Who Loves New Orleans?

Great Seal of the City of New Orleans

Who loves New Orleans?  Everybody.  You know what Tennessee Williams said?  "There are only three cities in America: New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans.  Everywhere else is Cleveland."  After visiting New Orleans, everybody agrees, even people from Chicago.  

People are different in New Orleans.  Time moves at a different pace, one that allows all of life's joys to seep through.  In the 1920s, some marketing types coined a nickname for New Orleans that is as apt today as it was then.  They christened New Orleans "The City That Care Forgot."  There isn't a worry in all of New Orleans, especially along Esplanade Avenue.

Bon vivant "Lucious" Lucius Beebe

I was going through one of the drawers in the antique dressing stand in the Pelican Suite.  I found a folded, yellowed piece of paper which contained a handwritten note dated August 12, 1951.

"My dear Mdm. Etoile," it began.  "Thank you so much for your kind hospitality during my stay.  I enjoyed my meals at Arnaud's,  at Galatoire's, and at Tujague's.  I especially enjoyed the oysters at Casamento's.  I will forever remember you rescuing me from my rooms at the Roosevelt Hotel.  I was considering the Hotel Monteleone, but you came to my aid with open arms and grace.  As a boulevardier and flaneur, I could think of no finer street to stroll than your beautiful Esplanade Avenue.  Sincerely, Lucius Beebe. P.S. You're breakfasts were divine. -XOXOXXO."

I suspect it was written by the famous Lucius Beebe.  The one nobody remembers anymore.

Living well in New Orleans

Something comes over people who spend time in New Orleans.  They succumb to its magic.  Even during the worst storms, Esplanade Ridge rarely floods, but it is always awash with charm.  

Many of our younger (mid-20s/early 30s) guests at La Belle Esplanade report that this is their first stay in a bed and breakfast.  "We don't want to stay in a place that is like grandma's house," they say.  Frau Schmitt and I always enjoyed visiting our grandparents, but we understand what they mean.  We are as hep as the next cat and our inn is anything but stodgy, fussy, or twee.  

Our suites are full of antiques, that's true, but there is nothing old-fashioned about La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.  There is free wi-fi and there are flat screen TVs.  Not that anyone comes to New Orleans to surf the internet or watch television.

If you want to treat your significant other to a Valentine's Day escape or a romantic anniversary getaway, our address is 2216 Esplanade Avenue.  Reserve a suite online and enjoy your stay.

Leaving nothing to the imagination

A couple from Mesquite, TX drove to New Orleans this past weekend for some time away from the kids.  They stayed with us.  "I'm so glad we did," the wife said.  "You've spoiled us from staying in a hotel."  Lucius Beebe felt the same way.  Esplanade Avenue is special, especially in the 2200 block.  Some things never change.

"We're driving back and were thinking about stopping in Baton Rouge," they said this morning.  They asked for recommendations of what to do there.

They were twenty years younger than me, so I had to start with a preamble before reporting on the state of the Capital of Louisiana.

"When I was a kid," I began, "It was the Cold War.  Nixon was President.  Brezhnev was the Soviet Premier.  Chairman Mao was running China.  I don't know about about when you were in school, but we knew the capability of different kinds of atomic weapons.  A regular atom bomb could level a whole city.  We knew that from seeing pictures of Nagasaki.  A hydrogen bomb, however was rumored to leave all the buildings intact, just eliminating all the people."

I paused to freshen up my cup of coffee with chicory.  "We never imagined all the dead bodies, of course.  We were just kids and couldn't imagine that.  Instead, we imagined that a city would be empty and everyone who had ever lived there was vaporized.  Absent.  We could wander a whole empty city at will."  The husband was patiently waiting for me to get to the point.

"We went to Baton Rouge last week," I said.  I wasn't lying.  We really did, and the memory was still fresh in my mind.  "Being from New Orleans, that's what Baton Rouge is like.  It's like somebody dropped an H-bomb."

La Belle Esplanade

New Orleans is not like Baton Rouge, the same way that is not like anywhere else on earth.  Good things unfold every minute in New Orleans.  You never know what is waiting around the corner.

We recently had some guests from Paris, France who wanted to spend a night in Baton Rouge.  They called us from the corner of North Boulevard and North 5th Street, right in the heart of downtown Baton Rouge.  "Do have any vacancies for tonight?" they asked.  We did.

After they returned the rental car and walked in our front door, the Parisian couple said, "C'est tres, tres bon to be back in New Orleans." 

It is always very, very good to be in New Orleans.

A votre sante.