Les Saintes Suite Finished!

Les Saintes Suite, La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast

 Things rarely happen on time in New Orleans, and that includes getting our last suite open for business.  When we first purchased 2216 Esplanade Avenue it was a boarding house, and we renovated each suite through attrition.  Les Saintes Suite was the last to be vacated.  That, and your humble narrator was in charge of getting things in order, and he tends to take his time about things.  That extra time paid off as options were considered and discarded.

It isn't completely finished, nothing ever is.  The inn is a work art in progress.  As things stand today, it's pretty darned near perfect, but there is always room for improvements and room for more quirks.

Your private balcony is just a turn of your head away

Les Saintes Suite is not named after the New Orleans football team.  Along with the antique full-sized, canopied bed, antique wardrobe, dressing stands, and claw foot bath tub, the mantles are home to statues of those other saints that are revered in New Orleans.

Mantle in the bedroom

There is original artwork on the walls that contain saints' medals in the pigment.  

Looking toward the sitting room.  The antique radio works

It was a gloomy day today so the colors didn't come out right in these photos.  Allow me to try to describe them.  After all the blue and purple in the Clio Suite, we felt we needed a change of palette.  Frau Schmitt delivered with her color choices, as she usually does. 

The sitting room is yellow like curry.  The bedroom is vibrant orange.  The ceiling is spring green.  La France Suite used to be my favorite.  Now it's Les Saintes.  It feels like home.  It should; it has a replica of my personal work desk.

A peaceful place to record one's thoughts

I like the table for its ample space to spread out notes and reference material.  I like a bench for the same reason.  We have had a few writers stay with us, so we thought it would be appropriate to offer them a suite with them in mind.  

You'll notice the table in the foreground.  Here's what it looks like from the side:

They are happy to be here

This is a second-floor suite with one bedroom and one sitting room.  It has a private bath equipped with a claw foot tub.  It has a private balcony with a private view of Esplanade Avenue through the hundred-year-old oaks that line the street.

I did mention the saint statues and original artwork didn't I?

The mantle in the sitting room

All of the suites at La Belle Esplanade are unique.  Every room is a different color and filled with details.  Each suite comes equipped with a refrigerator stocked with local beer, Big Shot Soda (a New Orleans original) and wine.  There is a coffee maker, tea pot, flat screen TV, alarm clock, and free wifi.  Les Saintes Suite has a antique radio that works better than the one I bought a few months ago at Best Buy.

It is supposed to be rainy for the next few days.  Once the sunshine is streaming through the windows, I'll take some more pictures of other details.

A votre sante.