New Orleans Is a Full City

I could be wrong, or I may be right about everything I say about happy-go-lucky New Orleans.  New Orleans is a multi-faceted city, a fun-house of a city, mirror-faced and self-reflective.  Look in the right end of the telescope/microscope to make sure what you're seeing in New Orleans is right-sized.  New Orleans is an, open-minded, well-respected, up-to-date, devil-may-care merry-go-round of a city.  New Orleans is a fully hyphenated city.  Come see for yourself.

Your humble narrator: an amateur lexicographer

New Orleans puts the 'nous' in 'Nouveau.'

It's not polite to say this but people often do: New Orleans puts the 'fun' in 'Funeral.'

Joie de vivre and je n'est c'est quoi are the orders of the day in New Orleans.  If you think you know where you are going to be in the next hour in New Orleans, you're wrong.  Every day is an ongoing parade.  Let the good times roll.

Someone is shooting off Roman candles a block uptown from here.  The sky is full of parti-colored sparks.  It's another New Orleans evening.  It is somebody's birthday.

When you are in New Orleans, you are in the free world.  

Take a ride on Esplanade Avenue

When was the last time you met someone who won 2nd prize in a beauty contest?  When was the last time your bank paid you a dividend to $50.00?  Advance to Esplanade Avenue.  

Frau Schmitt is the better half of this operation.  She agrees with me, your humble narrator, that we are very fortunate to live on the downtown side of New Orleans.  We have grown to fall deeply in love with this side of Canal Street.  Though they share many similarities, the two halves of New Orleans are very, very different.  

I was talking to Kettle-Head on Monday and he told me how he had discovered a dead dog that had been hidden under a parked car on Dauphine Street in the French Quarter.

Kettle-Head told me, "The car pulled away and there, in its spot, was a dead dog lying flat.  It had rained that morning so the street was wet, except for where that dog was laying.  The dog was in a dry spot as big as the car.  The dog had been dead for so long that it had rigor mortis." 

In other news, I say a puppet show on Tuesday.  

Some of the neighborhood gang has written a puppet play and they are rehearsing right now in their front yards.  First the stage will be on North Miro Street, then it will move to St. Philip Street for a few days, then to North Rocheblave Street, and so on, and so on until the script will be perfected.  It's all great fun.  I can't way to see the finished product.  It should be done before schools starts in August.

So far, the play has something to do with a dragon and an alligator and a bunny.

Yesterday, Wednesday, I walked Li'l Tater home.  His mother had lost track of him while she was gardening so I saw him two lots down where he was picking marigolds out of Mrs. Estelle's garden. I stopped him, took Li'l Tater's hand, and toddled him back to his own front porch where his mother was looking for him.  Naughty Tater.  He's a curious tyke.

You never know what you'll find in New Orleans

Today, I saw a voodoo sign painted on an oak tree's trunk.

This week isn't even over yet!

À votre santé,
-La Belle Esplanade
Thursday, June 20, 2019

There is a physical New Orleans and then there is a New Orleans of the heart.  Keep your eyes open in this wonderful city we call home and you’ll learn what it means to fall in love with New Orleans.  We’re here for you.  You have two friends on Esplanade Avenue.    Follow our other blog, or, follow us on Facebook, subscribe to our newsletter at the bottom of this page.  Keep yourself in a New Orleans state of mind.  There is regular happy, and then there is New Orleans happy.  When you’re ready to visit, you know where to find us: we’re in the bright orange house with blue shutters.  Good memories are made on our street.

We only have five suites.  Ours is a small artisanal operation.  You know how you get the best beer from a craft brewery.  Well, you get the best hospitality from a craft hotel.  We know what we’re doing.  Let us share the real New Orleans with you, not the off-the-rack version.  Plug your dates into our calendar and see what we have available.  Plan ahead.  With only five suites we tend to fill up early.

Stay as long as you can.  No one ever says their visit to New Orleans is too long.  They always say it is too short.  The longer you are here, the more you’ll realize how much more there is to discover and explore.  There are good surprises around every corner.  New Orleans blooms with happiness.

If you have any questions, feel free to email us, that’s what we’re here for.  We look forward to meeting you in person.

Ranked the #1 place to stay in New Orleans since April 2014 for very good reasons: