A few New Orleans street views

A house that stops traffic

I took a walk around the block yesterday, as I often do.  2216 Esplanade Avenue sits an odd intersection of neighborhoods, the way these things are defined in New Orleans, LA.  Like anywhere in New Orleans, you can walk across the street, or turn a corner, and end up in a different world.  

You can walk across the street from 2216 and be on a different street.  Directly across from us is 2216 Bayou Road.  It's just the way things sometimes work out around here.  You get used to it.  Unless you are visiting New Orleans to become a mailman, it won't really bother you.   

When I visit a new place, I like to walk around to get my bearings. What kind of place is this, anyway?  If I am staying at a Motel 6 off the interstate, I pretty much know what to expect, so stretching my legs is short exercise.

If I were staying at La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast, and I hope you do, I would walk around, lost in the details that make up the streets around Esplanade Ridge. 

With that in mind, I took a walk around the block today.  I headed in the direction of City Park and then I headed uptown on North Tonti Street.  I took a couple pictures, not too many.  

Corner of Barracks and North Tonti Streets

Esplanade Ridge bisects Treme.  The streets off and behind Esplanade Avenue are not mansions for the most part.  Most of them are shotguns with a few Victorians here and there.  The architectural fabric of these streetscapes makes you appreciate the layers of history that have settled in New Orleans.  It makes you feel lucky to be a part of the city, if only for a too brief time.

An elderly woman is usually sitting on the steps of the pink house, keeping an eye on things and sharing the news of the day and a smile with whoever strolls by.

While the people you meet on the streets are open and friendly, the city does have its secrets.  

The house next to the pink house, North Tonti Street

The house next door is beautiful, but you can never see what the front gardens look like.  You can hear a fountain from the other side of the fence.  All the painted woodwork on the second floor eaves forces you to imagine an oasis on the other side of that fence.

Corner of Governor Nicholls and North Tonti Streets

A few steps further and the streetscape changes.  This is an old part of town.  There are few buildings that are less than a hundred years old, most of them more.  On the corner of Governor Nicholls Street and North Tonti Street is the Odyssey House.  It was built in the 1880s as a home for poor widows.  They don't build them like that any more.

Some of the sidewalks look like this

If I had kept walking, in another four blocks I would have been at Willie Mae's Scotch House enjoying the best fried chicken in America according to the Food Network.  I had innkeeping duties to do, though, so I turned back to Esplanade Avenue, happy to be living in such a beautifully pleasant New Orleans neighborhood.  And, I hadn't taken pictures of the best parts of my short walk.

If you are looking for a historic and eclectic New Orleans bed and breakfast in a peaceable neighborhood close to the French Quarter, etc., consider La Belle Esplanade.

A votre sante.