New Orleans is Delicious

Where does the time go?  It goes down the memory hole.  In New Orleans we don't forget our days.  We don't forget our good times.  Good memories are made in New Orleans.  They are the kind of good memories that will last us the rest of our lives.  Mmmm-mmmm good.  Welcome to the New Orleans state of mind.  New Orleans is delicious.

When I lie on my deathbed, I'll think back to any random New Orleans day and I'll be smiling.  I will slip into the sleep of the eternally contented.  A week in New Orleans will give you a taste of Heaven.  New Orleans is delicious.

There are very few places on this wonderful round earth so nice as New Orleans.  New Orleans is a slice of Heaven more tasty and savory than a slice of anchovy pizza.  Happy are those who have spent time in New Orleans.  The luckiest people of all live here.  Ask them.  They wouldn't trade a day in New Orleans for all the pizza in Italy.

In a New Orleans state of mind, even the angels dream of living in New Orleans.

New Orleans loves you.  Accept its sweet embrace.  New Orleans is delicious.

New Orleans loves you.  You'll know it as soon as you set foot on its bumpy and shady streets.  There is only one New Orleans.  We smoothly sail from day to day, catching the breeze while we shoot the breeze amongst friends.

Look in the mirror.  You are unique.  New Orleans loves you for who you are.  

I didn't lose my heart in San Francisco.  I found my heart in New Orleans.  Home is where your heart is.  Once you get New Orleans, New Orleans has got you hooked.  Make yourself at home.  You belong here.

Take your chances.  Make your mark.  Be yourself.  You belong in New Orleans.  Game on!

There are no illusions in New Orleans.  This is reality.

Be ready to reach the stars.  Be ready to be your best self.  Be ready to swallow your soul and eat to your satisfaction.  Be ready to be ready for anything that may happen next.  What's gonna happen? Something startling and enlightening and magical and transcendent.  Be ready to live your best future.  Catch a wish and carry it with you forever.

When you are in New Orleans, nothing is like things are where you live.  In New Orleans, there is magic in the air.  Open your nose.  Open your eyes.  Open your ears.  Touch the flowers that grow along the sidewalks.  Touch a fork---it is an extension of your hand.  Kiss a spoon full of gumbo.  Kiss a lover.  Love makes New Orleans hum.  New Orleans is an eternal thrill.

Have you ever had a dream that you can't forget?  If you haven't, you should get your good self to New Orleans.  After six or seven days in New Orleans, you'll know what I mean.  You'll be hooked.  New Orleans is delicious.

I'm not saying that New Orleans will spoil you from enjoying other cities, but, man oh man, once you get New Orleans in your heart, well, I guess I really am saying that New Orleans will spoil you from enjoying other cities.  New Orleans is delicious.  There is only one New Orleans.  There is only one.  If there were more, the world would be overcome with a frenzy of joy.  No one would be clinically depressed.

Some people suffer heart attacks.  In New Orleans, people suffer love attacks.  There are worse ways to live.  Ask anyone who calls New Orleans home.

---And now a word from our sponsor:

La Belle Esplanade is a small craft hotel located on a beautiful street in a very interesting part of New Orleans.  We only have five suites but that is what makes our small hotel special.  Not everyone can stay at La Belle Esplanade, only the five people or couples who make a reservation to stay here on any given day.  Lucky people.

La Belle is the orange house in the middle.

When you are ready to get off the typical tourist grid and immerse yourself into the densely woven and richly textured culture of this wonderful city we call home, we hope you'll make your New Orleans headquarters at La Belle Esplanade.  We only have five boutique suites so we tend to fill up early.  Go to our website, read more about we offer, and make a reservation today.  The "Check Availability" button is located in the upper right of our website's screen.  We look forward to meeting you and to sharing our part of New Orleans with you.

Discover what it means to really fall in love with the real New Orleans.  We're here for you.  You have a friend on Esplanade Avenue.

À votre santé,
Your ever-loving pals at----
La Belle Esplanade

Welcome to the most unique hotel not only in New Orleans but, maybe, in the world.  We look forward to meeting you and to sharing our part of New Orleans with you.

In the meantime, be well, friends.  You have two friends on Esplanade Avenue in New Orleans.  We look forward to meeting you in person.

The Best Place to Have Brunch in New Orleans

Would you buy a used car from this man?

If you are of a certain age, you'll recognize the man in the picture above.  He never endorsed staying at La Belle Esplanade.  He did visit New Orleans occasionally over his career, but this wasn't a city in which he felt at home.  He never stayed with us.  We're known for making people of all political stripes feel welcome, and we're also known for explaining what makes New Orleans America's Most Interesting City.  I bet if Nixon stayed with us, he would have fallen in love with New Orleans.  We've seen it happen before.

We went to the movies this afternoon...




