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

Some Real New Orleans History

The mantle in our Clio Suite

Remember, in New Orleans, it's usually the rule that most things are pronounced differently than you think, especially if street names or Greek Muses are involved. 

Who are the Nine Muses?  In alphabetical order: Calliope, Clio, Euterpe, Erato, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia, and Urania.

You think this is trivia, but everybody in New Orleans knows this and everyone in New Orleans pronounces those names differently than you probably just did if you are reading this blog aloud.

I recommend reading it aloud.  Rex Hollywood reads each installment aloud to his sweetheart.   I know this because Rex told me this himself and his sweetheart confirmed it.  It's no wonder people who know him (what, you don't know Rex Hollywood?) call him "The Last of the Red Hot Lovers" behind his back.  I know this because one of Rex's pals stayed with us and he told me that in confidence.

Anyhow, one of our suites is called the Clio Suite because there is a statue of Clio in the park across the street from this suite's balcony. You, and most of the world that speaks English, French, German, Latin or Greek, Spanish, Albanian, Polish, Magyar, or Arabic, would naturally pronounce the name "klee-OH."  You would be wrong.  In New Orleans, it's pronounced "kl-EYE-oh."

Now you know.

A float in the Rex Den

I know what you're thinking.  You're thinking, "Waitaminnit!  This is Mardi Gras season and you said you were going to post pictures of all the floats you saw in the krewe dens you visited two (2) weeks ago!"  

I did say that and I'm getting around to it, but I was looking through some old photos when I found something else that caught my fancy today.  Wanna see it?

A relic from another time

By the usual loopy narrative logic of this blog, let's travel back to one fateful night two years ago when I visited the men's room at The Steak Knife Restaurant on Harrison Avenue in New Orleans' Lakeview neighborhood.  It was strictly for professional reasons.  

Frau Schmitt and I have been to The Steak Knife twice.  We both like it, but with about 800 restaurants to choose from, we have to eat at as many as we can so that we can talk about them knowledgeably with our guests and make recommendations.  The Steak Knife is in a part of the city that few of our guests ever visit (though Alan and Shelly were there just the other day for ice cream --- to Harrison Avenue, not to The Steak Knife).  If you want to learn more about The Steak Knife, here's a link to their website, though, I have to admit, I don't think you're going to learn much there.  They apparently don't feel an urgent need to publicize.  After 40 years in business, they're probably right.   

Let me get to the point, already.  

This particular men's room is full of old pictures and magazine clippings and this one of the guy holding two fish caught my attention.  Here's the caption under the photo:

Big news about a big catch

In case you can't read the tiny print:

"TWO BLACK BASS, both slightly over two pounds, were caught the other day in a back lagoon at City Park by Jack Crowley, 2422 Laharpe.  The fish were taken on a plug casting rod.  City Park's fishing season closes for two months, beginning Monday."

Our inn is located at 2216 Esplanade Avenue.  2422 Laharpe Street is just four blocks away from where we live.  You can stroll over and take a picture of Mr. Crowley's house if you want to.  I just might do that later this week even though Jack doesn't live there anymore.

Coincidentally, I was walking our dog around a back lagoon this morning and two gentlemen were fishing there, in two different locations.  I asked one of them if he had had any luck.  He said he had just hooked a bass and he showed it to me.  He was a kindly looking, elderly gent.  It wasn't Jack.  I know Jack.

You never know what you'll find as you wander the byways and restrooms in New Orleans.

And, on that note, we must conclude.

Frau Schmitt's mother-in-law is coming to visit.  If installments don't come as regularly as we've recently become accustomed, you can't blame my mother.  Blame it on Mardi Gras.  The whole city shuts down during Mardi Gras.  Though Mardi Gras is next Tuesday, the real serious parading begins today and it's not going to stop until Lent.

À votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade
...where the rest comes easy.

A Perfectly Perfect New Orleans Vacation

Bon voyage!

Frau Schmitt and I always talk to our guests.  We spend an hour or more every day going over the previous day's adventures and planning what the new day may bring in New Orleans.  We are very rarely privy to all the details that transpire between one breakfast and the next.  We always see our guests at breakfast, but we rarely bump into them around the city during the day, and we don't always bump into them when they come home for a nap or to redress for the next round of adventures.  We always see everyone at breakfast.

