Innkeeper Endorses Trump!!

Fool riding a goat

I thought we needed a boost in blog traffic so I wrote an interesting headline for today's installment.  I'm not really endorsing a future President Trump.  While we do have freewheeling conversations around the breakfast table every morning, and I don't necessarily discourage the topic of politics as much as curtail it, you'll never know my political leanings.  Your humble narrator is a cipher when it comes to my politics.  I have a long history of being a man of mystery and I don't want to let the cat out of the bag now. 

The image above comes from an ongoingly updated archive of medieval manuscript illuminations from Discarding Images.  Let it never be said that your humble narrator doesn't have a variety of variegated interests.

Now, what were we talking about?

The spirit of New Orleans

Our favorite painter, Whalehead King, who has executed (and I use that word justly) most of the original artwork in our inn, is working on a new masterpiece for La France Suite.  It's gonna be a real kinger-dinger!  I was in his studio tonight to get a glimpse of his sketches and the progress he's made so far on the 4'x4' canvas that's going to hang over the bedroom (non-working) decorative fireplace in La France Suite.

The fireplace used to work when our inn was built, but that was over 130 years ago.  There is a fireplace in every room in our house but none of them contain fires.  You provide the spark that burns in your heart when you fall in love with New Orleans.

We asked Whalehead King to replace the Degas print that's hanging there currently and he happily said he was able to figuratively blow the roof off this project.  Here is a photo of what the new original painting will be replacing:

Cotton brokers in New Orleans à la Degas

If you want to see a reproduction of that painting, you can stay at the Degas House, which is a wedding venue and bed and breakfast a block away from our inn.  If you want to see the original, you'll have to visit Ville de Pau, in France.  I read French better than I speak it but I don't read French all that well.  If you want to read the extensive English wikipedia entry on Pau, well, here ya go.  It seems like an interesting place, all things considered.  As interesting as New Orleans?  Regular readers of this blog already know the answer to that question.  I don't need to belabor the obvious.

If this is a bit of an itsy bitsy teeny weeny short entry today, it's because it's French Quarter Festival this weekend.  Ask any innkeeper in New Orleans and they'll be happy to tell you that this is their busiest month!  I don't know what other innkeepers do to keep themselves so busy when nobody is checking in or out because the house if full for the weekend, but it's a good excuse for me to write a short entry.  I know what Frau Schmitt and I have been doing and she says it's free time well spent.  She is usually right about these things.

So there you have it.  If you want to see original artwork, produced locally, so locally you can smell the turpentine wafting over our back garden, you know where to find us.  We're a block away from the Degas house and a mile outside the French Quarter.  Try getting a quiet night's sleep in the Quarter this weekend!

To all of our American friends who live in states that haven't had primaries yet, remember to go out and vote for your man when the time comes.  Oh, you can vote for a woman, too, this year so far if you are so inclined.  A little birdie told me that.  I'm not making any endorsements.   

À votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade
...where every day is a curated breakfast salon.

I'm Always All Right in New Orleans

Overhead view of N. Rampart St., New Orleans, LA

4 out of 5 Australian travel agents read our blog.  Your humble narrator learned that from a reliable source.   High praise, indeed.  Thank you, one and all.  Keep sending business our way.  We love to treat everyone right.  

I'm not going to say if you're from Australia you'll get special treatment above and beyond what we normally provide but if you're from Australia I'll ask Frau Schmitt to break out the jar of Vegemite we keep on hand for breakfast.  I also promise that I will never mention Crocodile Dundee.  If you've been traveling the U.S. for awhile, by the time you reach New Orleans, you're already tired of the Crocodile Dundee jokes.  

We're not going to discuss shrimp on the barbie.

Enough of that.  We appreciate everyone who chooses to visit New Orleans, from wherever they may hail, even if it's from New Zealand.  We equally love Kiwis, too.  People from Australia and New Zealand hate when Americans confuse them.  They are two different countries.  Frau Schmitt and I know that.  She told me and she is usually right about these things.