...but we didn't see Elvis & Nixon.  It wasn't playing at a convenient time.  We're not on vacation, after all.  It only seems like we have all the time in the world.  We do work for a living.

Instead, we went to see something else.  We went to The Theaters at Canal Place for a late matinee.

On to other business---

Your humble narrator

If you follow us on Facebook, you'll recognize this picture.  It was taken a few seconds after the photo that's our profile picture on our Facebook page.  People ask why photos of Frau Schmitt so rarely surface in public.  The answer is simple: one of us is camera shy.  I don't know why:

Frau Schmitt

I think she's beautiful.  I always say Frau Schmitt is the nicest person you'll ever meet.  In this one case, and in this one case only, I am right about these things.

We were having a late lunch at La Crêpe Nanou.  As I've mentioned before, La Crêpe Nanou is a bit out of the way for our guests and the restaurant doesn't take reservations, so a lot of people are hesitant to make the trek out to Prytania Street to chance to take a table.  We've never had a problem getting a table to savor a meal over an hour or two.  Also, La Crêpe Nanou only serves lunch (brunch, really) on Sundays when most of our guests are at a second line parade.  

I'm not trying to paint it like we don't want to have lunch with our guests and that's our main reason for going to La Crêpe Nanou on Sunday afternoons.  Our guests, as Mr. Nixon would have learned had he stayed with us, are wonderful company.  We enjoy the ambience and the food at La Crêpe Nanou on its own merits, irrespective of who may or may not join us there.

Also, it's fun to say La Crêpe Nanou.  It's fun to spell, too.

Let's cover one more subject, since most of these blog installments cover three subjects per post.  I'm a trinitarian.

In a month, we're going to have a new website.  We like our current website, and it's gotten a lot of compliments.  It's just time to move on from big multinational corporate octopi.  One particular multinational corporate octopus bought up our website provider soon after we signed on.  We hung in for awhile, but, really, enough is enough.  We're small business people.  We prefer supporting other small business people.  We'll announce when the new website is up in this forum, which is owned by Google, and on Facebook, of course.

We're really sticking it to the Man.

We take inspiration from another local business from these parts: River Parish Disposal.

During Jazz Fest, River Parish Disposal is really cleaning up, business-wise.  Yes, I know I made a pun there.  Their portable toilets are everywhere.

Portable toilets in City Park

They've probably trademarked their slogan, which is too bad.  I'd like to use it for La Belle Esplanade.

Truer words were never written on the side of a port-o-let

They love that slogan so much that their website isn't riverparishdisposal.com.  It's bizstinks.com.  I'm not talking trash when I say that's marketing genius.  I stand in awe, much as Elvis did when he met the president.

I am perennially awestruck in New Orleans.  We live in a magical city.  You'll see when you get here.

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

Postscript and just to be clear:

A manatee

We went to see a matinee, not to see a manatee.

A Rare and Fabulous Find in New Orleans

A picture picked at random

I didn't know what our lead in photo was going to be when I inserted it at the head of today's blog installment.  I just clicked on something.  Turns out it's a good choice because, surprise, surprise! La Belle Esplanade is the subject of today's chapter.

Today's title is the title I swiped from a review written about our inn.  I'm just cutting and pasting and filling in the blanks today.  That's what most B&B blogs do.  Let me let you in on a secret....

Most B&B blogs aren't written by the innkeepers.  They are farmed out to professionals who stuff the blog entries with keywords for search engine optimization (SEO as we say in the trade) so that the blog entries will show up at the top of Google keyword searches.  Is anyone searching "rare and fabulous find in New Orleans" on Google or bing?  I don't know.  I don't particularly care.  That isn't what we're about here.  This blog is written by me, your humble narrator, in the flesh, warts and all.

I've already chosen the videos that will accompany today's installment.  Now, all I have to do is plug in the text and, believe me, nothing I'm going to talk about today has to do with Jazz Fest.

The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is in its second day today.  If I was a professional blog writer, I would be writing about that and linking to the schedule and trying to drum up business for us from people who want to go to Jazz Fest.  Truth be told, we've been booked since January for the next two weekends. We don't need to talk about Jazz Fest.

Neither Frau Schmitt nor your humble narrator have ever been to Jazz Fest, even though it's about a ten minute walk from our house.  We're not on vacation so we don't really have the time to partake of the festivities.  What should I tell you about instead?

I walked into a bar on St. Claude Avenue and it went something like this:




Thankfully, I soon met up with Frau Schmitt and she suggested we go to a place on N. Rampart Street.  Frau Schmitt is usually right about these things so I followed her.  That adventure went a little like this:



We were in the Bywater.  It was pretty racy.

I know what you're thinking.  Can't we talk about something besides New Orleans for a change?  We're all educated people.