Kyle and Sue, Kyle, really (sorry Sue, but put credit where credit is due), posted a very nice blog of their time in our fair city.  Kyle and Sue had some real New Orleans adventures. They stayed with us for a week.  Look, nobody ever says their stay is too long.  It is always too short.  Sure, you may get homesick and we understand you have things to do back home, but nobody is ever bored in New Orleans.  Frau Schmitt and I have lived in New Orleans for almost six years and we are still discovering new things even though our guests consider us experts in the local culture and the folkways, and every restaurant and museum under the glorious Louisiana sun.  

Here is a link to Kyle and Sue's New Orleans Adventure.  I'm pretty sure they won't mind if I provide you with the link.  I tip my jaunty fedora to them for really exploring the city on its own terms and really experiencing New Orleans the way it is should be explored, on the map but off the grid, if you will.  What does that mean?  It means whatever you want it to.

I'm not on vacation, so I don't judge what anyone does while they pass a few days, or a week, in our fair city.  I've run the gamut of New Orleans experiences.  New Orleans is full of surprises and you'll find the ones that delight and bemuse you.  I live here, but I've also been a tourist.  We live in a many- and wonderfully-faceted city.  It really is magic in New Orleans.

Is there a perfectly bad New Orleans vacation?  Not that I've seen from my vantage point of being an innkeeper.  Nobody leaves New Orleans disappointed.  Most people, when they do finally and eventually leave, have a tinge of regret that they couldn't have had another day to have another meal, to see another neighborhood, to meet someone else, to hear another band, to just relax in the most relaxing unique city in the world.

A tip of my fedora to Kyle and Sue.  Good guests make good company.  Good guests, as all of our guests are, make our profession a joy.  Sue, I'm looking at you when I write this.  

If you, dear reader, are thinking about visiting New Orleans, we hope you'll consider staying at La Belle Esplanade.  The rest will come easy.  Ask the professor.

À votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade.
...where the rest comes easy.

A New Orleans Quickie

St. Joan of Arc in the French Market, New Orleans

I know it's hard to tell most days, but it does take me a significant chunk of time to put together these fascinating articles for your enjoyment.  Today, pressed for time, I am going to be uncharacteristically brief.  You see, we are going to the Professional Innkeepers Association of New Orleans (PIANO) social mixer at Auld Sweet Olive B&B, one of our favorite B&Bs in the city.  Check out their website.  

People ask, with +/- 140 B&Bs in New Orleans, if there is a lot of competition between innkeepers in the city.  I have to admit that the answer is, not really.  If there is any competition, it's only of the most friendliest kind.  [I know I just used a double positive.]

I think part of this is because among the kind of people who choose to stay in a B&B over a hotel, it's because they find that a boutique catered experience is the more better option. [See what I just did there?]

The number of B&B rooms available at any given time is dwarfed by the number of hotel rooms available.  Really, for some people, the hotel is the better option.  I'm not trying to be a snob when I say this, but some people prefer familiarity over adventure.  

I'n not trying to say that it's an adrenaline-tingling adventure to stay in a small boutique New Orleans B&B the way it is to rappel down a cliff.  I'm saying that when you stay at a B&B, it's not off the rack.  Being an innkeeper is the ultimate small scale business.  After all, innkeepers open their homes and their lives to their guests.  Sometimes, when I lead guests through our lobby, I like to say, "Welcome to our world."  Nobody working in a hotel ever said that, at least not in a good way.  

In a hotel, it's more like, "The manager is out to lunch right now and there's no one with the authority to solve your problem.  I know what to do, but I'm not allowed without prior approval.  I've only been here for two months and I'm still on probation and I don't want to lose this job.  Welcome to my world."  

That paragraph needs a smiling emoji at the end but I don't have any at hand.  You know what I mean. 

Bedroom in our Clio Suite

We take great care to decorate every room in each of our five, two-room suites with care and attention to detail, to make it seem homey, if your home is a dream come true.  The bedroom in the Clio Suite doesn't even look like the picture above.  The bed has a canopy now, and flowers, and fairy lights.  All of La Belle Esplanade is a constant work in progress as we try to make it better and more interesting for our guests.  

So far, we seem to be doing a good job.  For the last 15 months, we've been ranked the #1 B&B in New Orleans on Trip Advisor by our guests.  15 months.  That's longer than we ever imagined when we opened the doors in September 2012.  It's gratifying to learn we are doing something right.

