Make Good New Orleans Memories

Catch as catch can, a day in New Orleans is a plate holding a generous slice of paradise pie.  Dig in.  Get your knife and your fork.  Grab your spoon.  Hunger makes the best sauce.  Make good New Orleans memories while you are in this wonderful kaleidoscope of a city we call home.  Welcome.

People who live in New Orleans have nothing but good memories.  It's one danged lucky thing after another in New Orleans.  The sun shines even when it is raining in New Orleans.  The best things in life are free in New Orleans.

Open up your heart to the New Orleans State of Mind.

Twenty years from now, no matter where I find myself, I'm going to wake up after having a dream about my time in New Orleans, a sweet dream.  I am going to wake up smiling.  You don't even have to try to make good New Orleans memories.  The good memories will take care of themselves.  If you are smiling now, you must be thinking of New Orleans.  Lucky you.

It's Tuesday and I'm grooving on a sunny New Orleans afternoon.  Where are you?  What are you doing?  You belong in New Orleans.

 Today, I was in Lakeview, Mid-City, Tremé, the 7th Ward, the French Quarter, the Central Business District, and the Lower Garden District.  I had only skimmed the surface of today's many New Orleans delights.  With open eyes and an open heart, New Orleans will treat you right.

Some kids were putting on a puppet show today in their front yard on Marshall Foch Street.  That was fun.

This can be your New Orleans headquarters.  Make it so.

A few words from our sponsor:  

You can make good New Orleans memories, most people do, or, you can make great New Orleans memories.  Get out of the French Quarter and visit a bar or a restaurant in a real neighborhood that isn't in the guidebooks.  There is much, much more to New Orleans than what you'll read in the guidebooks.  That's why people live here.  Home is where the heart is.  The #1 place to stay in New Orleans is La Belle Esplanade.  It's a small hotel that may not be fore everyone.  It's for people who want to visit New Orleans like they belong here.  You belong here.  

À votre santé,

La Belle Esplanade

You have two friends on Esplanade Avenue.

Happiness is New Orleans

You never know what you'll see around any corner in New Orleans.

Since I've moved to New Orleans, I don't find many reasons to travel outside the city's limits.  When you live in New Orleans the sky is the limit, of course, but that's only when you're looking up.  When you live in New Orleans there are very few reasons to visit other cities?  Why?  When you live in New Orleans and you visit another city, maybe on vacation or business, after two days you want to be home again.  That's how I feel.  I hate to travel.  In a New Orleans state of mind, why leave New Orleans unless there is a wedding or a funeral? 

An inviting way to start the day on Ursulines Avenue, New Orleans.

It's been a long time since I last said that I would walk a mile for a Camel cigarette but I wouldn't mind riding my bicycle three miles up St. Bernard Avenue, headed lakeside, to see a statue of a camel in somebody's from yard---right where you'd least expect it.

He is a handsome camel:

Lakeview royalty, New Orleans-style.

I've been riding my bicycle around the great city of New Orleans every morning for the past couple of weeks.  It is flat here and the city is compact.  New Orleans is a real city.  Is is densely full of details, both historic and evolving.  I have lived in New Orleans nine years.  Not a day goes by when I am not astounded.  Happiness is New Orleans.

If you've never been to New Orleans, you should come down for a visit.  

Longer is always better.  No one ever says their visit is too long.  It is always too short.  The longer you are here, the more you'll realize how much more there is to discover and appreciate.  There are treats around every corner.  New Orleans is Candyland with a long francophile pedigree.  

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 New Orleans and in the rest of New Orleans, where this enchanted city's culture is born, nurtured, and set free.

If your spirit bucket has a hole in it, you better plug that hole with good New Orleans memories.  Put visiting New Orleans on your list of things to do before you die.  When you want to explore and enjoy the authentic New Orleans, stay at La Belle Esplanade.  We live in a city full of happy surprises.

We only have 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

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.

Walking in New Orleans

Bed in our Clio Suite

We made some new acquaintances this past weekend who used our inn as their headquarters to make a walking exploration of this magical city we call home.  Why not?  Frau Schmitt and I walk everywhere, and not just because we have to walk our dog.  We walk our neighborhood because, as I say to everyone on the introductory tours of our garden, I find it endlessly fascinating.