Remember, Tim Robbins and I used to look a lot alike at one point in our lives.  I've referred to this in past installments if you have the time to read all our archives.  In fact, I was at Tastee Donuts the other morning and I wasn't wearing a hat.  It's very rare when you won't see me in a hat. It's not that I'm bald.  I just don't own a comb.  

Anyway, I wasn't wearing a hat and Lisa, who sees me a few times a week when Frau Schmitt and I want to serve apple fritters at breakfast, said, "You remind me of Tim Robbins in Shawshank Redemption.  That's one of my favorite movies."  I learned something about Lisa that day.  I also learned that, though Shawshank Redemption was released in 1994, I appear to be 22 years younger than I am.  

I like being older.  You don't hear many people say that out loud.  Frau Schmitt will tell you that I enjoy growing old.  She is usually right about these things.  Howzabout a little T.S. Elliot:

Thomas Stearns Elliot

"I grow old... I grow old...

I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled."

[From the Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, 1922.]

I wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.  I don't measure out my life in coffee spoons, though.  So much for that comparison.

So, should we talk a bit about New Orleans?  Of course we should.  What else is there to talk about?

New Orleans is beautiful.  We love where we live.  If you want to learn what it's like to live in New Orleans, if only for a short time, do you know where you should stay?  You should stay at La Belle Esplanade.

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

Lonely Planet's Top Pick for Tremé

The three most colorful houses on Esplanade Avenue in New Orleans, LA

I've been shopping for new eyeglasses.  I'm nearsighted, which means I do not wear glasses to read, but I do wear them to drive or, even, to walk around town in order to see what I'm walking towards.  While I like surprises, I don't like walking up to a McDonald's drive-thru on Canal Street when I think I'm going to Dis and Dem on Banks Street.

Dis and Dem on Banks Street, New Orleans, LA

At Art & Eyes, a rather pricey but very tasteful optical shop on Magazine Street, Meredith was showing me frames and she kept showing me black frames and brown frames and dark blue frames.  I said, "I'm not afraid of color.  Do you know the three colorful houses on Esplanade Avenue between Broad and Claiborne Avenues?"  Meredith said, "You mean on the uptown side of the 2200 block?"  I said, "Yes."  She said, "Yes, I know them.  Is that where you live?"  I said yes again.  She brought out the most colorful frames she had in the shop.

I still haven't made a decision.  Whether or not new eyeglasses are in my future is a matter still left up to fate. 

Regular readers who have been following La Belle Esplanade's saga for awhile will remember when the lovely lady writer from the Lonely Planet Guide came to visit our inn.  This was an unsolicited visit by us, as all of our positive (and negative) publicity is.

I just picked up a copy of the 2016 Lonely Planet Guide for New Orleans.  You can get your own copy, too, and I recommend it.  I don't always agree with the recommendations, but they are generally spot-on.

A line drawing of our inn

What don't I agree with about the Lonely Planet's recommendations?  The book says that if you want to stay in our neighborhood, a car is required.  Very, very few of our guests arrive with a car.  Those that do usually drive here from Texas or some other nearby state and they leave their car parked in front of our inn for the duration of their stay.  

We are located under a mile from the French Quarter in one direction and about one mile from City Park in the other direction.  Our neighborhood is full of details and surprises that you'll never notice from your car window.  New Orleans is a city best experienced on foot.  In that sense, we live in a pedestrian city.  That isn't to say that it's boring here.  Far from it.  It's delightful here.

Illustration from the Crescent City Bike Tours brochure

I mentioned what the Lonely Planet Guide said about needing a car to Kristine from Crescent City Bike Tours while she had a bike tour stopped across the street from our inn.  She was talking about the three colorful houses on the uptown side of the 2200 block of Esplanade Avenue, as she often does when she pedals visitors down our street.  I like Kristine, as most people do, and, whenever I see her leading a tour I'll often amble across the street to chitchat and catch up and to trade a little harmless idle gossip.

When I told her that the Lonely Planet thinks visitors need a car to visit our part of the city, Kristine said, "What!?!  We didn't take a car to get here!"  That makes sense since she's in the bicycle rental business and all her party were astride one-speed cruisers.  

She continued, addressing the people on her tour, "As much as I recommend taking a bike around New Orleans, walking really is the best way to enjoy the city.  There is so much to see here, especially in this part of town."  In this case Kristine was very much like Frau Schmitt.  Kristine, like Frau Schmitt, was right.

I can't vouch for everything Kristine says though she is a very accurate tour guide.  I'll never quibble about her professional ethics while I can quibble, and I often do, about some of the things I overhear said by other tour guides in our neighborhood.  In this instance though, like Frau Schmitt, Kristine is definitely in the right.  Kristine added, "I would never rent a car if I was staying here and, believe you me, if I was visiting New Orleans, I would stay at La Belle Esplanade.  It's the Number One Bed and Breakfast in the City."