It sometimes occurs to me when I'm chatting around the dining room at breakfast that I'm speaking some kind of alternate language where words mean one thing in the context that I'm saying them but they mean something else to the people hearing them.  I can tell by the puzzled looks I get.  Then, I backtrack and explain in a coaxial cable kind of conversation that winds around itself and is full of rich detail that is mostly forgotten and lost once it reaches its final destination.  It the parts that sticks to the bones that matter.  Just ask our dog.

I speak a New Orleans patois full of terms and references that only make sense if you live here.  I speak an international traveler kind of creole.  I speak like I'm from Connecticut, all business, shoot-from-the-hip Yankee.  I speak the sterling smooth tones of a welcoming host, which I am.  And I'm a goodwill ambassador for this magical city Frau Schmitt and I call home.  Frau Schmitt is, too.  Layers on top of layers, like a doberge cake.  You'd think I'd provide a link to "doberge cake," but, no, I'm gonna make you google it yourself if you're interested in what I'm talking about in this case.

Hallowe'en is coming

There's a house across from the Ursulines Academy that was featured in the New Orleans Advocate.  The Advocate is a newspaper, its a paper newspaper.  It's the rolled up newsprint that gets tossed on our front porch every morning, the one I read every day before our guests show up for breakfast.  It's the paper in which I solve the Jumble, in pen, in about one minute flat.  I'm not talking about the New Orleans Times-Picayune.  

Most people associate the Times-Picayune with New Orleans.  I never read that irregularly-printed, out-of-state-owned, turncoat rag.  Fluff and puffandstuff if you ask me.  Get your New Orleans news however you can, though.  Who am I to judge?  Have I mentioned that this is the #1 New Orleans blog read by Australian travel agents?  Now you know.

Hallowe'en House bachannal

I thought the house was on Claiborne Avenue.  This is going to be a thrilling bit of street grid geography for you, but bear with me.  I thought the house where the skeletons are was on Claiborne Avenue, but the Ursulines Academy takes up a full two city blocks.  One part, the narrow face where the athletic center is, faces Claiborne Ave.  Where the skeletons are, is on State Street, right across the street from the National Shrine of Our Lady of Prompt Succor.  I've gotta admit, I've got mixed feelings about this tableau's placement.  

There is something to be said for mementi mori, though, so I don't have too many qualms.  When I stopped by to take pictures, two guys from Jimmy's Pest Control were servicing the property next door and the two pest control technicians who got out of the van were admiring the skeletons.

"What do you think?" I asked John.

John said, "I think I don't want to be a skeleton, even if I'm painted in Day-Glo."

"How about you, Juan?" I asked Juan.

"I think I should spend some time in the shrine across the street," Juan said.  Then he did just that.  John followed Juan while I was taking pictures of the Day-Glo skeletons and their dogs.

Out for a stroll, Uptown, New Orleans, LA

The past twelve paragraphs have been leading up to the real subject of today's installment which is the the subject of traveler's constipation.  Surprise!!

Get that giggle out of the way.  This is a serious malady.

All right, are you ready to continue?  

When some people travel, they are bothered by an intestinal sluggishness, if you want to call it that.  The cause may be the low-level anxiety of being in a new place.  It may be a shift in time zones or climate.  It may be the change in diet; after all, the food in New Orleans is very rich and it probably isn't what you're used to where you come from.  

We don't normally discuss this with our guests unless they bring it up.  Some people bring it up.  Whenever they do, it's in private consultation, guest to innkeeper.  It's like a doctor-patient relationship or attorney-client privilege.  Don't be ashamed to ask us anything.   We have been asked to provide answers for all sorts of questions.  Your secrets are safe with us.  That is what we are here for.  

Thankfully, no one has ever raised the subject at breakfast in front of our other guests, though I suppose that would be one way to quickly change the topic from talking about the difference between Australia and New Zealand.