Sitting room in our Clio Suite

People ask if I always wear a hat.  No, not always, not when I'm singing in the shower.  Whenever you see me, I'll bet you a dollar that I'll be wearing a hat, though.  I like hats.

Fall innkeeper uniform

I'll be wearing a hat tonight when Frau Schmitt and I hobnob with our fellow innkeepers.  They're a boisterous lot, full of joie de vivre and plump with facts about this city we call home.  You can stay in a hotel anywhere, and much of the time you don't have any choice. In New Orleans, you can stay in a licensed bed and breakfast.  Think it over.  Make your reservations early.  We tend to fill up long before the big chain hotels on Canal Street do.

À votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

Blue Dot Donuts in New Orleans

Canal Street Streetcar in the morning

We love it when celebrities stay at our inn.  I'm not talking about Rex Hollywood, who is a joy to have around, or about Frede Fup, who really is a celebrity, albeit in Denmark.  I'm talking about celebrities you know---the kind of people you see on your Yahoo newsfeed.  [Apparently newsfeed is a word since spellcheck didn't correct it.  Who knew?]  

I don't follow the Kardashians and I am disheartened that my Wheaties box idol, Bruce Jenner, is famous for what he (she) is famous for now.  No link there.  At least it isn't Mark Spitz.  Could you imagine the electrolysis bill?

Anyhow, back on topic, famous people stay at La Belle Esplanade. I can't tell you who they are.  I've signed a confidentiality agreement, as have the guests who stay in the other suites at the same time.  I can tell you this, though, the conversation at breakfast is just as interesting as it is any other day.  This is a boutique operation.  If you're sitting across from Laura Bush, what are you going to say?  You're going to tell her and her husband where you had the best fried oyster po' boy yesterday.

Laura Bush didn't stay with us recently.  Somebody else did.

That streetcar was still coming up Canal Street that morning

A celebrity is staying with us right now.  I asked if I could write about him in our blog.  He said yes, but he also said we couldn't call him by his real name.  What name did he prefer?  Billy Ockham.  He's traveling with his wife.  They stayed with us for six nights, which is a nice amount of time to experience New Orleans on it's own terms.  It's their 25th wedding anniversary.

"Should I spell that like Ockham's Razor?"  I asked.  "Yes," he said.  "Any relation?" I asked.  "No," he answered.  Here we go.  

You might know him and his bride or you might not.  They are very nice to have around the house and they've been enjoying the Clio Suite balcony that overlooks Esplanade Avenue.  Other than that, I cannot say any more.  My lips are sealed.

Let's listen to a song about Virginia.


Sic Semper Tyrannis.

Over the course of our breakfast conversations, I learned that Billy Ockham has a love of bacon.  It's nothing to be ashamed of.  A lot of people love bacon.  It's one way that Burger King keeps pace with McDonald's.  Wendy's, too.  Bacon.  The more the better, some people say.  Not me.  Not Mrs. Ockham either.  Frau Schmitt says that too much bacon is bad for my cholestrol and she is usually right about these things, but who are we to judge?

Since Billy Ockham loves bacon, I decided to pick up some bacon and maple donuts at Blue Dot Donuts on Canal street.  

Blue Dot Donuts on Canal Street

Blue Dot opened on Canal Street a bit over two years ago.  They're very popular.  The donuts are good.  They have a wide selection of specialty donuts.  When I go, I tend to pick up the maple and bacon johnnie logs, which are the real show stoppers in the case.  If I get there after 7:00, the Jesuit High School students have usually scooped up all the bacon and maple donuts so I have to get there when the shop opens, at 6:00.  I do this for our guests, whether they are international celebrities or not.

Where is that donut shop again?  I probably shouldn't tell you, but I will.

4301 Canal Street, New Orleans, LA

Now you know.  You can call ahead if you are so inclined to make a reservation.

I'd like to tell you more.  Frau Schmitt would, too, but we cannot.  Our lips are sealed.


À votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

What is Lagniappe?

The professor is in.

