Living in New Orleans

Louisiana's most famous governor is Huey P. Long, the Kingfish.  If you visit the Old State Capitol Museum in Baton Rouge, which is really the only thing we can recommend in Baton Rouge, it is like a shrine to the Kingfish.  The other governors are given their due mention, but most of the exhibits center around the life and works of the honorable Huey P. Long.  He was no Bobby Jindal, who is our current governor, that's for sure.

Though there is a website dedicated to the preservation of the Kingfish's memory, you won't find any memorials to Louisiana's most inspiring politician in the city of New Orleans.  Though Huey Long loved his sazaracs and he was a regular patron of the Roosevelt Hotel, he had no real love for New Orleans.  The political machine that ran the city never cottoned to Governor Long, and vice versa.  

Plus ca change plus c'est la meme chose.  The politics of New Orleans today have no relationship to the politics at play in the rest of the state.  The city is an oasis in an unforgiving swampy sea.  The mood changes as soon as you cross the parish line.

Elmwood, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana

A recent guest asked me what Louisiana looks like outside New Orleans, so I decided to take a picture in the parking lot in front of the Elmwood 12-screen AMC multiplex movie theater in suburban Jefferson Parish.  Not all of Louisiana looks like this, just Jefferson Parish, which is right over the Orleans Parish line.  Feast your eyes.

The intersection of Bayou Road, DeSoto, Bell, and Dorgenois Streets, New Orleans, Louisiana

I took a picture this morning of the intersection of Bayou Road where it meets DeSoto Street, Bell Street, and North Dorgenois Street, two blocks from our house.  The green building is the old Indian Market.  The yellow building is home to the Cajun Buffet, which serves a very popular and inexpensive lunch with all the fixings; it is all you can eat.  This is what New Orleans looks like.  Part of it, at least.

Big Easy Scooters

We were at Big Easy Scooters on Magazine Street yesterday afternoon and I noticed a recently painted mural celebrating the Amerivespa scooter rally taking place in New Orleans June 12-15, 2014.  That's going to be a good time.  If you are a vesperado, no matter what kind of bike you drive, you know where you can stay, next June or any time.  

You meet the most interesting people when you are in New Orleans.

A votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.