Well, I found a video.  Please, any fetishists are encouraged to leave this page now.  This post isn't posted for your jollies.  That's why this video is buried at the bottom of this installment.  There is a way to encourage peristalsis manually according to the video evidence I've researched at a guest's request.  (Who says we don't go the extra mile?)

Frau Schmitt makes sure I have plenty of fiber in my diet and she is usually right about these things.  I prefer to call it roughage, but I'm old fashioned about these things.  There is plenty of fried food and cream sauce in New Orleans, but if you ask you can usually get a salad on the side. 

I've never tried the method illustrated below, nor have I asked any of our guests if they have gotten good results.  Most things that happen in our suites are none of our business.  I always believe patience is it's own reward.  However, if you are a mind to self massage the edges of your abdomen, here are some tips:


As always, venturing into uncharted territory for New Orleans B&B blogs, I'm just going to leave that at that.  No wonder Australian travel agents love this blog.  Your humble narrator leaves no stone unturned.

À votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

P.S. If you are visiting New Orleans from Australia, we will never discuss this:

Never.
Never.
Never.
Never.

Les Fleurs Suite (updated)

Antique bed, Les Fleurs Suite

I forget whose idea it was to name everything in French.  When we're talking amongst ourselves, we always call it Flower.  "Remember those nice people who stayed in Flower?" Frau Schmitt will ask me, and I know exactly who she means.  

Our guests who get into the spirit of things call this Les Fleurs Suite, and they should.   That's what it says on our website.  It's this suite and it's one of our favorites.  The sitting room is pink and the bedroom is peach.  I forget whose idea it was to pick those colors but, with the blue ceiling and the all the antique furniture, it has a calming effect.  It's on the ground floor, which makes it Tammie the Housekeeper's favorite suite.

View from the front porch

As usual, I took all these pictures with my phone.  Les Fleurs Suite has its own private front porch that faces Esplanade Avenue.  You get to the porch through the front bedroom window that goes down to floor and up into the ceiling.  The bed frame used to be full-sized.  It used to be in Clio , but we got a new bed for up there.  We took this bed to the restorers and they turned it into a queen.  Les Fleurs Suite has a queen-sized bed - no need to call about that.   The only other suite with a queen bed is Clio.

Sitting room, Les Fleurs Suite

We added a new leather love seat to go with the velvet chair in the sitting room.  The sitting room also has the leather chair that matches the love seat.  You can't see it in this picture because I was sitting in it.  Even with the antique wardrobe and dresser, there's plenty of room in this first room of the suite.  

As for the second room, the bedroom, it has plenty of space in it, too, even with the antique queen bed and the other antique furnishings.  We already saw a picture of the bed, here's what it looks like to look from the bedroom through the sitting room:

Bedroom view of the sitting room

You'd think I took these pictures at different times of day on different days, but the light is beguiling in our house, especially when you use your phone to take the pictures.  There is a private bathroom off the bedroom, equipped with an antique claw foot tub in case you want to take a soak.  The tub is equipped with a shower head - no need to call about that.  The hand sink, however, is in the bedroom because it's more European that way.

The reason this is called Les Fleurs Suite is because of the botanical artwork on the walls.  Some are photographic prints.  There is a paper mache flower from a Mardi Gras float.  Over the mantle in the sitting room, there are some original oil paintings by a local artist we like to collect.  

Two private rooms, a private bath, and a private porch that looks out over Esplanade Avenue.  The wild ginger in front of the porch is coming back after almost dying from cold last winter.  Esplanade Avenue is a beautiful street and the front porch presents an interesting and ever-changing view.  

It's a main street, but it isn't terribly busy for a main city street.  Cars go by and people walk by, too.  The tour buses and bicycle tours stop across the street to snap pictures of the house.  We live in a kind of landmark: most colorful house on Esplanade Avenue.