If you aren't from Louisiana, at least the southern part of the state, then you may be confused by the term "lagniappe."  It's actually a term common along the Gulf Coast in territory that was once under Spanish dominion.  In New Orleans, lagniappe is a kind of art form, something that is taken seriously because providing lagniappe is the custom hereabouts and if New Orleanians are concerned about anything, it's tradition.  Here's the skinny on lagniappe:

It comes from an Andean Indian word, "yapa," which means "a little extra."  It arrived in New Orleans via Spanish overlords even though at the time, and for many, many years after Spanish government, the people who lived here spoke French.  The bastardized Spanish version of yapa is "la ñapa."  Make it francophone and you come up with lagniappe.  It's pronounced the way it's spelled, with a silent g and a silent e.

Cigar box museum.

We have a cigar box museum in our lobby.  The boxes are all from American cigar companies that are still in business.  There aren't many of them.  Most of the boxes are from old-timey machine made cigar factories that still remain in operation, as of this writing.  These are not the kind of cigars that you read about in Cigar Aficionado Magazine.  They're the kind of cigars I like to chew on when I putter around in the garden.  These are the kind of cigars your father's mechanic used to smoke.

The most popular question I've been asked recently is if I'm excited about the chance to buy Cuban cigars.  As Frau Schmitt, who knows me very well, will tell you, good things are wasted on me.  She is usually right about these things, except in the case of herself, of course.  

A cigar box museum is lagniappe.  Nobody expects it.  Nobody pays money to stay with us so that they can study my collection of cigar boxes.  (The second most popular question I'm asked about this: "Did you smoke all those cigars?"  My standard answer: "They didn't smoke themselves.")  If you are interested in something like this, then a chance to discuss these old fashioned machine made cigar brands is like finding a pomegranate Tootsie Pop under your pillow (another form of lagniappe).  If you aren't interested, then it's just more eye candy that makes passing through our lobby that much more interesting.

There is more than obscure cigar boxes in our lobby.  If you look above the highest shelf, you'll see the loving pheasants.

Loving pheasants.

I'm not going to tell you the story about the loving pheasants because there isn't room here, but let me tell you that they are also a form of lagniappe.  You're not going to find them anywhere else except out in the bayou country.  They're cajun, not creole.  I think our New Orleans B&B is the only one to have stuffed loving pheasants on the wall.  I'll be happy to be proven wrong if anyone knows of another.

Breakfast is not lagniappe, no matter what anyone tells you.  When you stay in a bed and breakfast, you should be expecting two things unless you're told otherwise at the time of reservation.  You pay for a bed and you pay for breakfast.  The bed isn't lagniappe and the breakfast isn't either.  Even if it's an over-the-top breakfast like we serve.  You're paying for that.

A partial view of our breakfast buffet.  There's more to it than this.

As a professional innkeeper, let me tell you that you don't pay for the lagniappe we provide.  We do.  That includes the complimentary beer, wine, juice, Big Shot soda, and praline in your suite's refrigerator.  They're complimentary.  It includes the local potato chips next to the coffee maker in your suite.  It includes all the little extras we provide that you don't ask for, that you don't expect, and that make you smile.  If I told you what they are here, they wouldn't be a surprise.  I'm not going to spoil the surprise.  

We also cover the taxes you incur by staying with us.  At a hotel, you pay 13% on top of the bill.  Here, the rate you pay is the price.  It's never more than that.  It is never less, either.  I had to add that last comment to be totally honest.  We are honest to a fault, if honesty can be considered a fault.  Not being nickel-and-dimed is another form of lagniappe.  Most people find it refreshing.  We don't charge extra for taxes.  

Tammie the Housekeeper

I was talking to Tammie the Housekeeper the other day about lagniappe.  She's a Cajun.  She paid the extra $5.00 to have it printed on her driver's license.  "You and Frau Schmitt give so much lagniappe, it's ridiculous," Tammie told me.  "You give more lagniappe than my cousin who lives in Terrebonne Parish, and she's a lagniappe queen."

I met Tammie the Housekeeper's cousin once.  She was in town for Zydeco Night at the Rock 'n' Bowl (every Thursday night).  

Muriel Hauptmann

That was one Thursday that nobody is ever going to forget anytime soon.  Every time Muriel Hauptmann's name is mentioned, Frau Schmitt says, "She was one hot ticket, that Muriel."  Frau Schmitt is usually right about these things.  Muriel turned out to be a real pistol packin' mama, if you know what I mean.



