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.

Hello New Orleans

I haven't been to Heaven but I suspect that living in New Orleans is a little, teensy-weensy, tiny, picayune bit like being in Heaven.  People who live in New Orleans love it here.  There is nowhere else like it.  Hello, New Orleans, you are the city I've been waiting for.

This is what houses look like in New Orleans.

New Orleans is its own world.  Hello, New Orleans!  New Orleans is calling you.

Spend a day in New Orleans and you'll be disoriented.  Spend a week in New Orleans and you'll be changed for life in the best ways.  Hello, New Orleans!  If you want to be the best that you can be, New Orleans is here to help you.  Let the New Orleans state of mind be your guide.

A dignified lion statue in City Park, New Orleans.

There is nothing wrong with being lonely.  We are all our own islands.  

No one need be alone in New Orleans.  This is a city that welcomes the stranger, accepts the eccentric, celebrates the individual, and invites everyone into the conversation.  To be in love with New Orleans is to know that you belong.  It doesn't matter what kind of a nut you are.  Welcome to the club.  Hello, New Orleans!

If you want to get your taste of the real New Orleans and the authentic New Orleans state of mind, he-e-e-e-ere's-s-s-s...

A word from our sponsor: 

La Belle Esplanade is a small artisanal hotel located on a beautiful historic street in New Orleans, close to the tourist must-sees, but also in it's own unique neighborhood, where New Orleanians live.  Visit New Orleans like you belong here.  

Good memories are made in New Orleans.  The best, most personalized real memories are made at La Belle Esplanade.  You have two friends, at least, on Esplanade Avenue.  Visit New Orleans like a New Orleanian.

Ranked the #1 place to stay in New Orleans since April 2014.

  

The Elysian Bar, New Orleans

The Elysian Bar in New Orleans has been open for about a year.  The Elysian Bar is part of the Peter and Paul Hotel.  The Peter and Paul Hotel is situated in the rectory, convent, school, and church building of the former Saints Peter and Paul Parish in the Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana.  The hotel has about 70 rooms.  It has been named one of the top hotels in the world by Travel + Leisure magazine.  If you want to hang out in a hotel bar, the Elysian Bar is a nice choice.  I've been there more than once.

The napkin at The Elysian Bar

I usually go to the Elysian Bar when it's slow.  Summer afternoons are a great time to visit the Elysian Bar.  The bar opens at 10:30AM and it closes at 12:00AM.  Apertivo Hour is from 3:00-6:00PM daily.  These times come from their website.  I haven't verified all of them personally. 

I don't mind talking to guests who are staying in large hotels.  I know that hotels of 70 rooms are not considered large---they are boutique.  I live in New Orleans.  

If I were visiting New Orleans, I don't think I'd go out of my way to meet people from Peoria that I'll never see again.  You can do that anywhere in the French Quarter or on Frenchmen Street or in any hotel bar.  When the first thing that someone asks you is, "So where are you folks from?" you know you are in tourist New Orleans, not in the part of the city where people live.  There is more to New Orleans than you will read in any guidebook. 

It is very nice inside The Elysian Bar.  The snug interior doesn't feel claustrophobic because of the interior architecture and design.  You'll find a lot of yellow.

The Elysian Bar.

The Elysian Bar is a cocktail bar.  Fine wines and fine cocktails.  There is a curated (small) selection of canned and bottled beer.  I'm sure you can order a rum and coke if you really want it, but it's not gonna be Capt. Morgan.  Most people at The Elysian Bar order a spritz drink or a cocktail with an arbitrary name they've never heard of.  It'll all be good.  They have a lot of ingredients.

They have celery bitters.

My favorite flavor of bitters, even better than Peychaud.

If I were staying at the Peter and Paul Hotel, I would go to The Elysian Bar more often.  As it is, I go when I'm in the neighborhood.  It's an experience.  The locks on the bathroom doors are like on airplanes.  When you slide the bolt inside the bathroom door, a wheel on the outside changes from vacant to occupied.  No one ever has to knock.