The best way to make a reservation is online through our website: labelleesplanade.com.  There's no need to call unless you have questions.  In that case, we'll be happy to answer them.  We're not always home though, so email is generally more efficient.  

I'm not trying to discourage you from calling, it's just that we put everything up on our website.  We don't think anybody likes surprises.  When somebody calls, they have to wait for me to pull up our website to check availability or to check our policies.  

Tammie the Housekeeper

Tammie the Housekeeper is a whiz with the cleaning, but she prefers not to have anything to do with computers.  That's why she never answers the phone.  The answering machine can take a message as well as she can.  She's usually busy getting the suites ready, stocking the complimentary refrigerator, making sure ever suite has coffee, tea, a bag of Zapp's potato chips, and putting a praline on the pillow.  We wouldn't be as successful as we are without good housekeeping.

We look forward to meeting you.

A votre santé,

La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

La France Suite (Update)

Sitting room in La France Suite, La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast

I'm sure I've mentioned that the inn is an ever-evolving work-in-progress.  It's time for me to update our suite descriptions.  Not much has changed over the last year-and-a-half, but enough noteworthy things have happened that it's time to start afresh.  As Tammie the Housekeeper told me the other day while she was handing me my eyeglasses, "You and Frau Schmitt really seem to be hitting your stride in this innkeeping business."  

Tammie the Housekeeper

She held my glasses up to the light.  "How do you even see through these things?" she asked.  I see well enough.  That's why I get to describe the rooms on our blog.

Bedroom in La France Suite, La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast

La France Suite is the two rooms in the back of the house, one room after another.  It has its own private bathroom equipped with an antique claw foot tub perfect for a deeply relaxing soak.  It has a mounted shower head and curtains so that you can scrub off the modern way, if you so choose. 

Sitting room in La France Suite, La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast

The sitting room has a fainting couch, a velveteen-upholstered reading chair, a marble-topped table we found on the street and carried across New Orleans on our scooters,  a marble-topped dressing table, and a wardrobe that the cabinetmaker signed inside.  There is a statue of Joan of Arc on the mantle, and there is a slender collection of books pertaining to France that one of us finds interesting.

Bedroom in La France Suite, La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast

I don't saturate these colors after I take the pictures.  The camera doesn't lie.  The bedroom has a plantation-sized antique bed.  Plantation-size is B&B talk for full, one size down from a queen bed.  It's an antique.  Nobody can complain about sleeping in a bed made like this.  They don't make them like this anymore.

There is also a refrigerator stocked with a little wine, beer, soda, juice and water.  Help yourself.  If you need anything else, there's a corner grocery store two blocks down Esplanade Avenue toward the French Quarter.  There is a writing desk, television, free wifi, a bust of Napoleon, and there's a dresser dating from 1884.  There is also more Joan of Arc memorabilia.  She's the patron saint of Orleans, France, and she's pretty well respected in New Orleans, too.  

View from La France Suite balcony, La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast 

The balcony is an open gallery along the lakeside that ends in a little sitting area with a cafe table and two chairs.  The sun sets in this direction.  You can see the Superdome behind the telephone pole, and you can see it better at night, when it's lit up.  It's about two miles away as the pelican flies.  We're close enough to everything on our shady city street, but we're also far enough away.  

The corrugated metal building facing Barracks Street on the lot next door is Mr. Bourne's Muffler Shop.  He's been open at this location every day, except Sundays and Tuesdays, for more than 42 years.  The shop is an institution, like Mr. Bourne, himself.

There aren't (m)any people who still speak French in New Orleans, but Frau Schmitt is taking lessons.  We get to welcome a lot of international guests.  As for myself, I only know the three words I'm always thinking when I walk into this suite: Vive la France!

If you're thinking about going to Jaques-Imo's, well, this is more Jacobin.  Laissez les bon temps rouler!

A votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

Your New Orleans questions answered

Knights of Electra Mardi Gras parade poster

I don't know what most people do as their first night of the second weekend of Jazz Fest winds down, but I imagine a few of you readers go through our archives of blog posts.  One such reader emailed me recently with a question.

Dear Mr. King,

I recently read your blog post dated April 2nd, 2013, "Weekdays in New Orleans."  I would like to commend your unique ability to evoke what it is like to live in the City Care Forgot.  I have learned so much about the Crescent City from reading your blog.  You have true talent.  Reading your blog has brought me new appreciation for the Big Easy.  You've made me want to move to New Orleans.

In April 2013, you wrote:

"Why are people serving up waffles off a gas grill on their front porch?  Why is a man doing a word search puzzle by flashlight in the middle of the sidewalk at 6:00AM?  What's a Rhode Island Red rooster doing in Louisiana?"

Can you tell your eager fans if you're now able to shed some light on these things, now?

Signed,
An Anonymous Pal

A nice place to consider a response

Dear Pal,

Thank you for your kind words, but over-the-top flattery and phony enthusiasm will get you nowhere.  We don't offer government or military discounts.  We are negotiating with AAA, but nothing's final yet.  With that out of the way, I can answer your other questions.

When you see people serving up waffles from their front porch gas grill, or serving macaroni dinners out the side door, or fish fry plates from their kitchens, it usually means someone has died and the family needs to raise money for the funeral.  It's usually ten or fifteen dollars a plate, less for breakfast.  You can afford it.

When you see an old man doing a word search puzzle by flashlight next to the McDonough High School gym, you don't ask why anymore.  You just accept that some people do things for reasons all their own.

There are a few flocks of semi-feral chickens that run through our neighborhood.  Rhode Island Reds are the most popular cocks because they are hardy and they make the hens lay brown eggs.  In New Orleans, brown eggs are cheaper than white, and that's what you put in yak-a-mein.  In New Orleans, you can have yak-a-mein for breakfast.

This is what I have learned so far.  I may be wrong.  I'm sure someone will tell me if If am.  Then, I'll have more information and more better answers.  When you try to describe some things in New Orleans, the words don't always come out right.

I hope this both satisfies your curiosity and whets your appetite.  There are adventures to be had in New Orleans.  I know just the place to stay.

La belle Avenue d'Esplanade

Sincerely,
Your Humble Narrator
A votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast. 

A votre santé

Finding a good bakery in New Orleans

French Quarter, New Orleans, LA

I hear people have nightmares when they don't stay in a New Orleans bed and breakfast.  I don't know if that's true, but I thought I would pass it along.

Blue Plate Building

We were down on the other end of Jefferson Davis Parkway today checking out another bakery.  Not that we don't like the bakeries we already use, but variety is the spice of life.

The Blue Plate Building wasn't always artist lofts.  It used to be a mayonnaise factory.  They don't build 'em like that anymore.  Every time I pass it by myself, I stop because it is so remarkably perfect architecture.  

Here's a panoramic view of the intersection of South Jefferson Davis Parkway and Earhart Avenue:

Blue Plate Building, New Orleans, LA

The view to the left

New Orleans is a city of contrasts.  Your heart will break at how beautiful it is.  

If you take Washington Street from the Blue Plate Building, you'll end up in Broadmoor.   There are fascinating things going on down there.  Laurel Street Bakery is going to open a shop there.  We can't wait to give them a try.

I'll tell you about it when we do.

A votre santé,

La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

Good memories are made in the wash

Ode to Joy soap

Little things mean a lot.  There are angels in the details.  I know I've already mentioned that we have soaps handmade in New London, Connecticut.  

When people think about staying in a bed and breakfast, they are, naturally enough, usually interested in two things: What's the bed like?  How's the breakfast?  I know I've already written about the beds at La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast, right down to the bedspreads.  I also know that I've previously described our breakfasts and what goes into them.  

