Le Pelican Suite at La Belle Esplanade

Louisiana's state bird is the pelican.  If you've ever seen a Louisiana state flag, you know it features a bit of heraldry known as "A Pelican In Its Piety."  Underneath the image of a mother pelican piercing her breast to feed her three young fledglings is a banner that reads the Louisiana state motto:  "Union.  Justice.  Confidence."  These are words by which every Louisianan, native or adopted, strives to live.

The sitting room in Le Pelican Suite at La Belle Esplanade, New Orleans, Louisiana.

New Orleans is in Louisiana, of course.  You'll find pelicans here.  I see them in City Park, at the end of our street, all the time.  They are majestic.

Le Pelican Suite at La Belle Esplanade is not full of stuffed pelicans, either taxidermy or plush toys.  While there are pelican motifs throughout the suite, the name, like the Louisiana state motto is more an aspirational guide to the decor.

The symbol for the 1984 New Orleans World Fair was a cartoon pelican but you won't find any evidence of that at La Belle Esplanade.  Our suite is all about romance and comfort.  

The entrance to Le Pelican Suite, which is located on the second floor of this colorful mansion, is a short vestibule with the private bath's entrance on one side.  After the vestibule is a sitting room, a comfortable place for two people to hatch plans for the day ahead, and an equally comfortable place for one person to read this blog while his or her partner is taking a private bath.

There is also a bedroom, of course, that features an antique plantation-sized bed.  To call a bed "plantation-sized" is bed and breakfast talk for "slightly larger than a full-sized bed."  No one ever complains the bed is too small.  You have never slept in a bed this well made in your life, unless you happen to live in a museum.

A capacious antique plantation-sized bed with all the trimmings.

Besides a sitting room, a bedroom, and a private bath, Le Pelican Suite also has a private balcony that overlooks the neighborhood, surrounded by oleander.  Oleander is the tree and flower that official represents New Orleans.  It smells sweet as ambrosia when in bloom.

All the usual amenities one would expect from a five-star, five-suite hotel are available.  If you have any questions, please write to us at labelleesplanadebb@gmail.com.  We'll be happy to answer any question.  That is what we're here for.  Tailored recommendations are our reason for being.  We are New Orleans goodwill ambassadors.

You can stay in a bland hotel room on an unnamed floor, Room 128, 239, whatever, or you can stay in a quirky colorful suite with room to move around and things to study: fine art, fine antiques, and that certain je ne c'est quoi that makes New Orleans such a special place where good memories are made.

La Belle Esplanade has been ranked the #1 inn in New Orleans since April 2014, according to TripAdvisor, and the #2 inn in the U.S., AND #16 in the world.  639 5-star reviews as of this writing, 12 4-star reviews, 651 reviews total. 

That's not bad for a small artisanal hotel with only five suites.  Personalized service and recommendations are the bedrock of our reputation.

The ceilings are twelve-and-a-half feet tall.

When you visit New Orleans, you should get off the usual tourist radar.  Good memories are made in New Orleans.  The best memories are made on Esplanade Avenue.  You belong at La Belle Esplanade.  Check our website, see what we offer.  Price is what you pay; value is what you get.  You pick a lot worse places as the headquarters for your New Orleans adventures.  Believe me.  I live here.  I know.

Here is a video of your humble narrator talking about some very granular New Orleans culture in Le Pelican Suite's sitting room:

Have a great New Orleans day today, wherever you may find yourself.  When you're ready to visit this wonderful city we call home remember five words: La Belle Esplanade dot com.  

The Secret of King Pelican Brand Louisiana Okra

This pelican gets around

If you're ever in the French Market, which is in the French Quarter, which is at one end of our street, you'll see that there's a booth that sells mounted fruit crate labels.  You know the kind.  If you study the racks closely, you'll find one for King Pelican Brand Louisiana Okra that bears a striking resemblance to the iceberg lettuce label above.  

