New Orleans has to offer. You will see things that will break your heart, and New Orleans will cement the cracks. New Orleans may touch you so much, that you will stake a claim and make a permanent move. New Orleans touches everybody on Esplanade Avenue. It is a street where dreams come true. Just ask two New Orleans innkeepers.
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