I will say that I think The Elysian Bar is in the best of its class.  Once you walk onto the premises you'll realize why there is no other bar like it, not only in New Orleans but in the world.  It is one of a kind.  The atmosphere is comfortable and cozy, classy.  The drinks are excellent.  Try it.  You'll like it.  When you've had enough of it, there is a whole wide wonderful city waiting for you.

This is not a paid endorsement.

A word from our blog's sponsor:  

A hotel with 70 rooms is a small hotel, especially in New Orleans.  There are 36,000 hotel rooms in the city of New Orleans, not counting the suburbs.  La Belle Esplanade is a microscopic in our market.  We only have five suites in a colorful mansion on a beautiful street.  Our hotel is tiny and artisanal, with hospitality on a craft level.  The best New Orleans memories are made when you make La Belle Esplanade the headquarters for your adventure.

Each of our five suites has a sitting room, a bed room, a private bath with clawfoot tub, and a private balcony.  You can't be afraid of color.  La Belle Esplanade is located close to the things tourists want to see in every direction but it is also in a real neighborhood where you can visit New Orleans like you belong here.  Make yourself at home in style.

Ranked the #1 inn in New Orleans since April 2014 by TripAdvisor, La Belle Esplanade has also been called #2 in the U.S., and #16 in the world, having won the Travelers' Choice Award twice, back-to-back.  Go to our website, see what we have to offer.  There is tourist New Orleans and there is real New Orleans.  You belong here.  

The Best Things In New Orleans Are Free.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now a word from our sponsor:  

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

When New Orleans calls, you have to answer.

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

À votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade

Ask the New Orleans Answer Man

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

I'm in your corner.

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

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

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

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

I detect the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

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

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

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

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

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

New Orleans Author Announces New Book in Progress.

If you don't mind, I'd like to get all literary today.  I am working on a book.  What's the book gonna be about?  C'mon, Silly!  You know it's about New Orleans.  You read it here first: New Orleans Author Announces New Book in Progress.

Your humble narrator under a picture of Walt Whitman.

In a New Orleans state of mind everyone has the soul of a poet.  Everyone dances like nobody is watching.  Everyone is inspired to be their own best self.  Everyone finds their Muse.  Everyone who moves to New Orleans, the first year or two, they're all writing poetry.  Happily, most of them get it out of their system.  New Orleans is a special place.

I have lived in New Orleans for nine years.  Not too long, as a native may say, but not fresh off the airplane, either.  I am a hotelier.  I run a small 5-suite hotel in a colorful mansion on Esplanade Avenue.  You can call it a bed and breakfast if you want to.  Personalized service and hands-on, tailored recommendations is what we offer as New Orleans goodwill ambassadors.  Visit New Orleans like you belong here.  You do belong here.  

New New Orleans Book In the Works!

I don't think the newspaper is going to pick up this news but I've got a new book in the works.  It is about New Orleans, naturally, Silly.  You are among the first to know.

He's got more than one turn-of-phrase up his sleeve.

The first people to know were Frau Schmitt, who is the better half of this operation, Ms. Richardson, my Gal Friday, and Phil, the valet at a restaurant I like to visit regularly.  

Now it's you.

I like to write one-page expository essays.  Here is a sample:

Defend New Orleans Forever

New Orleans is crooked, or, more accurately, New Orleans is curved.  The streets and the neighborhoods follow the turns of the Mississippi River.  The river is the reason New Orleans is here.  It couldn’t be anywhere else.  It wouldn’t be the same.

New Orleans is a city of deviations from the norm.  Nowhere else looks like New Orleans.  Nowhere else smells like New Orleans.  No other food tastes like New Orleans food.  No other music sounds like New Orleans music.  It can rain in New Orleans while the sun shines overhead.  At least it’s not snowing.

New Orleans has one foot in the past and the other in a wet grave.  Defend New Orleans forever.  A tangled skein of parti-colored ribbon, a pot of gumbo, a mess of empty crawfish heads in the neutral ground, New Orleans is children tap dancing on Bourbon Street.  In a New Orleans state of mind, this hugger-mugger shoo-shoo of a city makes perfect sense and sensibility.  It’s not where you are, it’s where y’at.