Kristine was right about that, too.  We've been rated the #1 B&B on Trip Advisor for 21 months now, since April 2014.  We're hoping to set a two-year record in that coveted slot (21 months is already a record).  Time will tell.  I hope I didn't just jinx us.  We don't pay to be rated number one.  It is all based on the honest reviews our guests have written about their stay at La Belle Esplanade.

The bedroom in our Clio Suite

Bidding Kristine and her tour group adieu, I settled into one of the antique chairs in our lobby and flipped open the 2016 Lonely Planet Guide to New Orleans to page 186.  On page 186, La Belle Esplanade is listed as the Top Choice place to say in Tremé and/or Mid-City.  Here is what page 186 says:

"A little quirky, a little saucy, and the co-owner wears a jaunty fedora --- a devil-may-care touch that ties the whole colorful shebang together.  Furnishings in the five themed suites vary but look for chunky headboards, plush chairs, Gibson girl portraits and claw foot tubs.  Bright, monochromatic walls keep it all pretention-free.  Savor crawfish pie and other tasty Southern fare for breakfast. 

"There's a small Museum of Curiosities in the entryway.  The fedora-wearing co-owner writes a very amusing blog for the B&B's website; and the place is a ten-minute walk from the Jazz Fest grounds."

When Amy, the Lonely Planet writer, stopped by, we gave her a full tour of the house so she saw every suite.  She ran her finger over some of the headboards, checking for dust.  Spotless.  If I had written the write-up, I would have emphasized different aspects of the inn, but she did a judicious job of describing what we offer here.  A tip of my jaunty fedora her way for a job done well.  Thanks, Amy!  You are welcome to come back anytime.  Next time, stay with us.  You'll have to pay the going rate, of course.  As I've tried to make clear above, we do not solicit paid endorsements and we do not try to influence what anyone has to say about their experience at our inn.  We do our utmost to exceed expectations and to share all the reasons why we are in love with this magical city we call home.  Honesty, as it always has been, is the best policy.

Who was that jaunty co-owner Amy was writing about?  He is none other than your humble narrator:

One of La Belle Esplanade's two innkeepers

If you are bored in New Orleans, it most probably isn't the city's fault.  I don't like to judge, but if you don't like your time in New Orleans, it says more about your own state of mind than it does about the endless delights New Orleans has to offer.  It's magical here; it's pure magic.

I could write more about this topic all night but you have other things to do than keep reading.  I know it's spellbinding, but let's move on to the next thing in our day-to-day lives, shall we?  This blog has some pretty deep archives so there is plenty more to peruse if you choose to.  Keep checking in regularly if your appetite isn't satisfied by reading the archives.  There is nothing worse than a dead blog so your humble narrator tries to keep things freshly updated regularly, whether the content is noteworthy or not.

One of those things you should be doing instead of reading old blog posts, or more recent ones, is you should be planning your trip to New Orleans.  What are you waiting for?  Now you know where you should stay and it isn't just the Lonely Planet Guide that thinks so.  We are a small boutique operation that caters to people who want to feel at home in New Orleans.  Home is where the heart is.  You'll like our part of the city and you won't need a car.  Trust me on this.  Frau Schmitt, like Kristine, would agree.

Until we meet in person,
à votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade
...where the rest comes easy.

                                                           

Good, Good Times in New Orleans

Your humble narrator

Some people want to know what Frau Schmitt and your humble narrator look like before they check in.  We include pictures of ourselves on our website, but I was in the lobby snapping pics the other day and decided to take a picture of myself in the mirror.  You can't really read it well in the picture above, but the mirror says, "Saint or Sinner?"  It's a more probing question when you look in the mirror yourself, gentle reader, and answer it honestly.

We have bright green geckos scurrying around New Orleans during all the warm months.  They are cheerful little lizards.  We've had geckos this year, too, but not as many as I remember during last year.  Instead, this year seems to be The Year of the Skink.  There are tiny skinks scuttling around everywhere I look, not just around our gardens in the back, but in City Park and in the neutral ground, too.  It's The Year of the Skink.

We usually have ample on-street parking in front of our inn for people who choose to drive to New Orleans.  We had some guests this week though that needed a lot of room.  They had some very interesting tales about how they got here:



The song came first and it hit #1 in 1975 and 1976 on both the country and pop charts.  Then, a movie was written around it, to flesh out the details of the story.  For our younger readers, if you could have been alive in 1975, you would have heard this song every twenty minutes on the radio.  It was during the CB radio craze.  Truckers were blue collar heroes.  They are still heroes, of course, but they are unsung ones.  Few people own CB radios anymore, that's what our phones are for.