I live here.  We've lived here for four and a half years now.  We still have the zeal of converts.  There are so many details, everything seems ever new.  If any of this sounds familiar to regular readers, it's because I haven't changed my mind about how much I am in love with New Orleans.  I wouldn't be a good innkeeper if I had.  

I understand that there are innkeepers who have a negative attitude about New Orleans; at least, they have a negative opinion of any neighborhood that isn't their's.  Where they live is safe.  Everywhere else, well: There Be Dragons.  Beware.

A view of our dining room

I've never come across a cannibal in all my walks about New Orleans.  That doesn't mean they aren't out there.  It only means that they are as rare as yellow-bellied sapsuckers.

I've never seen one of these.
Photo courtesy of wikipedia

There are many parts to New Orleans.  Many neighborhoods.  I don't recommend staying with us if you want to spend most of your time Uptown.  Uptown is the other side of Canal Street.  It's the American part of the city.  Esplanade Avenue is Downtown, in the Creole part of the city.  It's all New Orleans, but the two halves are very different----which is to say nothing of Algiers on the other side of the river.

You can visit Uptown if you stay with us.  Plenty of people do.  Everybody does, really, but if you stay with us, your focus should be Downtown.  Uptown, in our estimation, is a place to visit, not a place in which to stay.  YMMV.

Some of our front windows

From our house, you can walk to the French Quarter and Frenchmen Street, of course.  You can also walk to City Park and the New Orleans Museum of Art.  Further afield, off Esplanade Ridge proper, you can explore Tremé, the 7th Ward, Mid-City, and the neighborhood that is called City Park.  All of this comfortably on foot.  Most people don't do this, but those that do come back with stories that make everyone else in the room wish they had gone along for the stroll.

It's a fascinating city we live in.

When you walk around New Orleans, you'll find everyone is friendly.  Everyone says hello.  If you find yourself lost, just ask for directions.  New Orleanians know their city is confusing and they're happy to help you find your way.  It's a wonderful place in which to find oneself lost.  Home is where the heart is, and many people say that this is the first place where they felt they had nothing to fear.  Plenty of other people say the opposite, but they don't stay with us. They stay in the French Quarter.  

I would like to give another shout-out, yet again, to the Rose Manor Inn, in New Orleans' West End neighborhood.  It's a bit out of the way, but everything I know about this inn makes me respect it all the more.  They're in a different spot, out on the edge of town.  Not that there isn't anything to do there---there's plenty, and it's a historic and interesting neighborhood.  It's different from Esplanade Ridge, but there's no harm in that.  The innkeepers are top notch.  

If we happen to be full, which happens more and more these days, think about staying at the Rose Manor Inn.  Read their website, read their reviews on Trip Advisor.  Know in advance that you will be nowhere near the French Quarter.  We're not in the French Quarter, either.  If you choose to stay at the Rose Manor Inn, I predict you'll be pleasantly surprised.  You'll see a different part of New Orleans that most people never see.  There is something magnificent to be said for that.  We inhabit a magical city.

Looking lakeside on Esplanade Avenue

À votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

Bugs in New Orleans

We keep the light on

I am sitting on the balcony outside the Clio Suite.  It is quiet.  A few people walk or bicycle by, under the streetlights.  There is the hum of the insects in the air.  The air is coolly refreshing after today.  There are chirping birds in the oak trees in the French Quarter direction.  I think they are swallows.  They may be titmice.  They may be really just be crickets for all I know.  Bugs grow big in this climate.

I can hear the night heron that is roosting in the oak trees in front of the Degas House.  You can always tell the sound of a night heron because it croaks like a duck.   The night heron built a nest on the next block sometime after the end of April.  The mother has been up there, hopping from branch to branch, the whole time.

View from Les Saintes Suite balcony

Our neighbor, who lives in the blue house next door, had a night heron nest in front of his house in 2010.  I am not going to say that a night heron craps like a goose, but I am going to say that it is not the most fastidious of birds when nature takes its course.  Our neighbor had a hard time keeping his stretch of the sidewalk clean.  I helped him out when he was on vacation.