We have an example in our dining room.  

Who can turn the world on with her smile?

Some of the carriage drivers say that the Mary Tyler Moore Show was originally supposed to be set in the French Quarter, not in Minneapolis.  Others say it was supposed to be set in Tremé, but those people are confusing it with the HBO series of the same name.  This year, the NFL decided what city will host the Super Bowl in 2018.  It was between New Orleans, Minneapolis and somewhere else.  Minneapolis won again.  

If you want to see a fake okra label, we have one mounted on the wall in our dining room.  I can't stop thinking about it.  I just came back from the French Market where I walked to get a second one of them.  Don't ask why.  Frau Schmitt says that there's a sucker born every minute and she's usually right about these things.

Tammy the Housekeeper

When I got home, Tammie the Housekeeper asked me why I wasn't writing about the Wax Museum today.  I told her I was onto something else, something pelican-related.  Then she showed me some email from a female fan of the blog.  Then she showed me more fan mail email from some male fans.   People want more wax museum.  Okay.

Next time. 

When you're staying in New Orleans, there are no nothing days.  They all suddenly seem worthwhile.

Good memories are made in New Orleans.

À votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

Le Pelican Suite (Update)

Sitting room, Pelican Suite, La Belle Esplanade

I would say that our most popular suite based on reservations is the Pelican Suite.  It may have to do with the pictures, but I suspect it also has something to do with it's being one of the least expensive, along with La France Suite.  Both of these two are smaller than the other suites we have.

Guests who have stayed in both suites say they prefer La France because of La France's furnishings.  I'm agnostic on the matter.  There's no accounting for taste.  Everyone agrees they're both very nice.

Le Pelican Suite is not cramped, just smaller.  It's cozy.  It's also in the rear of the house.  It also has a plantation-sized bed.  What's that mean?  It's B&B talk for a full bed, one size down from a queen.  It sleeps two people.  It's an antique, and a beautiful antique, at that.  We'll see a picture of that later. 

The sitting room is lavender and the bedroom is green.  The ceiling in both is blue.  There's both a wardrobe and a closet, which is a rarity in this part of the city.  There is an antique couch, two velveteen chairs, a paisley ottoman, a fold-top writing desk, and a marble-top dressing table.  There's a beautifully carved mirror over the (non-working) fireplace in the sitting room.  At least, I think it's beautiful.  There is another (non-working) fireplace in the bedroom.  In fact, except for in Tammie the Housekeeper's broom closet, there are (non-working) fireplaces in every room in the house.

Tammie the Housekeeper

Tammie the housekeeper told me the other day that we're rated the Number 1 New Orleans B&B on Trip Advisor.  She told Frau Schmitt first, of course.  We enjoy being professional innkeepers.  

Bed in Le Pelican Suite, La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast

That picture seems pretty dark, doesn't it?  Well, I'm not going to touch it up.  Like most of the pictures we post online, this one was taken with my phone.  It's part of our marketing strategy, if you can call it that.  You think our inn looks nice online; then you arrive and it looks better than you thought it would.  That's why we've never used a professional photographer.  We don't want to make anything look better than it is.

So far so good.

I was standing by the window when I took this picture of the desk in the bedroom:

Bedroom in Le Pelican Suite, La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast

Pelicans are the predominant motif in Le Pelican Suite but over time other elements have crept in.  The theme is mostly dedicated to old maps and old Louisiana.  We just didn't tack the "Le" on there just to sound French.  That's really what you call the pelican en la langue francais. 

So, why have a Pelican Suite anyway?  Brother, if you have to ask that question, you don't know anything about Louisiana.  Take a look at our state seal:

Seal of the Great State of Louisiana, U.S.A.

As citizens of Louisiana, we believe in a couple of different things.  Here's three of them: Union, Justice, and Confidence.  We also believe in having a good time, too.  Good memories are made in New Orleans.

