An Esplanade Avenue Snapshot

Statue on Esplanade Avenue

There are three beautiful women who reside on the 2200 block of Esplanade Avenue.  One of them is Clio, Goddess of Peace and Genius of History.  Around hereabouts, her name is pronounced "kl-EYE-oh," though it would be pronounced "KLEE-oh" in most other places, including in Greece, where she would be referred to as the Muse of History, not the genius.

There are Nine Muses, of course, according to Greek mythology.  Each has a street named after her uptown in the Lower Garden District.  Clio: history, Calliope: epic poetry, Erato: lyric poetry, Euturpe: elegiac poetry, Melpomene: tragedy, Polyhymnia: hymns, Terpsichore: dance, Thalia: comedy, and Urania: astronomy.  The street named for Polyhymnia is shortened uptown to Polymnia.  The only ones that are pronounced in their original Greek are Erato and Urania.  Urania is only about two blocks long so nobody really says Urania very often, unless they know someone who lives there.

New Orleans is full of all sorts of confusing things and conundrums.  If you are from anywhere else, you would pronounce the name of our street "ess-plah-NAHD."  Here we say "ess-plan-AID."  Burgundy is "burr-GUN-dee," and Chartres is "charters."  You get the idea.  

It isn't only limited to pronunciation.  Our lobby is a cabinet of curiosities, full of odd exhibits of things I've picked up while wandering the city's streets.  For instance, most people think that squid are strictly saltwater animals.  In Louisiana, we have bayou squid, examples of which I keep in a jar in the lobby:

Bayou squid preserved in formaldehyde

Don't believe me?  Here's a closer look at the card:

Documentary evidence

"Article No. 67: Bayou Squid.  Captured from the Florida Avenue Canal on June 2, 2012."  

I was standing in front of our house when a tour bus paused next to the statue of Clio across the street.  They stop in front of our house all the time.  I don't know what the driver is telling his or her passengers.  Maybe he is telling them the history of the statue, which is the last artifact remaining from the 1884 World's Fair that was held in New Orleans.  I do know that flash bulbs are always going off on the side of the bus facing our house.  I always try to wave.  Hello.  I hope you're enjoying your VIP city tour.

The side of a tour bus in New Orleans

At this particular stop, the VIP tourists got to snap a picture of the other two beautiful women who reside on Esplanade Avenue.

Two more beautiful women on Esplanade Avenue

Frau Schmitt is going to be happy when she sees this.  We are both very proud of our sign.  

Our sign through the fence

Some people say that the lady on our sign resembles Tammie the Housekeeper.  There is a passing resemblance.  

La Belle de l'Avenue d'Esplanade

Tammie the Housekeeper

If you are still awake after reading this far, I know what you're thinking.  I started off this post by saying that three beautiful women reside on the 2200 block of Esplanade Avenue.  Doesn't Tammie the Housekeeper make four?

Tammie the Housekeeper only spends here workday here, if you can call it that.  When she sleeps after a long day's work, she sleeps in Metarie, across the border in Jefferson Parish.  She has a lovely family.  She doesn't really resemble the picture I always put up when her name is mentioned.  Tammie the Housekeeper doesn't smoke a pipe.  She does, however, like to complain whenever I use this picture.  You're welcome, Tammie.

As I've mentioned before, we got our sign made at Mystic Blue Signs, uptown on Magazine Street.  It's handmade by a lady who is a professional sign painter.  You don't find many sign painters anymore.  Then again, you find all kinds of things in New Orleans that you don't find anyplace else anymore.  It's an old city full of traditions.  It's a big city with a heart.  New Orleans has an old soul.

To give you a sense of scale of how tall our sign is, I'll put up one last picture.  I don't want Frau Schmitt or Tammie the Housekeeper to accuse me of being afraid of publishing my own ugly mug.  Shield your eyes...

A humble New Orleans innkeeper

Unlike Tammie the Housekeeper, your humble narrator is not ashamed of being seen clenching a pipe in his mouth.  Bienvenue.

A votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.