Good things bear repeating.  It is time to talk about Olive and Oud soap again.

Perfect morning soap

We got a new shipment today.  We have the best smelling mailbox on Esplanade Avenue and we are proud of it.  If you want to have the best smelling mailbox on your street, Olive and Oud soap is available for sale to the discerning public.

As professional licensed innkeepers, we always do our best to make every day start with a perfect morning.  Little things, like miniature artisanal soap and good coffee with chicory, mean a lot.

Tammie, the housekeeper

I asked Tammie, the housekeeper, her opinion of one of the new soaps.  We only keep hand cut one-inch cubes of Olive and Oud soap in stock.  I opened the box and picked a cube at random, then I tossed it to Tammie, the housekeeper.  She plays shortstop on her softball team.

She held it under her nose.  She rubbed a little on her wrist and smelled that.  I followed her to the kitchen.  She washed her hands, then she washed her face.  When she was done, she was smiling.  She is only a housekeeper part time.  Her full time job is as a dental hygienist.  She has perfect teeth.

"This soap is perfect," she said.  "It reminds me of the sun shining on the oleander in the back garden.  It reminds me of breakfast with an old boyfriend.  It's like tossing off the covers in April on a bright day.  It's like it just stopped raining.  It's like a perfect morning.  It's like ice cream for breakfast."

There are angels in the details.  If you want, you can buy Olive and Oud soap online.  If you just want to try it before you buy it, you can stay at a colorful New Orleans bed and breakfast inn.  

A votre sante,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

A Difference Between Housekeeper and Innkeeper

Tammie, the housekeeper

"I read your blog," Tammie, the housekeeper, told me the other morning.  "Why do you always have to refer to me as the housekeeper?" she asked.  "I am more than a housekeeper, you know?"

She is also a mother, a grandmother, and a licensed dental hygienist.  She performs all her roles equally well.  "You and Frau Schmitt make beds and dust and mop, too.  Why do I have to be singled out as the housekeeper?"

I answered that she is La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast's housekeeper, and she should be recognized as such.  "People don't see you as much as they see us," I answered.  "What you do is behind the scenes when the house is empty.  Why should we, the innkeepers, get all the credit?"

"Let's ask Frau Schmitt what she thinks," Tammie said.  "She's usually right about these things."

We asked Frau Schmitt, who thought about it awhile.  "He's right this time," Frau Schmitt told Tammie, the housekeeper, ruefully.  "An innkeeper isn't a housekeeper.  We couldn't do it without you.  People should know that."

With the matter judiciously settled, I asked Tammie, the housekeeper, if she had seen where I had left my glasses.  "They're on the desk in Les Saintes Suite, Mr. Innkeeper," she told me.

The desk in Les Saintes Suite

Tammie, the housekeeper, was right.

A votre sante,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

New Orleans Bed and Breakfast Beds

I've been looking at some online photos that other innkeepers use to promote their properties.  There are a lot of pictures of beds.  Nobody comes to New Orleans to watch television, and nobody comes to New Orleans to sleep, but it's important to have a welcoming place to catch up on your shut-eye, either way.  Every one of our suites has cable TV.

While the antique beds, just like all the other furnishings, are part of La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast's je n'est c'est quoi, appeal, pictures don't do them justice.  I can blame my photography skills, or I can blame my phone.  The truth is, pictures can never prepare the viewer for experiencing something enchanting in the round and in the flesh.

Our guests from Toronto said, "We didn't realize the rooms were so spacious.  We figured that if you didn't show the ceilings, they must be low."  One of them is a real estate agent.  Frau Schmitt tells me that the ceilings are 12 and a half feet high.  She is usually right about these things.  Tammie, our housekeeper, tells me that she needs a twelve-foot ladder to dust the ceiling fans. 


