A New Orleans Bed and Breakfast Story

There are shades of light on Esplanade Avenue in New Orleans

The sun and the humidity cook New Orleans the way sauce is simmered on a stovetop.  You know what they say about the food in New Orleans: it is savory like nothing else on earth.  You can say the same about the people.  There is Southern hospitality, and then there is New Orleans hospitality.

A couple from Wenatchee, Washington stayed with us.  Who could blame them?  December in New Orleans is a tropical paradise compared to December in Wenatchee, a city that proclaims itself, “The Buckle of the Power Belt of the Great Northwest.”  Compared to that, New Orleans’ nickname as "The City Care Forgot” seems even more inviting.  Wenatchee is also known as the Apple Capital of the World.  New Orleans is known as the Birthplace of Jazz.  Wenatchee has no other civic nicknames or poetic monikers.  New Orleans has a couple dozen more depending on how many fingers and toes you have.

The couple from Wenatchee wore shorts and tee shirts during their whole stay.  The high temperature yesterday was 67 degrees, like springtime in Wenatchee, and probably like springtime wherever you may be reading this.  I wore a sweater on my trip to the bakery in the morning.  Frau Schmitt wore a sweater while she was preparing breakfast.  We have lived here long enough to nnotice when the mercury drops below 75.  The couple from Wenatchee asked if there was a beach nearby.  We recommended joining a pickup volley ball game on the banks of Bayou St. John. 

Andy and Donnie have been driving through the Sun Belt this December, trying to follow the Old Spanish Trail that links San Diego, CA with St. Augustine, FL.  It turns out that La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast  is located at an ideal location along the trail, the same way it is located at an ideal location at the center of Esplanade Avenue in New Orleans.

Andy took a swallow from his cup of coffee laced with chicory, New Orleans-style.  He said, “People are friendlier in New Orleans.  Don’t get me wrong.  They are friendly in Wenatchee, too, and they have been friendly in Tuscon, El Paso, Beaumont, and Houston, but New Orleans is different.”

Donnie agreed while peeling a satsuma picked fresh from the tree in the our garden.  “I’ve been thinking the same thing,” Donnie said.  "We’ve been here two days, riding the bicycles you lent us, and everyone has been as sweet as the praline you left in our room.”  At La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast, we leave a praline from Ms. Loretta’s on every pillow.  It is a little treat that introduces the taste buds to the delights New Orleans has to offer.

“Last night,” Andy said while reaching for another biscuit, “we were totally lost in the Bywater.  We ate at Maurepas and then we couldn’t remember which way was east and which way was south.”

Frau Schmitt looked at me, knowing I was ready to explain that the cardinal points of the compass have no meaning in New Orleans, but Andy continued as he spread some of Josie’s Farmer Market fig preserves on his biscuit.  “We stopped in front of the All Ways Lounge and, luckily, we ran into somebody who set us straight.”

Donnie added, “She was beautiful, just like the lady in the picture.”

“What picture?” Frau Schmitt asked.

“The picture in our room,” Donnie answered.  “She was so nice.  She explained to us that we were heading downtown and we needed to go uptown.  She told us to keep pedaling up St. Claude Avenue to Esplanade, and turn lakeside.  Andy asked which side was lakeside, and she pointed across the street to the Hi-Ho Lounge and the Siberia bar.  ‘That side is lakeside, baby,’ she said.”

Andy gestured to Donnie.  “You have to try these fig preserves,” he said.  Then he said to us, “She was very nice and very beautiful, but you must know that.  She is the woman in the picture.”

“What picture?” Frau Schmitt asked.

This one:

La Belle d'Esplanade

A votre sante.