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.

Life of a New Orleans Innkeeper

Our front porch

Nobody wears full length pants or long sleeves this time of year in New Orleans and it's only May.

The busy season is winding down for us.  People like to ask when our busy season is.  It's from the end of January until the 4th of July.  Then, things pick up again in the middle of September and we're busy until the end of November.  Then, we're busy around New Year's Eve.  Now you know.

A similar picture

We are continually blessed with good guests.  We hear a lot of horror stories from fellow innkeepers but, for some reason, we don't have any hair-raising tales to tell.  Ever day is a pleasant pattern of relaxed conversation in the morning and then people go out to have adventures in this magical city we call home.

Some people ask if we ever hold a wine tasting in the afternoon.  No.  We're in New Orleans.  I don't have to invent things for you to do.  You shouldn't be hanging around the house, anyway.  You're on vacation---I don't normally use this name for our city, but I'll say it--- Go enjoy the Big Easy.

A real Maltese firecracker stayed with us this weekend.  Remember, Tracey, that hot ticket who thought Tammie the Housekeeper doesn't exist?  Well, this Maltese firecracker was a hot ticket, too.  She was sharp as a pin, paying attention to everything.  It's guests like that who keep us on our toes, let me tell you.

I don't mean this in a bad way.  We like it when people notice what we do.  I don't think many of our guests give our suites the white glove test, though we wouldn't mind if they did, but if they do, we never hear about their findings.  

The Maltese firecracker said, "You two have thought of everything."  I wouldn't say everything.  The inn is still a work in progress and we are always adding lagniappe and fiddling with the details.  We've thought of a lot and we've been doing this almost three years, now.  We like to think we've gotten better along the way from opening day to here.  YMMV.

It's a big work in progress even if most of the pieces are already in place by now.

I'm beginning to detect a theme

We end today with a musical interlude.  Travis Trumpet Black Hill died last week while he was touring in Japan.  He used to play every Monday at the Ooh Poo Pah Doo Bar, a few blocks behind our house.  He was a very talented musician who will be missed in New Orleans and in our neighborhood especially.  He had a promising career ahead of him that was unexpectedly cut short under circumstances I'm not going to go into here.  



As you can hear, Trumpet Black could really play.  That clip was taken in Armstrong Park last year.  So far, 125 people (including your humble narrator) have viewed this clip on You Tube.  125?!?  Listen to that, man.

I saw his funeral procession this afternoon under the Claiborne Avenue overpass.  I didn't go to gawk because I don't like to do that.  I don't mind telling our guests about second line parades that are going on in our neighborhood, but when people ask if I know where there's going to be a jazz funeral, I usually say that I don't.  

One: I don't really follow those things.  Two:  Howzabout a little respect for the dead, eh?  If you stumble across it, that's one thing, but I don't want to feel like I just sold tickets to somebody else's funeral.

Living in New Orleans is already like living in an aquarium.  Nobody minds much that visitors watch everything we do and ask us a million questions about what it's like to be here.  I just showed an apartment to a fellow and, when I was done, I asked him when he'd be ready to move in.  "Oh, I live in Pensacola.  I was just wondering how much apartments go for here and what they look like on the inside."

He's staying in an illegal short term rental he found on Air B&B.  "There's no privacy but it was cheap and I'm meeting a lot of interesting people."  I'll bet.  He wanted me to show him the inside of our inn, "just in case for next time." Unfortunately, I had other things to do at that very same moment.

Live here long enough and you'll get used to things like this. 

À votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

The Spanish Fort in New Orleans

What we're talking about today

I thought I'd go looking for the Tomb of the Unknown Spaniard, so I headed up to the remains of Ye Olde Spanish Forte in Lakeview, which sits at the mouth of Bayou St. John.  

Esplanade Avenue, the street we live on, crosses Bayou St. John more towards the bayou's tail end.  The Spanish Fort is at the bayou's mouth, at the Lake Pontchartrain end.  The whole reason New Orleans is here is because of Bayou St. John.  I could tell you all about it, but I'm going to eschew my usual digressions to stick with the topic at hand.  Let's see how well that works, shall we?

It was a picture postcard kind of a day when I headed up to Spanish Fort so I took a picture.

Battlements at Spanish Fort, New Orleans

Then, I said to myself, Waitaminnit!  There's a better view!  Here's a picture with the Holy Trinity Cathedral in the background:

Another view

The Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral belongs to the oldest Greek Orthodox congregation in the Americas.  That's both North and South America.  It turned 150 years old in 2014.  I would have thought the oldest Greek Orthodox Church in America would be in New York, but then I would be wrong.  It's right here in New Orleans, of all places.  In fact, the original location is three blocks from our house, on North Dorgenois Street.  That building is still standing, if you want directions.  It's an Episcopalian Church now, i.e. Church of England.  It's a predominantly African-American congregation, St. Luke's.  

We live in a very interesting city full of layers and nuances.  New Orleans has a very dense texture.

It's very shady on the batture where the Spanish Fort is located.  It attracts some occasional visitors, mostly people from the adjacent neighborhood who walk their dogs or let their children gambol over the fort's decayed ramparts.  A few antiquarians go there.  I don't know if I would recommend it to you if you were our guest, but if I determined you would be interested in this sort of thing, I would.  It's a very pretty situation, close by Shelter No. 2 on the scenic shores of Lake Pontchartrain.  

Oak trees at the Spanish Fort, New Orleans

I wandered around looking for the Tomb of the Unknown Spaniard that I've heard so many legends about.  I found it, or, at least, I think I did.  It's an unmarked grave that's been fenced off for the protection of his (or her) hallowed remains.

Tomb of the Unknown Spaniard, New Orleans, LA

Once a year there's a low-key ceremony and people lay wreaths outside the fence.  I don't remember when it is every year and I'm too lazy to look it up right now.  If you're in town when it's happening, I'll tell you.  My innkeeper instinct tells me that not too many people who aren't from New Orleans are terribly interested in this.  I've been known to be wrong before, though.  Maybe I'm wrong this time, too.

As I was wandering around, a little dog walked by on the top of the levee.  Waitaminnit!  That's our dog!  Of course.  He rode shotgun on my motor scooter to keep me company on this bivouac.

A dog enjoying a dog's life in New Orleans

You'll never meet him.  Many people don't know he exists.  Unlike his master, Frau Schmitt, our dog isn't exceptionally friendly.  If he had his druthers, he would never be separated from Frau Schmitt.  The dog and I have that much in common.  He has learned to tolerate me and he and I get along well enough because I take him to the most interesting places.  As far as I can tell, he doesn't read this blog.

À votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

Golf in New Orleans

An accidental movie

 I wanted to take a picture with my phone but it switched to video.  I hate when that happens.  Above, that's a video of the grass at my feet.  Fascinating, isn't it?  Welcome to New Orleans.

Abandoned snack bar in City Park, New Orleans

There used to be two golf courses in City Park.  Then there was Katrina, and you know what that did to most of the city.  Nowadays, one golf course has been restored and is open for business.  It has a driving range, too.

The abandoned golf course is in the middle of City Park, between Mirabeau Street and Fillmore Street, I think.  It's hard to tell what the landmarks are when you're in there.  It's a ghost course, filled with winding sidewalks that lead nowhere, past abandoned little buildings and alongside overgrown lagoons.  People say there are alligators up there, though I've never seen one.  People also say there are coyotes, but I haven't seen any of those either.  It's a fascinating place.

An abandoned rest room in City Park, New Orleans

If you are only going to stay for two or three nights in New Orleans, we're probably not going to recommend visiting the abandoned golf course in City Park.  Why?  Because there is just so much else to see.  When you get home, people aren't going to ask you if you went to the abandoned golf course.  They're going to ask if you went to Cafe du Monde or to Bourbon Street.  You should see these things, but please be aware that New Orleans is more than the tourist attractions in the French Quarter.  It's a living city.

Sometimes I like to say it's a living museum.  Everything is old here, even when it's new.  Everything is unique.  There is no place in America like New Orleans.  Dare I say there is no place in the world like this wonderful city we call home?  Okay.  I'll say it.

Both Frau Schmitt and I have visited many places all over the globe.  We've lived in a few of them, too.  New Orleans is like nowhere else.  We love it here.  If we didn't, we wouldn't live here. We'd be somewhere more romantic.  Unfortunately, there isn't any other city more romantic.  Not Paris.  Not Venice.  Not Rio de Janeiro.  Not New Haven, Conn.  Not Des Moines, Iowa.  Take your pick of places.  New Orleans beats them with unfettered and infectious and resilient sheer joie de vivre.   

A dog in City Park, New Orleans

Some people walk their dogs in the abandoned golf course in City Park because hardly anyone goes there.  When you have to go to Cafe du Monde or Bourbon Street, who wants to wander around an abandoned golf course?  Some people do.  Mostly it's people who live here.  It's peaceful up there.

I recently got an email that half of the abandoned golf course is going to be restored, retrofitted, and returned to commerce so that people can putt and score birdies in the "West Golf Course."  I have an idea of where they mean because nobody refers to the compass in New Orleans, so I'm only guessing.  I'm guessing that the repair work is going to be done on the Uptown side of the abandoned golf course.  We usually stick to the Downtown side when we walk the dog or just want to stroll around alone with our thoughts.  

