Nocturnal New Orleans

I you know want to read about me picking up some strippers on Bourbon Street, and those kind of nocturnal New Orleans adventures are common if you have the money to pay for them.  Me, I like a different kind of New Orleans at night.  I live in New Orleans.  I don't need to pay money to hang out with strippers.  Some of them are my neighbors.  Everyone in New Orleans has to make a living satisfying tourists' appetites one way or another.  Our city's economy is dominated by the hospitality sector.

Full moon in the nocturnal New Orleans sky.

Even a person who is pure of heart and says their prayers by night, may become a werewolf when the wolfsbane blooms and the moon is full and bright.  Shine on Harvest Moon.

Nocturnal New Orleans is full of legends.  People in New Orleans do talk about ghosts and vampires and zombies and voodoo and headless corpses.  The people who talk about these things are the ghost tour guides and the people who take the tours.  Card-carrying citizens of New Orleans, the people who live here, aren't easily taken in by flimflam.  

Native New Orleanians are walking encyclopedias of nocturnal New Orleans facts.  They know all the daytime facts, too.  Every New Orleanian knows more about this city than is contained in a French Quarter walking tour.

Just another regular New Orleans house on a regular New Orleans street.

The people who live in New Orleans don't begrudge visitors to our fair city their flights of fancy.  We know New Orleans is Romantic with a capital 'R.'  Caspar David Friedrich would have found plenty of subject matter in New Orleans.  An introspective and ancient city, New Orleans has accrued its share of legends and lore.  There is more.  There is always more.

The real stories about nocturnal New Orleans are better and more believable than the stories you've heard.  There is a whole wide, wonderful city outside the French Quarter, off Frenchmen Street, and off Magazine Street away from the Convention Center.  Every neighborhood has a story.

In the heat of the night, stories unfold in every New Orleans neighborhood, on every New Orleans street.  You are a member of the cast of your own movie.  Nocturnal New Orleans loves you.

Flowers bloom in the dark in New Orleans.

Don't forget to check out our sponsor's blog after you've spent enough time steeping yourself in The Authentic New Orleans State of Mind on this blog.  When you are ready to visit nocturnal New Orleans, you know where to stay: La Belle Esplanade.

A Year In New Orleans

What difference does a year make?  When it's a year in New Orleans it can be your life.  New Orleans is like the fountain of youth.

This is what I looked like last year:

Your humble narrator in September 2018.

After a year in New Orleans, I look like this:

Your humble narrator today.

Always look on the bright side of life.

Even a week in New Orleans will put pep back into your step.  You are only as old as you feel.  A year in New Orleans is a tonic.  A week in New Orleans is better than a B12 shot.  Get your good self down here and be the person you were meant to be.  New Orleans is calling you.

Not everyone can spend a year in New Orleans.  We know that.  Lucky are those who live out their lives here.  Their hands are as smooth as a baby's bonbon.   You can tell a real New Orleanian as soon as they sit down at a bar.  A week in New Orleans, that's enough for you.  Increase your dosage gradually.  You know New Orleans is for you.

If you don't have a week, maybe you have five days.  Maybe you have four.  Maybe only three.  Visit for New Orleans as long as you are able.  New Orleans will give you a shot in the arm.  Wanna smile?  New Orleans is here.  

Nobody ever says their visit is too long.  Take it from someone who has lived here a decade.  After New Orleans, the next best thing is Heaven.  After New Orleans, there is nowhere else to go but up.  Welcome to the New Orleans state of mind.

If you are thinking about visiting New Orleans, we hope you'll consider staying at the small artisanal hotel that is our sponsor.  Experience New Orleans like you belong here.  You do belong here.   

The Best Things In New Orleans Are Free.

The best things in New Orleans are free.  New Orleans is the greatest free show on earth, and not just during Mardi Gras season.  Every New Orleans day is a parade of sweet humanity in all its shapes and guises.  Get your good self down to New Orleans and you'll know what it means to fall in love with New Orleans.  Everything rhymes in Orleans parish.