Our recent guests were recreating the highlights of this classic film.  We live in a quiet residential neighborhood so there isn't a lot of space to park a convoy of big rigs.  They made do, parking at a truckstop on Elysian Fields Avenue and then taking taxis to our house.  Nice folks, all, as one would expect.  Hearty appetites, too.  

Shadow of a lady

There was a shadow cast on our front shutter the other morning.  It wasn't a mysterious shadow.  Some people ask if our inn is haunted.  Our answer: No.  Not that we've ever been able to ascertain, at least.  We've had no reports.  It was a beautiful shadow, however, as most things about our house are.  It's source:

La Belle d'Esplanade

The light in August is beautiful, if I can quote William Faulkner, who used to live in the French Quarter.  Faulkner wrote his first novel while he lived in New Orleans.  This tidbit isn't germaine to what I'm going to tell you next, but I thought I would throw it into the mix.

The novel was called, "Soldier's Pay."

We love New Orleans in August because it's the slow season here.  The lines are shorter or nonexistent.  The price for most things goes down.  You can get a three course lunch for $20.15.  Not a bad deal.  You can enjoy the city like a New Orleanian without the distractions of festivals and conventions and cruise ships disgorging their passengers.  You can see what it is like to love the city on it's own terms, at its worst, when the temperature is in the mid-90s and the humidity is high enough that you'll never feel dry.  It's a paradise.

We love August also because this is the month during which we open the next year's calendar.  I just opened the calendar for next year today.  If you are thinking about visiting New Orleans next year, for Mardi Gras, for French Quarter Fest, for Jazz Fest, for Labor Day, for Voodoo Fest, or for Thanksgiving, this is the time to make a reservation.  Everything is wide open as I write this except for the reservation Alan just made for the last week in January.  He's going to get a firm and hearty handshake when next we meet.  Welcome back.

We're doing some renovations on one of our suites this month.  Les Saintes Suite will soon be Les Pêches Suite.  We're going with a fish theme in the future.  I haven't said anything so far and haven't posted any pictures because it isn't done yet.  There aren't any pictures to take.  Les Pêches will have a queen bed, though, as all the front suites will now have.  The front suites (Les Fleurs, Clio, and Les Pêches) are larger, they have queen beds, they have luxury sheets and soaps, and they have balconies that overlook picturesque Esplanade Avenue.  They cost a tad more than the smaller suites in the back of the house but we try to make them worth it.  We are not the least expensive lodging option, but we are not the most expensive either.  We offer plenty of lagniappe.

As of this writing, we have been ranked the #1 B&B on Trip Advisor for 16 months and counting.  As I've said before, we don't like to boast about it.  We try to avoid bad juju.  We just try to offer honest value and a memorable experience while you stay with us.  Our guests seem to agree that we are doing what we set out to do.  We would like to thank all of our guests who have written reviews, not only on Trip Advisor, but also on bedandbreakfast.com, and other travel sites.  We are happy to be ambassadors to everyone who is interested in this magical city we call home.

I promised a 70s flashback to another Top 10 hit a few posts ago.  Luckily, we haven't had any guests looking to relive this particular moment in history:

If you were alive in 1974, you would have heard this song every twenty minutes on the radio.  Good memories, my friends, good memories, but not as good as the memories made at La Belle Esplanade.  For better or for worse, neither Frau Schmitt nor I have ever seen a streaker on Esplanade Avenue.  We live on a picturesque street in a quiet neighborhood.

À votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

Sweet dreams come true in New Orleans

A parade went by our house

I know the blog has been a little video clip-intense recently.  I promise this will be last time, until I forget about my promise, of course.  

We are going to see a New Orleans movie this weekend.  No, not Green Lantern and, no, not Planet of the Apes.  We aren't going to see a movie shot at a New Orleans soundstage.  We are going to see a movie about New Orleans.  "The Whole Gritty City."



The film is playing at Indywood, a small theater located at the foot of Elysian Fields Avenue that's in an old laundromat.  It really is a kind of homemade art house affair, with only about 36 comfortably upholstered armchairs in front of the screen and a string of Christmas LEDs to mark out the aisles when the lights go down and the show has started.  The restroom is in the back, behind the curtain.  We don't go often, but we go often enough.  The popcorn is handmade and the person who mans the ticket booth/concession stand (such as it is) is always enthusiastic about having people come in to see a movie.  

Now, I'm going to divert into other, related terrain.  Whenever I'm in one of the neighborhood bars in the Marigny or in the Bywater or on North Carrollton Avenue (are there any bars on South Carrollton Avenue?), somebody inevitably plunks a buck in the jukebox and chooses to hear one song in particular.  What song is it?  Here's the video produced for the original version.  It's a good song, but it gets better when it's pressed through the New Orleans filter.