I mentioned the restoration plans to Frau Schmitt, and also to Dorothy, who is the weekday bartender at the Parkview Tavern, and to Marsha, who is very involved in the tour guide business.  They all expressed regret that the abandoned golf course is going to join the list of things in New Orleans that ain't dere no more.  Of course, avid golfers have been thinking that the original links ain't dere no more, so it's the circle of life in a big vibrant city.   

If you want to stay for a longish while in New Orleans, in a real neighborhood out of the tourist bubble, and you want to learn what it's like to live here...I have an idea where you might want to stay.

A votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

What will you see in New Orleans?

View from the field in the Superdome

As I write this, our blog got 249 readers today.  Small beer, to be sure, but it almost sets a record for people checking in on what's going on in our small corner of New Orleans.  What drew people to read the wonderful prose your humble narrator offers up once or twice a week?  I don't know.  There's no accounting for taste.  So what do you want to know about?

Let's start out with a disappointment.

Dixie Beer sign

Dixie Beer is a New Orleans original.  The original brewery was on Tulane Avenue, a few blocks uptown from our house.  Since Katrina, it's been abandoned and the property was taken by the VA to build a big new VA hospital.  The good news is that the big brewery building is going to be incorporated into the hospital campus instead of being torn down as originally planned.  The other good news is that you can still buy a six pack of Dixie at most local grocers.  The bad news is that it's brewed in Milwaukee.  At least it's still around.

The Falstaff brewery building is still around, too.  It's apartments now.  I've posted pictures of it before so I won't waste your time doing it again.  You can trawl through the archives if you're so inclined.  That will be good for traffic.  Regal was another big local brew.  That brewery was torn down to build the Royal Sonesta Hotel on Bourbon Street.  The fourth local beer was Jax.  The Jax Brewery is also still standing, a few blocks uptown of Jackson Square in the French Quarter.  It's a shopping mall filled with sad shops and cell phone accessory kiosks.  Have a good time.

Not everything is forlorn in New Orleans, though it sometimes looks that way.  The reverse is true.  It's a vibrant and happy place.  Everyone is friendly.  We find this to be true, but we've lived here long enough to pass as natives.  Our guests tell us the same thing, even if they have a foreign accent, like from the UK or Switzerland or Iowa or Australia or Malaysia or Lebanon or Kenya or Cuba.  Everyone they meet is nice and they swap stories and if our guests are lost the people who live here give them directions and they also often give them something to drink on a hot day, or shelter if its raining.  It's that kind of a city.

La France Suite balcony

I was talking to someone who will remain nameless and she suggested that I email our previous guests to let them know what's going on at the inn and what specials we're offering.  I don't know about you, but I don't like to find a lot of spam email in my inbox trying to sell me things.  YMMV.  She was the kind of person who said LOL instead of laughing.  It wasn't endearing.

I'm toying with the idea of an email newsletter, but I figure that anyone who is really interested in keeping up with La Belle Esplande, or with la dolce vita, will read this blog.  If not, well, they don't know what they're missing and it isn't much anyway.  Ignorance is bliss.  That's always been my usual modus operandi.  

This woman who will remain nameless asked me if we blog about the inn.  Well, sort of, I said.  "Do you post recipes and top ten lists?  They generate a lot of traffic and interest."  Well, no, we don't do that.  I just write about whatever I write about.  It could be anything or nothing.  Mostly it's a smidge more than nothing and a bit less than interesting.  I hope you've read this far... all 249 of you today.

A $250 a night hotel room.  Not La Belle Esplanade

It's the La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast blog (just look at the header) so I feel kind of obligated to talk about La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast fairly frequently.  We're in New Orleans, so I feel obligated to talk about New Orleans.  Everyone is interested in what's happening in New Orleans.  It's like magic here.  If you leave disappointed, you'd better check your pulse to make sure it's still beating.

What other material do we cover?  This.  That.  Whatnot.  The pictures sometimes match up with the words in some way.  I take the pictures with my phone.  I make it all up as I go along.  We do the same thing at breakfast when we're talking with guests.  Like the people who live here, we live here, so we're open to serendipitous twists.  The conversation can go any which way.  It makes things interesting, even during the pregnant pauses.  It's very romantic where we live.  Good memories are made here.

If you're looking for a colorful bed and breakfast, I have a suggestion.  What's this blog about again?  Ah, yes!  It's about the 2nd-most beautiful street in New Orleans: Esplanade Avenue.  Ours is a marvelous neighborhood.  It's missing something, though.  It's missing you.

A votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

You Bet Your Life in New Orleans

Undertaker, Grave Digger, Auto Repair shop for sale, New Orleans, LA

After she reads our blog, Tammie the Housekeeper will sometimes accuse me of trying to funny with the captions.  It gives us something to talk about when we're tidying up [Ed. Note: Tammie the Housekeeper is really the one tidying up.]  I explain to her that I don't make anything up, here, and she knows that, but there are some things in New Orleans that are so improbable, they can't possibly be true.

But they are.  Tammie the Housekeeper knows that, too.

There really is an undertaker, gravedigger, and auto repair shop for sale.  It's Uptown, in Central City, near where Buddy Bolden used to live.  We live in Mid-City, an entirely different neighborhood.  Just so nobody thinks I'm making this up, I took a picture of the other side of the building for proof that it exists in three dimensions:

These are usually considered three separate professions

I can't make out what was censored on the lakeside of the building, but the small print underneath says, "Not open to the general public."  I didn't try to go in.

All this talk of dying put me in the mind to visit Xavier University. Not because people die there, but because I've been wanting to visit the St. Katherine Drexel Chapel, which has been open about a year.

They're known for their pharmacy school.  Xavier University was founded by St. Katharine Drexel and the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament in 1915.  They just built a new chapel on the campus.  It was designed by Cesar Pelli.  It's kind of modern from the outside.

That's I-10 in the background

When I was up there, the Demo Diva was tearing down one of the buildings across the way.  She has pink cranes and dumpsters.  

I don't make any of this up.  I had a picture of it, but now I can't find it.  Here's her website.  She looks just like her picture on the side of a dumpster.  It's uncanny. 

Anyhow, the chapel is kind of modern on the inside, too.

St. Katherine Drexel Chapel, Xavier University

I guess that's the way they're building chapels these days.  

On the way out, I took a picture of a picture of Saint Katharine Drexel.  

Saint Katharine Drexel

Reading about Tammie the Housekeeper without seeing her picture is like saying the secret word without the duck coming down.  For those readers too young to know what this means, we provide a video.  You'll get the reference at 1:04 in.  It's a quiz show.  The host is Groucho Marx, a comedian who had a big film career and then ended up on television.  I've never seen the other two before, but there's something not quite right about the man.  He's the kind of guy who I picture running an Undertaker, Gravedigger, Auto Repair shop.  Who knows?




The moment you've been waiting for:

Tammie the Housekeeper

A votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

New Orleans Cemetery Tour

Saint Louis King of France

You know how happy kids are to take a historical walking tour in July?  They like it doubly much when they are tromping between the ovens in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1.  

It was 93 degrees and humid during some parts of the day.  Depending on where you were standing, it was raining; the kind of rain that cools you off without making you wet.  Depending on where you were, it could have rained buckets for twenty minutes.  I heard that it happened in Gert Town around 10:00 this morning.  

The picture above is of the statue of Saint Louis IX.  It's in St. Louis Cemetery No. 3, on the end of Esplanade Avenue.  Though better maintained than St. Louis No. 1 and No. 2, it was just as hot at 2:00 this afternoon in No. 3, where it was 93 degrees and humid.  There were three busloads of tours wandering about.  The kids were loving it.

If you haven't paid for a tour, it is shoplifting to linger too long while the guide is speaking, even if the only purpose of your being there is to visit the grave he or she is talking about.  Even if you already know the story and could tell it better yourself.  Since I'm not that kind of person, I wandered around taking pictures of where there weren't any tour guides.

Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta

That's an apartment building in the background of this picture, not a mausoleum.

When we lived in Boston, we lived within walking distance of Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta Church.  There was a very nice ice cream parlor and coffee shop around the corner on Dot Ave.  

St. Louis No. 3 has a remarkable collection of statues of 20th century holy people.

Saint Padre Pio

Bronze must be cheaper than marble.  You don't see many old bronze statues in cemeteries, either in New Orleans or anywhere else I have ever been.  They are usually made of marble.  Bronze was saved for the public square.  Marble must have been cheaper than bronze at some point.  

Our Lady of Grace

A New Orleans Brass Band

I'd like to say that a brass band passed by, but that doesn't usually happen on Wednesdays in our part of town unless there is a funeral.  It doesn't happen often.  It usually happens on Saturdays and Sundays when some happy couple is getting married.

I walked back to our place under the shady oaks.  It was 82 degrees in the shade, and just as humid.  I waved to the tour bus that was paused in front of our house.  On my way up our front porch, I passed a statue made of fiberglass.  