It's very quiet in this suite, in the back of the house.  I didn't take a picture of it, but this suite has a very private balcony. How private? It's surrounded by oleander and the branches of whatever the tree is called that grows in our neighbor's back yard.  It's a green oasis, except when the oleander is in bloom.  

The oleander tree is in bloom today, as I write this.  It has been for about a month.  It will be for about another two months.  There won't be a flurry of white blossoms anymore.  Only lush green.  It's very romantic.

Of course, this suite also has a private bath containing a sink, toilet and antique claw foot tub.  The tub is equipped with a shower head and curtains that feature, what else, a pelican.

There's a refrigerator stocked with amenities, as well as a coffee pot, tea kettle, television, free wifi, iron, hairdryer and ironing board.  It's a very nice suite.

A votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

The difference between Cajun and Creole

Our Lady of Rocheblave and Our Lady of Dourgenois

When people come to visit New Orleans, they expect to meet some Cajuns.  Sorry, but Cajuns aren't native to New Orleans.  They are native to Louisiana, but they live out in the swamp, not in the city.  The descendants of the original French and Spanish families, and their slaves, and the Haitians who moved to the city after the Haitian Revolution, are called Creoles.  Ours is a Creole culture, not a Cajun one.  

Breakfast in New Orleans

There are a lot of cooking shows on television nowadays.  Frau Schmitt and I always drive past the billboard on North Broad Avenue that touts Willie Mae's Scotch House, which is just six blocks behind our house.  According to the billboard, the Food Network, which hosts a whole smorgasbord of cooking shows, says that Wille Mae's serves the best fried chicken in America.  According to the first review listed on Google+: "Believe the hype!"

Sometimes, we go to Sammy's Food Service and Deli on Elysian Fields Avenue for lunch.  Guy Fieri, who has a show on the Food Network, autographed a poster that hang's in Sammy's dining room. According to Guy Fieri, Sammy's serves some of the finest food in all of American's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.  He also signed a poster at Katie's, which is on North Telemachus Street, where we also often go for lunch.  

Chefs who host cooking shows love visiting New Orleans.  Everyone else who loves to eat loves New Orleans.  It's like loving life.

Sitting room in Le Pelican Suite

Frau Schmitt and I are usually too busy tidying up the inn to watch much television.  I'm not going to tell you that innkeeping is a difficult profession, but it does take a lot of attention to details.  There are only so many hours in a day.  Rather than watch TV shows about New Orleans, we live in the city.  360 degrees of real life.  It always smells delicious here.  

When I was much younger, my father liked to watch cooking shows.  We all have our vices.  This was his.  Back in those days, cooking shows were mainly on PBS.  It was considered educational television rather than entertaining television.  No company would think of buying an ad to support a cooking show-- not many people watched them back in the day.

One of my father's favorite shows was hosted by Justin Wilson.  My father had a deep love for New Orleans.  He went to school here and, though he didn't revisit the city as often as he may have liked, it made an impression on him that couldn't be erased.  Justin Wilson was a Cajun, not a Creole.  Up north in Connecticut, it was close enough.  Here is a sample of Justin Wilson cooking gumbo:

My father also liked Jeff Smith who was the Frugal Gourmet on PBS.  Mr. Smith was as fussy as Mr. Wilson was relaxed.  In the following sample, the Frugal Gourmet cooks Creole.  You can see the difference in the two approaches.


Both these cooks give a lesson on New Orleans cooking culture.  Justin Wilson just is who he is.  He's hard to understand but you can't help but like him.  That's the way most people are in New Orleans.  Creole cooking is similar to Cajun cooking, but they are distinctly different.  Jeff Smith is more analytical, approaching the city from the outside and falling in love in the process.  It happens all the time.  Spend enough time in New Orleans and you will take away a bellyful of appreciation.