New Orleans is full of surprises.  Our inn is, too.  If you are looking for an interesting place to stay while you visit our fair city, we provide a link at the end of this post.  Click on it.  We only have five suites and they fill up early in advance.  It's a boutique operation.  You can call if you want to, but the online calendar on our website is accurate and the best way to make a reservation, unless you just want to chat a bit while I log onto our website to check what's available.  If you want to stay somewhere more generic, there's a Best Western on North Rampart Street, just outside the French Quarter.  I've never stayed there, but I don't think they offer the same lagniappe that we do.  Or that Muriel Hauptmann does, either, for that matter.

There's a statue of Clio across the street from us.  Of course, in New Orleans, her name is pronounced "kl-EYE-oh." The same way yapa is pronounced lagniappe, here.

À votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast. 

Maybe they call it Yahoo Travel for another reason.

Tammie the Housekeeper

Tammie the Housekeeper corralled me in the linen closet this morning.  This isn't going to be the spicy story that you might expect with an opening like that.  She was hot under the collar about something she had read on the Yahoo Travel website.  It was an article titled, "We Can't Stand You" and Other Confessions of a B&B Owner.

She made me read it, looking over my shoulder and hissing between her teeth every time we reached a part that particularly made her blood boil.  "What do you make of that?" she asked when we were done.

It's balderdash.  That's my opinion.  A bit of shock schlock.  Internet meme grandstanding.  Chum cast out to attract the search engines that half digest the stuff on the web before they spit it out again for you to find.  It's poppycock.  Mirriam-Webster Dictionary gives a Dutch origin for that word.  I always think of it back to its Latin roots when I say it, but this is a family blog so Mirriam-Webster will do just fine.  

Here's my opinion: real innkeepers did not write that article.  If they did, then they aren't real innkeepers.  Does this lift the veil on B&Bs?  No.  It's pure poppycock.

I'm comfortable that Frau Schmitt and Tammie the Housekeeper will allow me to speak for all three of us.  We are not happy when our guests leave.  We do not do a happy dance.  We do not lie to our guests, nor do we assume our guests are lying to us.  How is that any way to live?  How is that any way to conduct business?  Being an innkeeper enriches one's soul, it doesn't kill it.  Whoever wrote that article appears to be dead, or at least hollow, inside.  It isn't a funny article.  It's very sad.

We do not carry concealed weapons.  We don't know anyone who does.  When someone makes a reservation, we do not look them up on the internet, research their Facebook accounts, or even give them a moment's thought until the week before they are about to arrive.  Then, we write to them to make sure they don't have any questions or special needs for their upcoming stay.  We verify their arrival time to make sure we'll be here when they are.

Hospitality is not a game.  It is a profession.  We certainly don't judge anyone.  We are honored when someone chooses our inn as the headquarters for their time in New Orleans.  We are ambassadors for our fair city and our mission is to make sure our guests leave with good memories.  There can't be anything phony about that.

Anyone is free to believe the Yahoo article.  That will say more about the person who believes it than it does about B&B owners in general.  I can't say I take offense.  It's so patently false and so far removed from our reality that, frankly, it doesn't make sense.  It isn't journalism or an exposé.  It's poppycock, pure and simple.  

I can't even say shame on Yahoo for printing something like this.  They are an internet company that is losing its relevance.  If it weren't for the Yahoo's big stake in Chinese company Alibaba, what would their stock be worth?  It's gone up ten points the past month.  I wish Marissa Mayer luck, but, like most people, I think, I don't give Yahoo much thought.  If this article was a way to get my attention, it worked.  It worked for as long as it took for me to calm Tammie the Housekeeper down and to write this blog post.  Then I had enough time to think, "What was Tammie doing on Yahoo, anyway?"  If this is an example of the quality content I can find on Yahoo, well, I'm not only speechless, I'm inclined to read elsewhere.

And now, for the love of Pete, Tammie the Housekeeper is tugging at my sleeve to show me a follow-up article.  It's even more titillatingly egregious than the first.  Who cares?  Noise in a vacuum.  The less said about this nonsense the better.  If the author(s) can make a living out of spinning this hooey into a career, maybe a book deal, at least, more power to them.  None of what they describe has any resemblance to how Frau Schmitt or I spend our days or conduct our business.  That goes double for Tammie the Housekeeper.

La Belle d'Esplanade

If you want to experience a true boutique New Orleans B&B experience instead of the yahoo way, we have know of a place on Esplanade Avenue where we recommend you might stay.

À votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

Clio, Goddess of Peace, Genius of History

Statue of Clio in September

The last time I wrote an update of our description of our Clio Suite, the only pictures I had of the new bed were from when the bed wasn't even all put together yet.  The bed has been complete for awhile now, so I decided to provide an update of the bed pictures.  I know it's not that exciting, but it needs to be done.  

We put the canopy posts up.  Here's one view from the bathroom.  I may as well show it here.  If you reserve this suite, you're going to see it all for yourself.

Bed in Clio Suite, La Belle Esplanade, New Orleans, LA

You probably don't care about our overhead expenses, but this bed cost a lot of money.  It's a queen.  I know it's expensive because Frau Schmitt and I were balancing the books the other day and I asked what this big expense was.  She showed me the receipt and I stopped squawking.  Frau Schmitt said, "It's for the guests."  I couldn't argue with that.  She's usually right about these things.  If it's for the guests, every expense if justified.

The bed in Clio Suite from the other side, in gauzy light

There are silk flowers and Christmas lights strung over the headboard.  I know.  It makes you think of a honeymoon suite in the Poconos, but it's not.  It's such a beautiful suite.  There's no ticky-tacky.  We're adding new original artwork in this suite.  The whole inn is a work in progress.  If you come back next year, you won't want things to be the same.  You'll want them to be better.   Us, too.

Let's have one more parting shot, this time of the bed from the sitting room:

You get the idea

Twelve and a half foot ceilings make all the difference.  That, and the rooms that are bigger than the average apartment in other world-class cities.  You can do cartwheels in here if you choose to. 

I took these pictures with my phone in the morning, when the sun was coming through the front windows, through the trees.  That's why the walls look more pink this time.  They're really more plummy. 

We look forward to meeting you.

The ceilings are still purple.

A votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

Clio Suite (Update)

The first Captain America Movie

What we're really here to talk about today is the Clio Suite, the suite that has recently taken on "most romantic" status.  It used to be that we called Les Fleurs Suite the honeymoon suite, but we swapped the beds around and, now, I think Clio is more romantic.  

This isn't a recent picture of the bed

A canopy makes all the difference, not that you can tell from a picture from before we put the canopy up.  The plum pink and turquoise rooms are each complimented with a purple ceiling.  I know what you're thinking: What were they thinking?  It works because these are oversized rooms and the ceilings are twelve-and-a-half feet high.  

The Clio Suite is on the second floor, atop a steep winding staircase.  The suite is made up of two spacious rooms, one for sitting and one for bed.  There is also a private bathroom with an antique claw foot tub equipped with a shower.  The whole inn is air-conditioned in summer and heated in winter.  The bed is a new mahogany queen bed.    

Clio Suite has a private balcony that overlooks Esplanade Avenue.  Here is the view:

View from the Clio Suite

There is an antique mirrored armoire in the bedroom, as well as an antique marble-topped dressing table.  The sink is in the bedroom as well, European-style.  It's all very cheerfully elegant.  We just commissioned a painting from a local artist to hang over the mirror over the sink.  It's title?  You are my sunshine.  That's also the title of Louisiana's state song.


We can listen as we go along.

Here are three pictures of the sitting room:

Clio Suite sitting room, hallway door closed

The Clio Suite sitting from the hallway

Clio Suite sitting room, looking lakeside.

The sitting room has a very comfortably upholstered leather love seat, armchair and ottoman.  The whole suite is inspired by the statue in the triangular park across the street from us, Gayarre Place.  The statue in the park is named Clio, after the Muse of History and Genius of Peace.

Rates include complimentary wi-fi, a refrigerator stocked with complimentary beverages at check-in, a coffee maker, a tea kettle, hair dryer, iron, ironing board, and all the same amenities as our other suites in case I left something out.  Rates also include breakfast.  We put out a delicious spread every morning.  

Did I mention the ceilings are purple?

The fleurs-de-lis is one symbol of New Orleans

The best way to check our availability and to make reservations is through our website: labelleesplanade.com. We offer some rooms you can't find anywhere else.

UPDATE OF THE UPDATE: I finally took pictures of the bed now that's it's put together.  You can see those pictures by clicking on this sentence.  

A votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

Mr. Okra was on my street!!