While I personally feel pictures of beds to be a bit boring, we present them here for your perusal:

Les Saintes Suite bed

Les Fleurs Suite bed

La France Suite bed

Clio Suite bed

La Pelican Suite bed

We have five suites at La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.  They are all comfortable.  When you sleep in New Orleans, you will have good dreams.  When you stay at La Belle Esplanade, you will have a good breakfast waiting for you, too.  

New Orleans is more than a collection of hotel rooms.  It is a city of neighborhoods.  We are in the middle of Esplanade Avenue.  It's about a 20 minute stroll to the French Quarter and the Marigny, and it's about a 20 minute promenade to City Park and the New Orleans Museum of Art.

You can reserve a room in an international chain hotel, or you can opt for a boutique experience.  We are proud of our beds, of course, but our inn contains much, much more than sleeping arrangements.  We are surrounded by much, much more than you'll read about in a guide book or a tourism brochure.  We do a good job of being welcoming hosts, but the city we call home does all the heavy lifting.  You can't stay in New Orleans without falling in love and wanting to come back again. 

Please check out web site and reserve a suite directly from our online calendar.  When you cut out the middleman, you save.  You'll be able to afford another one or two nights more, or more.

A votre sante.

New Orleans Bed and Breakfast Soap

NOMA in NOLA

No one is going to say that any of the original artwork hanging in La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast is worth hanging in the New Orleans Museum of Art at the end of Esplanade Avenue.  It's not that the artwork isn't any good.  Some of it is very good.  Most of it, however, will probably be appreciated more once the artist is dead.  Such is the lot of most painters.  

A painting in Les Fleurs Suite

Delayed appreciation is not a problem, though, for those lucky few who practice the olfactory arts.  If you know the difference between toilet water and Chanel No. 5, you know the difference between run-of-the-mill hotel soap and handcrafted artisanal soap.

I mentioned the other day, in my usual rambling and roundabout way, that I happen to know a soap maker from New London, Connecticut.  She agreed to supply us with her product.  The first shipment arrived the other day.  Nothing bad has ever come out of Connecticut.  Just ask your humble narrator's wife.  She is usually right about these things.

If you're like me, you like to spend your time online reading reviews of artisanal soaps.  I found two that confirmed that I had made the right partnership.  One reviewer found Olive and Oud soaps an ode to joy.   Another reviewer felt like she had emerged from a bonfire in the snow.  

The soaps arrived from Connecticut, and we put a cube of each in La France, La Pelican, and the Clio Suites.  I'm not going to provide pictures of these eye candy soaps.  It's not that I forgot my camera, and it's not they aren't worth admiring with one's eyes.  It's just that they are best enjoyed firsthand, through one's nose and one's skin.  Neither words nor pictures can do them justice.  They deserve to be experienced in the flesh.

We were giving Leda and Richard a tour of the Clio Suite when they checked in this evening.  Leda immediately noticed the cube of Olive and Oud soap set like a jewel in the dish by the sink.  "This smells like heaven," she said and she held it up for Richard to get a whiff.

"It smells like New Orleans, just like I expected," he said.

Let's say you can't wait to stay at La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast to try our new soaps.  Maybe you stayed with us in the past and you want to be reminded of what it was like to enjoy a few days on Esplanade Avenue in New Orleans.  Maybe you just want to buy some Olive and Oud soap for yourself, to get an idea of what it is like to wile away a few carefree hours and forget your worries in a beautiful setting.  Maybe you just want to dance and live life like nobody is watching.  You can buy Olive and Oud soap online.

New London is Connecticut's Whaling City.  After you visit New Orleans, I suggest you plan a vacation in the southeastern corner of the Nutmeg State.  The two cities have much in common: deepwater ports, good people, good music, good bars, and good soap.  

I know a painter from New London.  He gave me a picture he had painted with your humble narrator in mind.

Baelenius Rex!

Not all the art found in our New Orleans bed and breakfast inn is museum-quality, but all of it worth enjoying, like the house itself and the city we call home.

A votre sante.