The other day, the New Orleans Advocate, the newspaper I read before guests show up in the morning, published an article about the houses on Esplanade Avenue.  Ours is mentioned in the middle, in paragraph 11, the way we are smack in the middle of Esplanade Avenue.  The writer made a small mistake; our house and its immediate neighbors were built in 1883, not in the 1890s.  Nobody expects precision in New Orleans.  Like adding a teaspoon of hot sauce to gumbo, close is good enough to taste.

A slide show accompanies the article, but I'm not entirely pleased by the photo they used of our house.  Let's take another look at this picture that I took the other day after the race.  I like it:

2200 block of Esplanade Avenue, New Orleans

Tour guides like to point out that these houses are painted in traditionally joyous Creole colors.  This is partly true.  The paint wasn't picked by any native Creoles, but they seemed appropriate to the streetscape.  Plenty of people seem to agree.  Sit on the front porch or on the balconies and you'll see people stopping to snap photos all day long.  We live in a local landmark.  It isn't just the paint jobs--the houses would be beautiful even if they were painted white.

What's the difference between Cajun and Creole?  It is a matter of degree.  Cajuns live in the country.  They live in the swamp.  They paddle pirogues on the bayous.  Creoles live in the city.  They are urban and urbane.  Each have very different accents and different colloquialisms.  We'll be exploring those things another day.  In the meantime, think about visiting New Orleans to discover a world very different from where you live.  It's very nice here.  It is unfamiliar but very welcoming.  No matter where you go, it is very hard to have a bad meal.

Emeril Legasse, who is from Fall River, Massachusetts of all places, is as New Orleans as anyone else.  He knows his way around a Creole kitchen.  Think about him what you will, but he knows New Orleans even better than Guy Fieri does.

It's the difference between someone who lives in New Orleans and someone who lives in the rest of Louisiana.  New Orleans is a unique world all its own.
A votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

Springtime on Esplanade Avenue

View from La France Suite's balcony

Around this time of year, the ravens return to New Orleans the way the swallows return to Capistrano.  We know spring is just around the corner.  Can't wait for the temps to get into the 60s, then the 70s, then, you get the idea...

The fountain out back

Most mornings as I head out to the bakeries before everyone else in the house is awake, I hear the crows rustling and calling to each other in the oak trees that line our street.  In the afternoon, they move to the oak tree in back.  They like to drink from our fountain.

View from Le Pelican Suite balcony

As the sun sets in the west, we aren't sure where the crows go.  Maybe they wing their way Uptown.  Come morning, they are back again, pleasant company that adds to the neighborhood's charm.

You'll see them when you're here.

A 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.

Where Innkeepers Go On Vacation

Italian restaurant, Hot Springs, Arkansas

We ate in the grooviest restaurant in Hot Springs, AR last week.  

If you want to know where innkeepers go on vacation, look no further than the map of Arkansas.  Sometimes, you just want to take a bath.  The City of Hot Springs is, of course, home to Hot Springs National Park.  We stayed in a bed and breakfast.

We took at bath at the Buckstaff Bath House.  I could go there twice a day for the next week.  It was much better than the Quapaw.

The Buckstaff at night

The Buckstaff was one of the best things in Hot Springs.  Something else that was good was Maxwell Blade's magic show.  These are two things you cannot find in New Orleans.  

Want to know something else about Hot Springs, AR?

Hometown of Bill Clinton

 I always say that 6 days and 7 nights is the ideal amount of time to spend on a visit to New Orleans.  You don't see everything, but you see just enough to make you want to come back for more.  

Two days and three nights is about the right amount of time to enjoy Hot Springs without getting bored.  That includes trips to Mt. Ida, Ouachita, and the Garvan Woodland Gardens.   

If you find yourself in Hot Springs, do yourself a favor and have dinner at Angel's in the Park.  The food isn't the best, but the atmosphere is tops.  Like the chef at Angel's on Central Avenue told us, the one in the park is classier.  She was right.

Things to do in Hot Springs, AR

We are back in the Crescent City.  If you can't be at home, you can always stay with us.

