Getting Oriented in New Orleans

An school on Esplanade Avenue, New Orleans

If you are interested in how the city defines the distinctive features of our neighborhood, we provide this link.  Our historic New Orleans bed and breakfast inn falls within the Esplanade Ridge Historic District.  If you are really interested, you will read that link closely and see that our property is one of those "with the rear property line on the uptown side of Esplanade Avenue."

One of our guests who checked in this afternoon pulled out a map and said, "So if I head west, I'll get to Canal Street, right?"  Frau Schmitt looked at me.  I did some mental calculations.  Frau Schmitt and I both said together, "Maybe."  Frau Schmitt is usually right about these things.

I took our guest out the front door and we stood on the front steps facing Bayou Road, which is the other side of the street in the 2200 block of Esplanade Avenue.  "So that's 2215 Esplanade Avenue over there?" our guest pointed.  I told him that the mailman visits 2211 Bayou Road when he delivers the electric bill, and that we were standing on the edge of the 6th Ward looking at the 7th.  We looked up, admiring the oak trees. 

Oak trees in New Orleans

I took his right hand.  "The river is in this direction," I said.  Then, I moved around and took his left hand.  "The lake is in this direction," I said.  "You'll never see the river or the lake unless you go looking for them, but you always have to know where they are. Once you've got that down, you'll never have to worry about north and south.  They don't make any difference in New Orleans, anyway."

We walked a few yards in the direction of Lake Pontchartrain to the corner of Esplanade Avenue and North Tonti Street.  "This is North Tonti Street," I told our guest.  "It runs northeast to true east and then eventually southeast out in St. Bernard Parish, where it just runs out and ends.  When streets are North, they are Downtown.  When they are South, they are Uptown."  He looked at his map, turned it over and over, trying to make sense of it.  He's from Manhattan where uptown is away from the southern end of the island.  "If it makes it any easier," I suggested, "Just remember what side of Canal Street you're on."

He still seemed puzzled.  "Look," I pointed, "Canal Street is that way.  You're Downtown.  Since we are facing Canal Street and the other side of the street is behind us, we are on the uptown side of a Downtown street with the river to our riverside and the lake to our lakeside."  

It was broad daylight, but it looked like a lightbulb went off over his head.  He held out his map with Algiers at the bottom.  "So where does the ferry take me?" he asked.  It pained me to tell him that the ferry runs due south from the foot of Canal Street to Algiers Point on the West Bank.

We provide a link to the city's description of the Treme Historic District which is Downtown.  The district ends at the uptown side of our address on the uptown side of Esplanade Avenue.  Our front door opens downtown.  New Orleans is a city of neighborhoods that overlap and intermingle and get along.  

An orange house on Esplanade Avenue

You will never get lost in New Orleans.  Just ask somebody which way is Bywater and you'll be able to get your bearings.  You'll be able to get yourself to the uptown side of Esplanade Avenue.  Keeping the river to your back, and keeping the neutral ground downtown, you'll find your way to some place nice where you will feel at home.

So, what's the address of this lot on the uptown side of the 2200 block of Esplanade Avenue?

An orange house on Esplanade Avenue

It's La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

A votre sante.