The mantle in the Clio Suite

I know a lot of German words, but I don't know as many as my lovely partner in innkeeping.  I'm only from Connecticut.  Frau Schmitt is a native a Germany transplanted in New Orleans.  Do you know what Connecticut's state motto is?  Its on the flag that hangs over our front door.  Qui Transtulit Sustinet.  Who Transplants Sustains.  Our other flag is the flag of Hamburg.  

I asked Frau Schmitt what Schadenfreude is.  She said, "It's the sensation of pleasure you feel from someone else's misfortune."  She is usually right about these things.  I hate to ask for reviews.

When you check in, we sit down at the desk in the lobby.  There is usually two of you, and you sit on two chairs on one side of the desk, and I sit in a squeaky chair on the other side with a picture of Buddy Bolden's nervous breakdown behind me.  

Buddy Bolden

What's the first thing I say?  I say, "First, we get the business out of the way.  I need a credit card."  After I jot down what I need, I say, "It's all pleasure after this."  And I mean it.  It's not about the money.  We need it to keep the inn open, but cash flow isn't what being a professional innkeeper is about.  We love where we live.  Our job is make you feel welcome in the city we call home.  We call it home for good reasons.

Home is where the heart is.

You knew this photo was coming

The other day, a lovely couple told us at the end of their stay, "We can't believe you're new to this.  You're the best, most natural innkeepers ever!"  [Ed. Note:  If you're reading this, no, it's not you.  A few different people said it that weekend.]  

I blushed while Frau Schmitt elbowed me in the ribs.  The customer is always right, especially when they're company.  It's like Tammy the Housekeeper always says, "Good guests make good company."  She learned that from me.

Tammy the Housekeeper

On behalf of Frau Schmitt, myself, and Tammy the Housekeeper, an army of three, I would like to thank everyone for their kind words and wishes.  We make it up as we go along.  We improvise and solo like jazz.  It's New Orleans.  We cross our fingers that whatever we are doing works well.  We are happy to see you and we like to share.  We try to be honest.  Your reviews are our bread and jelly.  In New Orleans, the best part is lagniappe. 

Tammy the Housekeeper always needles me to ask departing guests to write us a review on Trip Advisor.  Frau Schmitt tells her that it wouldn't be polite.  She tells Tammy the Houskeeper that practicing a profession well is its own reward.  Frau Schmitt is usually right about these things.  Tammy the Housekeeper tells her, "A little praise goes a long way, too."  Frau Schmitt knows.  That's why she's always telling Tammy the Housekeeper when she does a good job. It's all the time, for Pete's sake.

Even though Tammy the Housekeeper thinks we don't know that she finds change in the sofas and keeps it, she does a good job.  So does the gardner, the maintenance man, the webmaster, the termite inspector, the Fire Chief, our mailman, our meter reader, the paperboy and the tax assessor.  A lot of people say that the mayor is doing a good job, too.  Not everybody, but most.  

Sometimes, when we're talking to the neighbors on the corner, Mr. Okra comes by:



When Mr. Okra is in the neighborhood, it's gonna be a good day.
A votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

Little things mean a lot

Clio Suite

Angels dwell in details.  As I'm sure I've mentioned before, every room in our inn is a different color.  This doesn't only mean the walls.  All the ceilings are a different color, too.  Shall we take a tour of the ceilings in the Clio Suite?  I don't have anything better to do.

When the suites are unoccupied, I like to linger in them.  By unoccupied, I mean that no one is currently staying in them.  They aren't rented.  I don't hang out with people's luggage while they're out sightseeing and having adventures.  

Someone rang our doorbell the other day and asked to see all the suites.  "I thought that everyone would be out in the afternoon and you could show me the rooms.  I have family coming to town in June and I'd like to rent the whole house, but I want to see the suites first," she said.

I informed her that the house was full.  "You mean everybody's home?" she asked.  I answered, "No, but all the suites are rented.  If you rented a suite, would you want strangers traipsing through?"

"I don't see what difference it would make if they're not here," she answered.  It was a difference of opinion and our opinion mattered more.  When you stay with us, your space is sacrosanct.  Frau Schmitt or I, or Tammie the Housekeeper, will go into the suite to change replace the glasses, make the bed, sweep the floor, and clean the bathroom, but nobody else.  Nobody else.  What you do in the suite is nobody's business.  Not even ours.  We are very discreet.