Our Lady of Dorgenois

 A family wearing fanny packs walked by.  One of the kids said, "This is the most beautiful street we've been on, yet."

I couldn't agree more.

A votre sante,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

Familiar Faces in New Orleans

One of three sisters

You never know who you'll bump into on Esplanade Avenue.  Sweet dreams are made of a brass band playing the Eurythmics.



The other day, Frau Schmitt and your humble narrator were walking through the French Quarter.  It may have been on Dauphine Street (pronounced Dough-FEEN), or maybe it was on Burgundy Street (pronounced brrr-GUN-dee).  Either way, we saw a statue of an angel under an old plantation home's front stoop.

There are angles in the details

Neither of us knows why the caged bird sings, but Frau Schmitt observed that the angel's face looked familiar.  The first person I thought of, of course, was Tammie, the housekeeper.

Tammie, the housekeeper

I guessed wrong.

The answer was closer to home.  

Angels fall in the French Quarter as often as stars fall on Alabama.  On the 2200 blocks of Esplanade Avenue and Bayou Road, we keep our angels by the front door.  Where streets share a park, the stars align.  We take ours in after dark.

If you are looking for someplace to stay n New Orleans

We also put them on pedestals in the park.  

Goddess of History, Muse of Peace, Gayarre Place

Sometimes, a young lady will be walking down Esplanade Avenue and a gas light will light her face as she passes beneath it.  You know you've seen her before.

St. Joan of Arc

She's the kind of person you'll bump into when you stay at a bed and breakfast on Esplanade Avenue in New Orleans that I can recommend.  

Then, you'll hear a tuba whumping out the time two blocks uptown and you'll join in the second line going down Ursulines.  You'll be dancing like nobody is watching because there are no strangers in New Orleans, only friends you've been lucky enough to meet.  All's well that ends well when it ends in Les Saintes Suite.

Some out-of-focus paintings in Les Saintes Suite

Sweet dreams are made of this.

A votre sante,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast. 

New Orleans Cemeteries

St. Louis King of France

There are three cemeteries in New Orleans named after St. Louis King of France.  St. Louis Cemetery #1 and St. Louis Cemetery #2 are located just outside the French Quarter.  Cemetery tours visit #1, where Marie Leveau is interred.  I don't think they go to #2, but I am waiting for one of our guests to take a tour to confirm this.

I do know that tours visit St. Louis Cemetery #3, which is on the end of Esplanade Avenue, right before City Park.  How do I know this?  Because the tour buses pause in front of La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast to talk about Gayarre Park and the three picturesque homes in the middle of the 2200 block.

La Belle Esplanade at 2216 Esplanade Avenue, New Orleans

After us, the buses pause on the 2300 block to discuss the Degas House, where the impressionist painter used to live.  At the next corner they discuss the Museum of the Free People of Color.  The whole trip to the cemetery is like that.  There is a lot to see and to talk about along Esplanade Avenue.

As I was commenting to a lovely couple from Idaho who are staying with us this week, picturesque decay is one of New Orleans' many-fabled charms.  While you will find very little of it on Esplanade Avenue, you will find plenty of it in St. Louis Cemeteries Numbers 1 and 2.  

St. Louis Cemetery Number 3, is another matter altogether.  It is a necropolis, but it doesn't make you feel like it is haunted, the way the other two boneyards do.  It could be because St. Louis Cemetery #3 is the final resting place for many priests and religious.  There are also numerous well maintained statues of saints, like the one of St. Louis King of France, for whom St. Louis Cathedral is named.

What cemeteries look like in New Orleans

What tombs look like in New Orleans

That's an apartment building for the living in the background

Like all Catholic cemeteries, the graves at St. Louis #3 are blessed every All Saints Day.  This year, the archbishop presided over mass across the street,  Then the archbishop, Father Robicheaux, and Deacons Bialas and Zaiontz, walked across Esplanade Avenue, respectfully stopping traffic on their way to bless the graves.

The 14th Archbishop of New Orleans on All Saints Day

During his homily, the Archbishop said: "The Church recognizes many saints, but there are many more that it does not officially recognize.  Some of those are buried across the street."  

Still more are scattered all over New Orleans.  It is that kind of a city.

The name says it all

I was late coming home on All Saints Day.  "Where have you been?" Frau Schmitt asked.  

"You won't believe this," I answered, "but I had to stop so that Archbishop Aymond could cross the street."

She believed it.  Unexpected surprises happen in New Orleans every day, and we are more blessed for them.

To learn more about La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast: click here.  If you are thinking of visiting New Orleans, there is no better place to stay, and no more interesting neighborhood.  

A votre sante.