I don't know how old you are.  Let me tell you something, though, gentle reader.  If you were a high school student in suburban Connecticut lounging around the high school cafeteria with MTV playing in the background while you ate a hamburger made of horse meat and smothered with ketchup that was considered a vegetable under the Reagan administration, that was the video was da bomb.  All eyes were glued to the TV screen.  Yowza!  Welcome to the 80s!  It was followed by Abracadabra by the Steve Miller Band.  Click that on link at your peril.  It's pure, painful top 40 goodness.  It does feature Christie Brinkley, or at least a Christie Brinkley lookalike.  Who?  Who cares?  I don't care enough to look it up.  Neither should you.

Being a completist, I'm going to attach another real turd of a video by someone who will be performing in New Orleans later this month.  It will make your parents wonder where they went wrong.  Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present Mr. Marilyn Manson.  You don't need to click play if you don't want to.  You won't be missing much.  Sweet dreams are not made of this version.  If I can be excused for sounding like a grumpy old man, it's like looking at, and listening to, a slophouse trough.
  


Now that I've established my street cred, I'd like to go on record as saying that that version is a symptom of the decline and fall of Western civilization.  To all of you disgruntled Marilyn Manson fans, keep those angry emails coming!  I read every one.  I don't care how much lipstick you put on that pig, I refuse to kiss it.

So, after sitting through that morass, let's take a listen to this song performed the New Orleans way.  Welcome to New Orleans and it's brass band tradition.  Everything old is new again.  This is the most boring video we offer today.  There's no movement.  It's the best version of this song, though.  Unlock your mind.  Dance like nobody is watching.  Cut loose.  


Turn up the volume and imagine you are in New Orleans.

You are here in spirit.  That's almost as good as being here in person.  Welcome aboard.  New Orleans loves you.

À votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

The Biggest Frede Fup Fan in America

The biggest Frede Fup fan in America

Who is Frede Fup?  I had the chance to ask the man himself over breakfast.  "It's a name, like Donald Duck," he told me.  Well, that made everything as clear as mud.  "A fup is someone who treats somebody else," he told me.  "Like a doctor?" I asked.  "No, no, like swindler," he answered.

Ah.  I see.  At least I thought I understood at the time.  Now, I'm not as sure but I've still become a big Frede Fup fan.

Between that conversation and now, I think it's safe to say that I've become the biggest Frede Fup fan in America, and I don't even speak Danish.  I know what kaerlighed means, but that's about all.  If I ever go to Copenhagen, I can say "love" over and over without context or conjugation and I'll seem like a crazy person.  I hope most Danes speak a smattering of English, the way most Germans do, otherwise I'll be lost or locked in a looney bin, which are pretty much the same thing.

I don't want to spend my Danish vacation in a mental hospital.  I want to see Hans Christian Andersen's house.  Howzabout a little Danny Kaye?


I went on Amazon to buy a couple of Frede Fup CDs.  There aren't any Frede Fup CDs for sale on the American version of Amazon.com.  I guess I have to move to Denmark, which I won't do for the reasons I've described above.  I only know one word of Danish.  It's an important word, to be sure, but it won't get me very far.

There aren't any Frede Fup CDs for sale on the American version of Amazon.com but there is just one mp3 download of the compilation album "De Største Er Se Små (Sange Til Anker)."  I'm old fashioned, so I don't have an mp3 player, so I didn't part with my 99 cents to get the download of Frede Fup singing "Lystsejlads."  Instead, when I need a Frede Fup fix, I go back to our post from a couple of weeks ago and I watch the video that I posted then.  I listen to it in the background while I do my chores.

I'd love to see Frede Fup perform at the French Quarter Festival or at Jazz Fest or even at Jazz in the Park.  I can see the crowds going wild over this Danish phenomenon. Maybe it's just my imagination, but imagination is a good thing to have when you live in New Orleans.

Our city is a place in which dreams come true.  It can happen to you.  What are you waiting for?

À votre santé,
For dit helbred,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

Writing a B&B blog

New Orleans Museum of Art across Big Lake, City Park, New Orleans, LA

Some people ask why I bother to keep our blog so active when, sometimes, it seems like I don't have anything to say.  Can you believe people tell me that?  

Your typical B&B blog will list recipes and things going on the area at the time, and list things, just things.  Blogs that list things are good for SEO traffic (SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization).  Now, regular readers know that I shy away from publishing recipes, schedules and reprinting things that you can find somewhere else.  I don't do this because I want to rank low in Google searches, but more because I don't find blogs that do that very interesting.  I have a confession to make: I don't read a lot of other B&B blogs.  I don't find them very interesting.

How interesting you find our blog is a matter of taste.  I write it, and I'll take my chances whether you find it worth your time.  Some days are better than others.  I admit it.