Your humble narrator is a dreamy-eyed poet but he doesn't know it.

The best things in life are free.  The best things in New Orleans are free.  Life is what you make it.  Love cannot be bartered or sold in  installments.  Real love, true love, passion, is either all out or it is all in.  You can lust for New Orleans but it takes commitment and deep familiarity to truly fall deeply in love with this wonderful city we call home.  

In a New Orleans state of mind you'll still have to pay for a bed and roof over your head.  You'll still have to pay for meals.  Those are good things, true, but the best things in New Orleans are free.  The whole city of New Orleans is a factory of craftspeople who spend all their days and nights making the stuff of good memories.  The cure to a hard heart is to dream a New Orleans dream.

The sitting room in the Clio Suite at La Belle Esplanade.

The best things in New Orleans are free.  Who can put a price on a week that will make you smile for the rest of your life?  The first visit is only an appetizer.  The more time you spend in New Orleans, the more you'll find yourself wanting more.  New Orleans is that kind of a city.  You should see for yourself.  The best things in New Orleans are free-----the best things in New Orleans are everywhere here.  When you have open eyes and an open heart, New Orleans will treat you right.

Now a word from our sponsor:  

In a city full of pleasant surprises, you can't get caught up in FOMO.  Follow your instinct.  Use your better intuition when you are in New Orleans.  Stay at La Belle Esplanade a small artisanal hotel on one of the most beautiful streets in the city.  Centrally located to tourist destinations but in the real city, the most beautiful part.  Visit New Orleans like you live here.  It'll be better than getting pass-out drunk on Bourbon Street.

When New Orleans calls, you have to answer.

La Belle Esplanade only has five luxury suites so we tend to fill up early.  Book today and make sure you can explore this wonderful city we call home like you belong here.  You do belong here.

À votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade

Ask the New Orleans Answer Man

Zip-a-ding-ding-dong.  When you are in a New Orleans state of mind, you never know what you'll discover.  There are surprises around every corner.  Ask the New Orleans Answer Man.

I'm in your corner.

I'm not saying that I'm a know-it-all or an expert.  I am not.  I can only share what I know about New Orleans, which is more than a dram and less than a hogshead.  We've reinvigorated our YouTube channel.  It's called New Orleans State of Mind, naturally.  Subscribe.

Here is Episode 1 of Ask the New Orleans Answer Man:

I have a new assistant.  Ms. Richardson is born and raised in Louisiana, the great Pelican State.  When she isn't helping me manage all the projects on my plate, she is helping me shoot videos.  The format is that she asks me questions about New Orleans and I answer them.  

As someone prone to digression and with a lot of facts bouncing around in my head, my answers are rarely straightforward but they are always informative.  If you want to learn more about New Orleans, subscribe to our YouTube channel or just keep following this blog.  I'll post links here every time a new episode is published.  

I detect the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

Ms. Richardson and I are in discussion about starting a podcast.  What do you think about that?  I know you can read all you care to about New Orleans from the convention and visitors' bureau website and from top ten lists on Eater or Thrilllist or wherever.  There is more to New Orleans than that off-the-shelf search-engine-optimized chum.  There is tourist New Orleans and then there is real New Orleans.

If you are on this blog, you know that we are all about the authentic New Orleans state of mind---what it is like to live in this wonderful city we call home.  

Your man in New Orleans, ready to answer any question you may have.

When you are ready to visit to New Orleans, we can only recommend La Belle Esplanade.  This small craft hotel has been ranked the #1 place to stay in New Orleans since April 2014, and it has also been ranked the #2 place to stay in the United States and the #16 place to stay in the whole world.  #16 in the whole world.  All those reviews can't be wrong.

You have two friends on Esplanade Avenue.  Get your head wrapped around the New Orleans state of mind and visit New Orleans like you belong here.  You do belong here.  Visit like you mean it.