The stars are aligned.  In satellite photographs, New Orleans glows a halo.  Catch a wish.  There is a physical New Orleans and then there is New Orleans spirit.  As long as people are happy, New Orleans will survive.  That is why New Orleans is here.

Walking in New Orleans is not an A-to-B affair.  It is a curlicue route.  In a New Orleans state of mind, even angels dream of spending time in New Orleans.  New Orleans is as close to Heaven that you’ll get on Earth.  Just look at the street names.

Celery, onion and bell pepper make up the holy trinity of New Orleans cuisine.  The hypotenuse of New Orleans is equal to its length and its breadth.   In New Orleans, we connect the dots.  The father is not the son.  Both their spirit resides in New Orleans.  Defend New Orleans forever. 

God writes straight between crooked lines. 

It's not every day that a New Orleans author announces a new book in progress.  Fasten your seatbelts, folks.  It's gonna be a wild ride with more samples to follow.  Check in regularly.

Be well,

-La Belle Esplanade

P.S.  Our Kettle-Head book is also still in the works.  There is so much to look forward to!  Welcome to the New Orleans state of mind.  

New Orleans gentlemen of distinction drink Dixie.

Providence and New Orleans.

What is steamboat gothic?  You'll know it when you see it.  It's not steampunk.

I was in New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward the other day to poke around and to see the two steamboat gothic houses that are located down there, at the end of Egania Street.  They are beautiful houses.

Here's one:

The garden-ringed steamboat gothic house in New Orleans.

Here's the other:

The levee-side steamboat gothic house in New Orleans.

They are exact replicas of each other.

People ask me about the 9th Ward.  "I hear that's where the flooding was the worst after Hurricane Katrina," they'll say.

Well, 80% of the city was flooded to one extent or another.  What makes one part of the city worse?  Most everyone lost everything they owned, both house and contents.  It's a matter of degree, perhaps, but it's the nth degree.

The Lower 9 is part of the 9th Ward.  The 9th Ward is the biggest ward in New Orleans, by far.  It includes the Lower 9, the Upper 9, Gentilly, and New Orleans East.  Wikipedia describes the boundaries helpfully, though, for whatever reasons, the article doesn't describe the East.

The thing about New Orleans is that you have to live here to really get a handle on all this convoluted city's facets.  New Orleans is a kaleidoscope, different every time you take a turn.  Familiarity breeds bewilderment the first couple of years but a person eventually gets an instinctual feel for the neighborhoods after enough time spent here.   With practice, New Orleans is as navigable as a familiar dreamscape.  

I don't know why H.P. Lovecraft never felt at home here.  New Orleans is Providence on steroids.

New Orleans City Park.

I've been to Providence.  I love Providence.  It is my favorite city in New England (and, as someone from Connecticut, that takes some guts to say that).  I live now in New Orleans.  I love New Orleans.  I know very few people who don't love New Orleans.  There is only one Providence.  There is only one New Orleans.

Tennessee Williams said there are only three cities in America: New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans.  Everywhere else is Cleveland.  Tennessee Williams was wrong.  There are plenty of cities in America that are interchangeable with Cleveland but Providence isn't one of them.

Back to New Orleans....

La Belle Esplanade, the #1 small hotel to stay at in New Orleans, is located in the 6th Ward.  Where's the 6th Ward at?

These boots were made for walking to the most colorful houses on Esplanade Avenue in New Orleans.

In New Orleans, if you meet someone you know, you don't say hello or "How are you doing?"  You say, "Where y'at?"

We live on the 6th Ward side of Esplanade Avenue.  The other side of our street is the 7th Ward.  The 6th Ward is bounded by Esplanade Avenue and St. Philip Street and the Mississippi River and Bayou St. John.  The 6th Ward is four blocks wide and forty blocks long.  

If you want to learn more about New Orleans, I know a good place where you should stay when you visit.  La Belle Esplanade is staffed by New Orleans goodwill ambassadors who offer personalized recommendations tailored to what interests you.  Even if you aren't interested in New Orleans wards or steamboat gothic, there is plenty more for us to talk about.  Make a reservation today at the #1 small hotel in New Orleans.  We'll be more than happy to share what we know about this wonderful city we call home.  It is what we do.  We love what we do.  You will fall in love with New Orleans, too.