Sign for the Fair Grounds Race Track, New Orleans, LA

Our inn is located in the middle of Esplanade Avenue.  We measured it yesterday.  We are exactly one mile from Bourbon Street and one mile from City Park.  It's a mile and a half to the very end of Esplanade Avenue at the Mississippi River.  We say it takes 35 minutes to walk to either end of our street, which is an exaggeration unless you are walking slowly.  The first time you walk our street, you'll walk slowly.  There is a lot to see.  After that, it's much faster.

We are a ten minute walk to the Fair Grounds Race Track.  This is important for people who like to play the ponies (opening day is Thanksgiving Day, an important milestone on the New Orleans calendar) and it is important for people who want to go to Jazz Fest.  We are located in an ideal location for people who want to go to Jazz Fest.  We still have a few suites available for the last weekend next year.  We request a four night minimum stay during Jazz Fest.  Why?  Because we like people who are serious about coming to the festival.  Next year we are hosting a couple who got married at Jazz Fest and are coming to celebrate their anniversary.  We're looking forward to it.  We trust they are, too.

Oak trees in City Park, New Orleans, LA

This weekend is Voodoo Fest in City Park, at the lakeside end of our street, about a twenty minute walk away.  Voodoo Fest ends at 11:00 at night and some people are concerned about walking down Esplanade Avenue a little before midnight.  Is it safe at night?  It's as safe as it is during the day, which is to say, yes.  It is safe.

Some B&B blogs will talk about restaurants in the area and specials that are running.  I don't mind talking about restaurants, but Frau Schmitt and I tend to do that in person.  We talk about it over breakfast.  We've been to over 250 restaurants in New Orleans.  That gives us plenty of fodder for conversation, not that there isn't anything else to talk about.  

Regular readers know that I tend to just write about whatever catches my fancy at the moment.  I try to give you an idea of what it is like to live in New Orleans.  It's my perspective, skewed as it may be sometimes. 

Some people expect that Hallowe'en is a big holiday here.  I've never found it to be.  The big holiday in New Orleans is Mardi Gras.  Hallowe'en?  It's up there with Thanksgiving.  It's important and it's celebrated, but it's not that big a fuss.  If you want it to be, it can be, of course.  Like anything, Hallowe'en is what you make of it.

Dis and Dat, Banks Street, New Orleans, LA

A couple weeks ago we went to Dis and Dat on Banks Street.  It's a hamburger and hot dog place in Mid-City.  The guy who owns Dat Dog opened it.  It's alright.  Funky Nola.  I thought Cowbell was better, but Cowbell is even more out of the way.  You can walk to Dis and Dat from our house.

The guy who owns Dat Dog knows what he's doing and the location on Banks Street ensures that it will be busy.  It's a block away from where the new VA and LSU hospitals are being built.  That's prime real estate though the neighborhood looks a little crummy right now.  It will change for the better, the way most things are sprucing up in New Orleans.

So, if you landed on this page for advice on how to write a B&B blog, I hope I haven't disappointed you too, too much.  I haven't included any tips or lists of topics to cover or any how-to advice at all.  We call this showing not telling in the trade.  If you've landed on this page looking for a New Orleans B&B with a little personality, where the hosts do things a little differently, well look at the title of this blog, not at the title of this post.  I can recommend a unique boutique inn where you can stay if you're planning a visit to our fair city.  We live in a wonderful neighborhood as a perusal of our blog's archives will show.

À votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

Great Hotel Deals in New Orleans

Great hotel deals in New Orleans

I crossed over the parish line the other day into Metarie, the unincorporated metropolitan census district just outside of New Orleans.  In the parking lot of a nondescript office building facing Interstate 10, the sign next door caught my eye.  

If you are coming to New Orleans and don't want to stay in the city proper, but would rather enjoy the whole greater metro area, there are plenty of hotels and motels to choose from.  I happened to be in the parking lot next to the Day's Inn (or Day's Hotel as they call themselves nowadays).  Price for a room: $169.00 a night.

$169.00 a night (plus tax)

It's not a bad price.  It includes a view of the interstate highway about 50 yards away.  There is also a water tower.  The "hotel" is attached to an IHOP that is open 24 hours and all the entertainment value that entails.  If you don't want to eat at IHOP, there's another restaurant a few blocks away, a scenic stroll between the interstate on one side and nondescript office buildings on the other.  It's right off the exit ramp to the romantically named Causeway Boulevard.  The motto proudly painted on the side of their building says it all:

24 hour diner in Jefferson Parish, LA

You can get a two-room suite with a private bath and balcony for the same price as a room in the Day's Inn in Metarie.  The view is better, overlooking Esplanade Avenue.  The neighborhood is quieter, without the truck traffic and with a barely noticeable rush hour.  The walk around the neighborhood is lined with century-old live oaks that shade some of the most beautiful streets in New Orleans.  You can walk to the French Quarter or to the New Orleans Museum of Art.  

