What's New Orleans Like?

Joe "King" Oliver

Just as there is more than one gumbo in New Orleans.  There is more one beat, more than one melody, more than one chorus, and more than one song.

I know, it's been video week on the blog.  I know, it's only Monday.  When you are a professional innkeeper, the week starts when the first guests arrive.  Every day is somebody's vacation.  Our work week started on Wednesday.  The Super Bowl was in town and all our guests complimented the city on its exceptional hospitality.

The guy from Chicago said, "I haven't been here for twenty years.  You can still dance like you mean it.  I've missed New Orleans."  He added, "I don't know what I was waiting for."

For your viewing and listening pleasure, allow me to introduce you to Big Freedia.  She is New Orleans all the way: Uptown, Downtown, West Bank, East.  If that seems confusing, you haven't seen anything yet.



It's not all dixieland jazz in New Orleans.  The recent Super Bowl coverage in various media highlighted some other aspects of the city's culture beyond infectious goodwill and unfailing hospitality.  

The soundtrack of the video above may not be to your liking.  We have to admit that while the song is growing on me, Frau Schmitt cannot listen to more than about a minute.  "Are you watching that Big Freedia video again?!?" she scolds.  She is right, as she usually is.  I like the visuals.

Do you want to know what New Orleans is like?  It is like dancing both within and beyond the city's scope and scape.  New Orleans is more than the sum of its buildings and bridges.  The city's people are bigger.  They dance like no one is watching.  They bounce as much they improvise their next steps.  As every visitor knows, every day in New Orleans makes good memories.

Big Freedia was interviewed on NPR the other day.

There is no place on earth that contains so many promising surprises as New Orleans does.  There is nowhere else on earth where so many dreams come true every day and every evening.  There is no other city where everyone is their best self, and we  blossom like a flowers on the side of a Mardi Gras float.  When you are alive in New Orleans, you know it.  When you live in New Orleans, you live with a purpose.

We've added more paper blossoms to the wall since this picture was taken

It's a big and fertile city.  The Super Bowl is over, but New Orleans persists and thrives against all odds, much like the San Francisco 49ers last night.  When your heart is in the game, the game is always thrilling.  You rally after the lights go out.  That is what New Orleans is like.  Tennessee Williams thought that there are only three cities in America worth being called cities.  One of them is New Orleans.  The other two are not Baltimore.  

La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast is located right in the middle of Esplanade Avenue, between the French Quarter, where the TV cameras were this weekend's action off the gridiron, and City Park, where the city is enjoyed by the people who live here and make New Orleans their own every day.  It's about a 20 minute walk either way.  We really are right in the middle.

Here is what our inn looks like from the outside:

See our website to reserve a suite for your visit

We look forward to welcoming you inside.

Unless you are eating a bag of cracklins at the bar, if the Saints or LSU aren't playing, the only pigskin people care about in New Orleans is the barbecue trailer following behind a second line.

A votre sante.