New Orleans' Best Bed and Breakfast Blog

Everyone has an opinion

If you'll allow me a moment of false modesty, I'd like to start today's entry with a paragraph that most other B&B blogs can't.  Please bear with me:

When a travel guide writer was touring our inn a couple of weeks ago, she said I should publish our blog as a book.  She said it's that good.  A lot of other people have said the same thing.  Me?  I just blush.

I don't know how good this blog is, or how useful it is.  I know that I enjoy writing it and that many of our guests enjoy reading it.  It gives them a taste of what it's like to stay with us.  At least, it gives them a taste of what it's like to talk to your humble narrator.  Our blog tends to ramble.

The Lost Innkeeper

I was walking our dog in City Park the other day, the dog that nobody ever sees, when I saw a tree that reminded me of a painting by Rene Magritte.  There is no New Orleans connection to this story beyond the bare tree in the distance.  It's not relevant to anything, really, except that I find it interesting---another example of you never know what you'll see in New Orleans, I suppose. How's that?

For those who don't know, Rene Magritte was a Belgian surrealist painter.  We can have some fairly erudite conversations around the breakfast table if you want to.  We can also talk about getting drunk on Bourbon Street, too, if that's your fancy.  We run a real renaissance B&B.

You know the picture of the pipe that says, "This is not a pipe."?  Magritte painted that.  

The Treachery of Images

He painted another one, too.  He called that one The Lost Jockey.  See any resemblance to City Park? and I don't mean the snow on the ground.  I mean the tree.

The Lost Jockey

I went to some innkeeping convention a few months ago where I attended a seminar on blogging.  The speaker said he or she writes the blogs for about 400 B&Bs.  If you look through this site's archives, I've gone on record before saying that when I've read other B&B's blogs (not all of them, mind you) they all seem the same.  Jiminy Cricket!  Now I know why!

I've also gone on record saying that (some) other B&B blogs are just boring links to festivals and recipes.  I'm sure some people like that kind of thing.  I'm not one of them.  When I asked Frau Schmitt if our blog should be about festivals and recipes, she said, "Write about what you want.  You're going to anyway."  She is usually right about these things.

Guess what advice I got at the seminar.  "If you can't think of anything to write about, you can always write about festivals or post your favorite recipes."  I was taking notes.

Apropos of nothing, it's been awhile since we plugged our friends at Find Everything Historic.  Click the link to find out more.

findeverythinghistoric.com

In other news, during the weekend of May 15 this year, it's the Mid-City Bayou Boogaloo, a music festival on the shores of Bayou St. John.  

You think I'm trying to be funny when I write about this but I'm not.  I got a call from Armand today and he asked if we would sponsor one of the shows during the festival.  I told him we'd be pleased to offer our support.  Proceeds from the festival help to fund a number of initiatives to improve the environment of Bayou St. John.  So there.  Plus, it's good advertising.  Don't call about availability for this year, though.  We're already booked solid that weekend.

[I was going to put another picture here

but it took too long to upload and I

got tired of waiting.]

You wouldn't know it from watching me in action all day but I'm a pretty busy man.  I don't have time to read a lot of other B&B blogs.  It's probably been a year since I read my last one.  Shame on me, perhaps.  That's why we don't serve cranberry nut bread at breakfast.

We do have something else, however.  We have New Orleans' best B&B blog.  That's what some people say, at least.  I haven't the nerve to ask Frau Schmitt what she thinks, but she's usually right about these things.  That's why I haven't asked her.  That, and I don't even think she reads our blog.  She's busy, too.

À votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.