Tammie the Housekeeper

We are not a hotel.  We are a small boutique inn.  Our inn meant to be an oasis.  I informed our visitor that I thought we have a day toward the end of May when the house will be empty.  That was as of this writing.  It being May in New Orleans, we will probably have people staying with us that day, too, but not as of this writing, and we won't be able to show any rooms that are occupied.  "The end of next month is a little close to when I want to make a reservation," she told me, "I'll see if someone else will show me their rooms."  I bid her goodbye.

I don't know what the policies are at other B&Bs.  Maybe someone else will let her see their guests' unmentionables.  We won't.  If we don't get her business, so it goes.  We think some things are more important than getting as much business as we possibly we can.  As professional innkeepers, we are in this for the long haul, trying to do what is right.  By doing what it right consistently, we hope to build our reputation.  It takes time, but it is the right thing to do.  What's the point in having locks if anyone off the street can go into your rooms?

Didn't this start out as a tour of ceilings?  It was supposed to be.

Corner in Clio

The ceilings in the Clio Suite are purple.  The walls in Clio's sitting room are a shade of teal.  The ceiling in the sitting room is a dark purple.  Why not?  Frau Schmitt always tells me, "You can't be afraid of color."  She is usually right about these things.  We love the fact that our house is so colorful.  Our guests do, too.  Have you ever slept in a room with purple ceilings?  It's very relaxing.

Another corner in Clio

The bedroom in the Clio Suite is pink.  I know, teal and pink.  It shouldn't work, but it does.  It works because of the purple ceilings.  The ceiling in the bedroom is a bit lighter.  There are angels in the details.

Also the Clio Suite

There are about 150 licensed B&Bs in New Orleans.  There are plenty of unlicensed ones, as well.  We are licensed, inspected, bonded, and insured.  We are up to code.  We are professionals.  As ambassadors for our city, our job is to ensure that you are comfortable and cared for.  Our job is to ensure that you enjoy your stay.  Our job is to ensure that you leave New Orleans full of good memories.  Everyone has stories to tell after they leave New Orleans.  Our job is to ensure that our guests have only good stories to tell about their stay.

A votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.  

A New Orleans tourist tip

Bienvenue

I've never seen a bat in New Orleans.  There are plenty of crows, especially in the morning or in the late afternoon.  In the late afternoon, they sometimes like to roost for awhile in the oak trees out front, or in the pecan tree out back.  When they roost in the back they sometimes swoop down to the fountain to take a sip.  Maybe they're after the goldfish, but the goldfish are too wily.  They know where to hide.  I've seen plenty of pelicans, mostly in City Park or on the Mississippi River.  Sometimes one will wing over Bayou St. John, hunting for mullet.

We had a couple from Glasgow (Scotland) stay with us over Mardi Gras.  They collected bushels of beads, as most people do during Mardi Gras.  They stayed in the Clio Suite and Tammie the Housekeeper clued me in that something magical had taken place over the bedroom mantle.  I asked if they wouldn't mind if I took some pictures and they happily obliged.

Ever observant Tammie the Housekeeper

People rearrange the furniture in the suites all the time.  No worries.  As long as you stay with us, it's your home too.  Home is where the heart is.  Welcome to New Orleans.  Or, as the sign over our mailbox says, "Bienvenue."  Make yourself at home.  Just don't trash the place.

The classical busts of the women are ours and they are always on the mantle.  The beads belong to the couple and they are now in Glasgow.

Left side of the mantle

Right side of the mantle

I have a photographer friend who reads this blog and he accused me of saturating the colors in our photos.  No.  Sometimes I remove some shadows, but there isn't any need to saturate the colors.  We live in a colorful house.  If it is saturated with anything, it is only good memories.

I was walking our dog on Barracks Street late afternoon the other day when I saw the back of our house, and of the green house next door.  I was walking toward Lenore and Carla's house.  There is no need to saturate these colors.  They stand out on their own.

Like a beacon

In case you are curious, the time for wearing Mardi Gras beads is passed.  Don't be tempted.  If you wear Mardi Gras beads while walking home after a parade during Mardi Gras season, that's cool. Hope you had a good time!  Happy Mardi Gras!  If you are wearing them any other time of year, you only look cool to all your pie-eyed chums on Bourbon Street.  Up here in our neighborhood, nobody is going to come out and say you look like an moron.  They don't need to.

Here's your New Orleans tourist tip:  Mardi Gras beads are for Mardi Gras only.  Any other time of year makes you a target for a pickpocket.  

A votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.