La Belle Esplanade: Price is what you pay; value is what you get.

New Orleans Is Full of Sly Magic.

New Orleans is full of sly magic

There is a subtle perturbation in the atmosphere in New Orleans, a hum in the back of your ears, something below the substance that is more spirit than solid or liquid or gas.  There are occult powers at work along this city's sinews.  Phantasmagoria and fantasia, both and neither; terra firma, terra incognita and terra sigillata.  Is it any wonder that we love where we live?

When you spend enough time in New Orleans, you get a little discombobulated, then your balance readjusts, your tympanic membranes get used to the on-key pressure, and your pineal gland recalibrates.  Then, everything seems right in the world for long stretches along Esplanade Avenue, or St. Claude Avenue, or St. Bernard Avenue, or Carrolton Avenue, or Dumaine Street, or Washington Avenue, or along South Galvez Street, well, heck, along just about any byway or alleyway in the city, even Pirates' Alley or Duels Street.  Stay here long enough and you'll get spoiled for living anywhere else.

It really is magical in New Orleans.  Ask anyone.

It isn't voodoo, per se.  It's the voodoo that the people who live here do.  It's hard to put your finger on what makes New Orleans different, but you can always feel the pulse.  Everybody eats red beans on Mondays.  Why?  We don't ask that kind of question.  Like the Mardi Gras Indians, and everyone else who calls New Orleans home, we just do what we do because that's what we do.

'Nuff said about that.  Try to pin a butterfly down with enough description and words and, before you realize it, the butterfly has flown away.

Wanna see a rare picture of Frau Schmitt?

The nicest person you will ever meet

We went to see China Lights in City Park last night.  Wanna see a picture of a dragon?

Dragon over the oleander

China Lights is a big exhibit of silk sculptures lit from the inside.  We've seen the sculptures during the day and, let me tell you, they are much more impressive at night.  They're impressive during the day, but at night, they're magic.  It wasn't cheap to get in but it was worth the price of admission.  That's the way with most things.  Who dares to tally an epiphany's value?

Not quite the whole dragon

China Lights runs until May 1.  Even when nothing is happening in New Orleans, officially, something is always happening.  That's why we love where we live, off the record and off the radar and off the charts.  There is never a dull moment.  You can come to New Orleans any time of year, at any time of day, and you'll find something happening.  It's that kind of a place.  Its texture is rich and dense, full of portents and magic and dazzle and sizzle, fo'  shizzle.

If you don't know what it means to miss New Orleans, that's because you haven't spent enough time here, yet.  Stay for a couple days, embed yourself in the back streets outside the French Quarter, outside the Garden District, off the usual tourist maps and tourist traps.  You'll fall in love.  New Orleans is full of sly magic.

If you are considering a visit, we'd be pleased if you choose to make our colorful and humble inn your headquarters and base of operations for the duration of your stay.  We know a lot about New Orleans magic.  Reserve a suite early.  We are a small boutique operation that offers customized recommendations and accommodations.  You'll know what we mean when you get here.  Stay with us and you might just be spoiled from staying anywhere else.  It's not our vacation, though.  You can always stay down the street.  

I always say you should read an inn's blog to get an idea of what the place is about.  I can't say ours is always useful, in fact we've installed a poll to measure this somewhere toward the bottom of the column to your right.  Feel free to vote if you are so inclined.

New Orleans is a city full of sly magic.

À votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade
...where every morning is a curated New Orleans breakfast salon. 

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.

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.

Mardi Gras 2016 Is Heating Up

A happy couple on Esplanade Avenue, New Orleans, LA

After last installment, I was hoping to just cruise along with photo essays of our trips to the various krewe dens last weekend.  I took a lot of photos and, believe it or not, I'm feeling a little lazy, so just posting photos for two weeks seemed like a surefire recipe to coast along easy street.  Unfortunately, our web traffic from the last post slowed down to a trickle.  Who woulda thunk that you all come here for the scintillating prose?