A votre sante,
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.

That Big Falstaff Sign

Falstaff sign during the day

As long as the power is on, you can see the Falstaff sign from the balcony of Le Pelican Suite.  You can't see the Superdome because of the palm tree, but you can't see the Falstaff sign from La France Suite because the pecan tree is blocking the view.  It's as if the two sides of the house have binocular vision.

We went to a party once on the top of the Falstaff Building.  The part up top is called the Falstaff Beer Garden.  It's one story with a mezzanine, and a deck right under the Falstaff sign.  The view up there is incredible.

Mark was there.  He was quick to notice that the Falstaff Beer Garden had run out of beer.  He said it was ironic.  Everybody switched to drinking wine.  Ironically, there was plenty of wine.  

I was around in front of the Falstaff Building.  More people know the Falstaff Building from North Broad Street.  Unless you live nearby, or unless you are visiting someone, there isn't much reason to go past the front of the Falstaff Building.  It's a homebody kind of a neighborhood. 

Front of the Falstaff Building

The Falstaff Building is tall.  It is hard to make out exactly who that statue on the roof is.   Luckily, the tall neon sign that can be seen across town offers a hint.  It's Falstaff.  He is a character from Shakespeare.  

The Falstaff Building is really tall.  From North Broad Street, it looms over everything around it.  

The view from North Broad Street

From the front of the Falstaff Building, the statue of Falstaff offers a toast in the direction of the French Quarter and Treme.  It is really something to see.  I won't say it brought a tear to my eye, but I do think it is a good reason to make a detour if you are in the neighborhood.

Falstaff Statue on the Falstaff Building

You never know what is waiting around the corner.  That is why we feel so lucky to live in New Orleans.

A votre sante, 
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

New Orleans Institutions

It's been too long

We usually serve fresh pastries and bread for breakfast, among many other things, but if Hubig's Pies are ever sold again, they will be on the menu.  It's been too long since I've seen a Hubig's Pie truck driving down Esplanade Avenue.

The corner of North Rampart and Frenchmen Streets

When something good is made in New Orleans, it lasts.  Look at the venerable sazarac and Southern Comfort.  Look at a menu.  Listen to the music.  Walk the streets.  A whole city mourns the loss of fried fruit-filled pies and it rallies to help Savory Simon pull a Lazarus.  It is rare to see Che Guevera on a tee shirt in New Orleans.  It is less rare to see somebody wearing a Hubig's shirt.

New Orleans loves its institutions.  The past is mixed with the present to make a bright future.  The old Falstaff brewery still dominates the Mid-City skyline.  You can see it from the balcony off Le Pelican Suite.  The guy mixing Crystal Preserves still works all night.  The Blue Plate Foods building may be the Blue Plate Artist Lofts, but you can still buy Blue Plate mayonnaise at Canseco's Market.  The American Can Building still looks over Bayou St. John.  

Orleans Avenue, New Orleans

I don't know if American Can is still in business, but I do know that they were not a local company.  My uncle worked for them in Connecticut.  Regardless, the American Can Building is an icon and an anchor for its neighborhood.  Besides high ceilings and a farmers market every week, there is a wine bar, a package store (as we would say in New England), and a branch of the New Orleans Public Library.

If you know me, you know that I like to wear a hat.  Many of our guests think that your humble narrator is bald.  He isn't.  I have a full head of hair.  Frau Schmitt can attest to this.  She is usually right about these things.

Hat band card from Meyer the Hatter

When more men wore hats, they would check their hats at the door with the hat check clerk.  While there are plenty of bars in New Orleans that are open 24 hours a day, there have always been some that are only open 'till they close.  

In olden days, when professional hat check clerk was a viable career option just like cigar-cigarette girl was, when the musicians packed up their instruments, there would be a run on the hat check desk.  Since so many fedoras look the same, gentlemen of distinction put identification cards in their hats.