They don't seem to have that problem at any of the bed and breakfasts in our New Orleans neighborhood.  I can see five of them from the balcony, and that is without looking down.  

The corner of North Park and, probably East Park

I had some business between Canal Boulevard and Delgado Community College.  When I took a right after the guitar store, Frau Schmitt pulled her scooter up alongside mine.  "Are you sure we're in the right place?  I don't think we've ever been here before."  She is usually right about these things.  Every day seems like our first time out together.  We only buy about two gallons of gasoline a week between the two of us.

This is not the Audubon Insectarium

Anyhow, there is a house on North Park that has a giant praying mantis on it.  It is a very quiet neighborhood.  If you don't live there, there isn't really any reason to visit.  It is a big cul-de-sac butted up against some elevated train tracks.

Canal Boulevard floods under that train bridge almost every day in summer, but it hasn't rained that much recently.    

A closer view

You never know what you will find when you turn a corner in New Orleans.  Having lived in Rhode Island, I couldn't help but think of Nibbles Woodaway.  

I have written down the directions.

A votre sante,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

Harrison Avenue, New Orleans

St. Dominic's Church, New Orleans, LA

When I am looking to buy something for the lady of the house, I often head up to New Orleans' Lakeview neighborhood.  More suburban in feel than much of the rest of the city, Lakeview's main street is Harrison Avenue.

There is a local supermarket, a few very good restaurants, a few stores, a bank, a gas station, an ice cream parlor, a library, everything you would want in a small town.  There is ample parking on the shaded neutral ground.  It is never terribly busy up on Harrison Avenue; just the pleasant hum of local traffic.  

I could go to one of the coffee shops on Esplanade Avenue when I want to get some computer work done.  Community Coffee is just a few blocks away, and it is pleasant to sit under the oak trees outside.  Or, I could walk a little farther up Esplanade to Fair Grinds, which is a good place to pick up some neighborhood gossip.  The problem with these two establishments, if you can call it a problem, is that I spend more time chitchatting with my neighbors than I do getting any work done.  That is the usual way a day passes in New Orleans.

It is on days like this that I head up to Lakeview.  I go to Nola Beans, a pleasant little coffee shop that is full of artwork inspired by the neighborhood.  The women behind the counter are very pleasant and, though I am a bit of a regular I don't know too many people who live in Lakeview.

Nola Beans on Harrison Avenue

Right next door to Nola Beans is the reason men in New Orleans come to Lakeview to go Christmas shopping for the ladies in their lives.  

Little Miss Muffin on Harrison Avenue

A warning: The merchandise in Little Miss Muffin may cause allergic reactions in men.  This is a store with a distinct feminine appeal.  There is jewelry and a selection of fine women's clothes to the right.  The rear of the store is dedicated to children's wares.  To the left, after entering the front door, about a third of the store is full of gewgaws and gimcrackery, artwork and crafts, glasses and china, serving dishes, statues, candlesticks, place mats, vases, and other things that women love.

Guaranteed you will find the perfect gift for the lady in your life at Little Miss Muffin, whether it is for Christmas or not.   I always do.

We like to recommend Harrison Avenue to our guests at La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.  Besides the simple ambiance of the street, there is enough to keep a visitor occupied for an hour or two, and right on the other side of the canal is City Park.  The good restaurants include Susan Spicer's Mondo, the Steak Knife, and the Velvet Cactus.  You can eat in or take out at Harrison Cove at the Lakeview Grocery.     

Lakeview was heavily flooded in 2005 due to the federal levee failures during Hurricane Katrina.  While Harrison Avenue has been repaved, the weight of the water buckled the streets everywhere else.  Some streets are as rough as a walk on the moon.  The state of the streets is the opposite of the tidy homes and manicured lawns they serve.  Another surreal New Orleans juxtaposition.

By way of a preview of Celebration of the Oaks, we were in City Park this morning when I noticed some signs set up athwart the railroad tracks.

Proceed with caution in City Park

I took some pictures of the dinosaur display in the light of day.  Imagine what they will look like at night from the window of a passing train.

Velociraptor in daylight, City Park, New Orleans

Velociraptor in front of the sculpture garden, City Park, New Orleans

Tyrannosaurus Rex, City Park, New Orleans

A votre sante et joyeux Noel.