It's nice to know.  And, lesson learned, let's get back to the usual wordy folderol for which this blog is so well known.  Give the people what they want.  I will, however, continue using the photos of this year's floats as illustrations.  I've got more than a hundred pictures so there is no point in letting them lie idle.  

On that note, let's start with an old picture with which regular readers are more than familiar:

Tammie the Housekeeper

With Mardi Gras around the corner, the season is heating up.  By that I mean that our inn is getting busier, though the weather has been in the 60s to 70s (Fahrenheit), as well.  With more to do around the house, Tammie the Housekeeper has been around more, pitching in and making sure everything is ship shape, spotlessly clean and in good working order.

Tammie the Housekeeper told me that she has a new boyfriend.  "He's a philatelist," she told me.

When I remarked that this must make for some very interesting evenings, Tammie just gave me that sly sidelong smile she has that I've come to recognize means I will regret asking any more questions.  I changed the subject, instead.  "How do you like the new curtains Frau Schmitt hung in the Clio Suite?" I said.

The Roman Garden Float in the Rex Den

I've always liked that statue used for the Roman Garden Float.  As regular readers know, I am a student of art history.  Mind you, I've never used my knowledge of art history for more than impressing people at cocktail parties.  I am not a professional art historian.  I am an innkeeper, but, I like to think that if I ever get on Jeopardy! I'll ace the art history category in the form of questions.

In case you didn't know, this is a statue of Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, being suckled by a she-wolf.  The wolf statue is Etruscan (5th century BC).  The babies underneath were added during the Renaissance (15th century AD).  Roman statues for 400, anyone?

The original:

Rome's founders

Does New Orleans have any founding myths?  Not on par with the founding of Rome.  You can read about the brothers Iberville and Bienville who founded New Orleans, but I'm pretty sure they weren't suckled by a she-wolf.

The truth be told, I find the story of the founding of New Orleans to be a bit confusing and tedious.  If you want to learn more about it, I recommend the book Bienville's Dilemma, by Richard Campanella.  It's very well written and not as dry as some other histories of New Orleans.  All histories of New Orleans tend to be complicated, however, no matter who is telling the story.

Remember, I am not providing the link above to make any money if you choose to buy the book.  It is provided for information purposes only.  As I always tell the guests when they ask if we charge for the two cans of beer we provide in our suites' refrigerators, "We are not here to nickel and dime you."

Garden of Eden Float in the Rex Den

The serpent in the Garden of Eden was the Devil.  Though I've often wondered if I've run into the Devil over the years I've lived in New Orleans, I can't say he's ever taken the form of a snake.  I've seen plenty of actual snakes here over the years, though, let me tell you.  

Before New Orleans was a city, it was a swamp.  Now, snakes aren't slithering down the street the way some people imagine, but they are around.  I often see snakes in the neglected back corners of City Park where few people venture.  They're big ugly black snakes, too.  They give me the willies, but they're usually more afraid of me than I am of them, or so I assume since they disappear as soon as they spot me.

Egyptian Garden Float in the Rex Den

Richard Campanella, the chap who wrote the book I linked to above, is the resident geographer at Tulane University.  He does fine work.  Rumors that he and I collaborate are unfounded and unsubstantiated.  I don't think he could pick me out of a police lineup, which is a good thing to be able to say about oneself under certain circumstances.

Some people ask me why I don't have a website under my own name.  In fact, I do, but at the moment it isn't much to look at.  It just directs people to visit labelleesplanade.com.  Richard Campanella has a website under his own name.  It's richcampanella.com.  If you are interested in New Orleans historical geography, and its current geography, for that matter, you should check it out.  Just like you can waste a lot of time perusing this blog's archives, you can waste equally much on Mr. Campanella's website.  

And, with all of this text written, read, and out of the way, it is time to sign off until next time.  Tune in a couple days from now when you might hear me say...."So, what exactly do you and your new boyfriend do at night, Tammie?"

Until then,
À votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast
...Good memories are made on our street!