I bought my fedora from the South's largest hat store, Meyer the Hatter on St. Charles Avenue, just off Canal.  It's a full-service hat store.  My fedora came with an ID card.

It isn't really true that every fedora looks the same.  The same fedora on two different people will be two different hats.  Life is what you bring to it.  Good memories are made in New Orleans.

Here to stay in New Orleans

A young visitor to our fair city

A votre sante,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

New Orleans Bed and Breakfast Soap

NOMA in NOLA

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

A painting in Les Fleurs Suite

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Baelenius Rex!

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

A votre sante.

An Anniversary Bed and Breakfast

Une belle ingenue

If New Orleans, this most seductive of cities, was a woman, she would not be a femme fatale.  She'd be your best friend; the kind of gal pal who sticks with you through thick and thin, good times and bad, in brightest day and blackest night.  That's what I think, at least.

The other evening, I passed a few of our guests on the sidewalk as they were headed to Liuzza's for dinner, which is not to be confused with the unrelated Liuzza's by the Track where they had lunch.  We chatted a bit under the darkening sky and one of them mentioned that she envied us for living in New Orleans.  I had to admit, blushing as I did so, that I felt a pang of envy for them.

I understand why people say we are lucky to live where we do.  I feel lucky every time we walk out our front door, every time we order po' boys and I groan that there is no way I am going to finish mine, every time we get stuck behind a second line parade, every time somebody starts a rambling conversation on a street corner with us and I have to pinch myself that we're not in New England anymore and that, really, what's the rush?  This palaver is more important than what's hiding in the future.  I feel lucky every time it's after dark and I'm on the downtown side of the 2200 block of Esplanade Avenue, looking uptown.

Esplanade Avenue at night

Every day has been better than the last during the time we have lived in New Orleans.  We know we have found our home in a world that is often cruel and often unkind.  New Orleans can be those things too, and it often is, but New Orleans is unlike anywhere else.  I don't know much about the rest of Louisiana, but whoever you are, whatever you are, and wherever you're from, you are welcome here, and there is no time like that first introduction.  

You never forget your first time in New Orleans.  It gets better and deeper after that, but you never forget that first flush of intoxication.  Some people call that feeling love.  True love gets better with time.  In New Orleans, when the moon hits your eye like a muffaletta, that's l'amore.  You never forget your first time in New Orleans the way you never forget your first girl.

La Belle d'Esplanade

Let's say you are a lady from Rome, GA.  You're special for that reason, of course, but so are 36,303 other people according to the 2010 census.  Let's say you grew up there, have lived there all your life, and have raised a family there, with a gentleman from Thomasville, GA.  You've been married to that gentleman for 15 happy years.  You have a three children and you are grandparents.  

I've heard it said that the climate in Rome keeps people looking young.  If it is true of popes, it is certainly true of Georgians.  I can attest to that because you and your husband checked in at noon yesterday.  "We wanted to do something special for our fifteenth wedding anniversary," your husband told me.  You are a lucky woman and he is a lucky man.  Welcome to New Orleans.

You arrived at noon.  "We're sorry we're early," you told us.  Your husband added, "We were excited to get here, so we left early."  We understand.  We are excited to be here, too, every day.  That's why we wake up early after staying up late.  Happily, we have a shorter trip.  Welcome to New Orleans.

You arrived at noon.  If you had arrived at midnight, the light would have been on in the lobby, waiting for you.  Welcome to La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

Esplanade Avenue at night

We will do what we can to help you make pleasant memories, the kind that will last the next fifteen years, and all the many, many happy years after that.

Esplanade Avenue is one of the most beautiful streets in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.  If you are going to celebrate life and fall in love again, there are few better places to do it than in New Orleans.  It could happen to you.  It happened to "Sweet" Molly Malone.

A print in La Pelican Suite

A votre sante,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

Our first illustration was courtesy of The Bleat.