Le Pelican Suite, La Belle Esplanade

You know where I'm talking about.  

I looked up Jefferson Parish, Louisiana to see if they have a motto on their parish seal.  They don't.  P.T. Barnum did, though.  I'm not going to quote him here.

If you are coming to New Orleans, think about staying in a bed and breakfast inside the city.  Click on the signature line below to check our rates and availability.  We'll meet you at the door when you arrive.

A votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

Jazz in New Orleans

Statue of St. Jude in the Mortuary Chapel on N. Rampart St., New Orleans

The difference between street music and classical music is a difference of degree.  Franz Liszt composed Hungarian rhapsodies based on folk tunes he heard as a lad before he received his training as a composer.  George Gershwin wrote Rhapsody in Blue, an American masterpiece that combined jazz sensibilities with classical aspirations.  Paul Whiteman was known, for awhile at least, as the King of Jazz.  He made a film in the 1920s called "King of Jazz."  It featured a sequence called Rhapsody in Blue.  Paul Whiteman commissioned Gershwin to compose it. 

Today, we feature a clip below, found courtesy of James Lileks, that made me remember why I love the Rhapsody in Blue so much, and why I love New Orleans jazz so much.  Play this video as we go along, at least for the soundtrack.  Scroll back up to see what's happening on the screen as you read.  You just might be mesmerized and watch the whole thing.

What does Rhapsody in Blue, which we often have playing on the hi-fi around the house while Tammie the housekeeper tidies up when nobody is around, and The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, The Hot 5 Brass Band, Rebirth Brass Band, and The Nowhere Boys Brass Band have in common?  What does Rhapsody in Blue, first played at Aeolian Hall in New York City have to do with the nightclubs that line Frenchman Street in New Orleans?  What does Louis Armstrong have to do with Kermit Ruffins?  What does Irving Mayfield have to do with King Oliver?  What does Trombone Shorty have to do with the Marsalis Brothers?

It boils down to jazz, my friend.  It all boils down to New Orleans, the place where jazz started, the place where America's music was born.  If you want to make gumbo, first you have to make a roux.  If you want flavor, you have to put everything in the pot.

I was in the Mortuary Chapel on North Rampart Street the other day and I noticed that not only is the chapel a shrine dedicated to Saint Jude, it is the official chapel of the NOPD and the NOFD.  Opposite the St. Jude shrine is a shrine dedicated to St. Michael, patron of law enforcement officers, and also to St. Florian, patron of firefighters.

Sts. Michael and Florian flanking St. Mary, Mortuary Chapel, N. Rampart St., New Orleans

I can't claim to know what makes New Orleans tick.  All I can say is that, when you visit, you never know what you will find around the next corner.  Some things don't make sense, even though they are perfectly perfect in their place.  If you can make sense of the definition of the word 'rhapsody' on wikipedia, you are a more intelligent person than your humble narrator.  I don't have the patience to wade through it all.  All I can say is that the word seems to fit how it feels to live in New Orleans.  If you visit, you will know what I mean.  It's magic.

Old Tyme Breakfast Shop, N. Claiborne Ave., New Orleans

We have lived in New Orleans three and a half years and we often pass the Old Tyme Breakfast Shop near the intersection of Orleans Avenue and North Claiborne.  It's a popular place in the neighborhood.  There is often a shoeshine stand set up in the morning.  It's right down the block from the Brown Derby No.2, a wing shack, and a snowball stand, and this is a sentence that only makes sense if you live in New Orleans.

I noticed a new sign hanging on the other side of the Old Tyme Breakfast Shop building.

Roosevelt's Black Pearl Oyster Bar and Restaurant, N. Claiborne Ave., New Orleans

Apparently, according to the new sign, this is also the site of Roosevelt's Black Pearl Oyster Bar and Restaurant.  The small print on the sign says that they have been serving New Orleans for over 40 years.  I had no idea.  I have no idea why they've just decided to put up a sign.

When you live in New Orleans, you don't ask too many questions.  It's not worth the migraine you'll get trying to figure everything out.  You just take things as they come.  Good things come to those who wait.  Patience is a virtue.  That is why nothing ever starts on time here.

Every day is an adventure in New Orleans.  Every day is interesting.  Every day is full of surprises.  Just ask Tammie, our housekeeper.

Tammie the housekeeper

Tammie the housekeeper just punched me in the arm.  She said, "You know I hate it when you put that picture of me smoking a pipe up on the internet!"

I do know that much, and I know other things, too.  So does Frau Schmitt.  Ask us about them over breakfast.  We'll be happy to tell you.

A votre santé,

La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.