La Belle Esplanade: Celebrating 100 Years!

Everyone is welcome

We're celebrating 100 years.  How many?  You read that number correctly: 100. I didn't leave off a few zeros.  100 is the right number.

100 years of what?  Well, that's for us to know and you to find out.

You'll be surprised by all the things you'll find in our lobby.  It's a real museum stuffed full of curiosities.  When we bought the house, the lobby was used as storage, much as it is now I suppose, full of boxes and bicycles, odds and ends that no one knew where else to put them.  Now it's a meticulously curated and arranged display of odds and ends.  Everything is perfectly in its place and the collection is always expanding as we get donations.  Our lobby is an odditarium.

There are some things in our lobby that are over 100 years old.  Some things are older.  Oh, if only we could turn back time...



You didn't see that coming did you?  I didn't.  Inserting that video was Tammie the Housekeeper's idea.

Tammie the Housekeeper

I was in the Navy when Cher made that video.  I wasn't in that same spot, on that same ship, but I can tell you that it's not exactly an accurate representation of life at sea, or in port for that matter.  I did wear that white uniform though, in summer.  They were made of polyester.

While I own a lot of hats, I no longer own a US Navy "dixie cup."  However, when I do have a fly fishing bucket hat and when I wear it, which is rarely since I don't fish, I wear it with the brim turned up all around, just like in my sailing days.  I don't wear it à la Gilligan, who is wearing his sailor hat below the way I wear my bucket hat.

Bob Denver

Speaking of John Denver (that's not a typo), I've been reading his autobiography recently.  Not straight through.  I read a lot of books at the same time, so, interspersed with all the philosophy, travel literature, New Orleans history books, hagiographies, and collections of old Gallup poll results, I squeeze in a few pages of John Denver's life story, as told by the man himself.  I have nothing to say about what I've read about him so far.  This is just a digression that leads nowhere.

Our lobby

So what hundred years are we celebrating exactly?  Didn't I say that's for Frau Schmitt and I to know and you to find out?  I'm sticking by my guns here, just filling up space, killing time, chewing the fat, and smoking a cigar on a lazy New Orleans afternoon.

Did you know the Finck Cigar Company, of San Antonio, TX was founded in the 1880s?  Our house was built in 1883.  Coincidence that good things happen at the same time?  Here's the history of Finck Cigars, if you are interested.  

So, as I sit here wasting your time, making you wonder what 100 years Frau Schmitt and I are celebrating (100 years in business? ---not quite yet, but we're getting closer) let me tell you that if you're looking for an honest cigar at a good price, you can do a lot worse than buying a box of Finck's Travis Clubs.

Now, I haven't wasted your time at all, have I?  That's a solid tip you should follow, just like our restaurant recommendations when you stay with us.

Enjoyed by discriminating connoisseurs

We have a cigar box museum in our lobby.  We have and many, many, many, many, many other things in our lobby.  We have curiosities and curios scattered all through the house but most of them are concentrated in the odditarium.  We have so many things that we've got an intern from one of the local colleges to catalog all we have.  It's a bewildering collection of gewgaws and gimcrackery.  He's getting a good education.

You'll find out when you come to stay with us.

Outthink your New Orleans vacation at...

La Belle Esplanade
...where every morning is a curated breakfast salon.

New Orleans: A City of Loud Surprises

2200 block of Esplanade Ave, New Orleans, LA

Imagine it's a quiet afternoon along the oak-shaded boulevard of Esplanade Avenue in New Orleans.  It will be easy if you try because that is the way it is most of the time.  The birds are twittering in the boughs and the neighbors are waving hello to each other across the street.  People are walking their dogs without a care in the world.  The school bus drops off earnest young scholars into the arms of their attentive parents.  Everything is tranquil bliss, the way most afternoons are in New Orleans.

Then, without warning----a blast of bounce music comes barreling down the street.  You look in the direction of the source.  It's That Black Truck.

That Black Truck

Early in October I introduced our regular readers to New Orleans bounce music.  You can click this link here if you missed that installment.  Now, I'm all about releasing my wiggle but, for me, a little bit of bounce music goes a long way.  That said, if somebody drives by blaring bounce music out of their car stereo speakers, the kind of woofers that rattle the car's suspension and bumpers, I don't mind.  I enjoy the beat's punctuation to my day.  That said, I enjoy it quite a bit less when the car is stopped at the red light at the intersection of Esplanade and N. Miro Street at midnight, but, hey, that's city living.

I like That Black Truck.  I like That Black Truck a lot.  It doesn't pass by our house very often, but when it does, it always makes me smile.  Luckily, I had my camera at the ready the last time That Black Truck came around.

It's a Renaissance truck

Catering?  Yes.  Lawn care?  Yes?  DJ?  Yes, again.  That Black Truck is many things to many people from all walks of life.  Besides the music that That Black Truck brings to the streets, and its can-do attitude, I appreciate the truck's stenciled ammo-can paint job and do-it-yourself aesthetics.  They could park That Black Truck in the NOMA lobby and it would fit right in with a lot of the other art on display.     

As I was taking that photo of the truck's side, a voice from a loudspeaker placed in the truck instructed me to point my camera in the cab's direction.  "Don't just shoot the side, brother.  We've got a better shot for you," the voice said.  Indeed.

Men on a mission

I don't know which one of these gentlemen is DJ Maniac, but they are all heroes in my book.  Thanks for visiting Esplanade Avenue, gents.  It was like seeing Mr. Okra and the Roman Candy Cart on our street, rolled up into one.

It was with deep regret that I watched That Black Truck pull away out of sight down Esplanade Avenue toward the Claiborne Avenue Overpass.  The acoustics under the highway are incredible and I'll bet That Black Truck parked under there and let those speakers boom, boom, boom.  I'll bet people were dancing.  I expect there was laughter and singing and an all-around good time.  Why do I think that?  Because that's what happened on our usually quiet stretch of Esplanade Avenue.

Big speakers project a happy noise

I don't remember what song DJ Maniac was playing out of the back of That Black Truck.  I may be confabulating, but I think it was a bounce version of this:



You never know what you are going to see in New Orleans.  You never know what you'll find when you turn a corner.  This is a magical city that isn't choreographed.  It blossoms organically, one bright and incandescent bloom at a time, randomly, like a parrot in your garden.  There are usually trumpets involved, but sometimes it is something more prosaic.  Sometimes, all it takes for magic to happen is three guys in a black truck.  That Black Truck.  Now you know what people are talking about when they talk about That Black Truck and they capitalize it when they say it.

You'll discover all sorts of things in New Orleans.  Your destination is known and it's gonna be full of surprises.

We look forward to meeting you.

À votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade, a boutique inn in New Orleans.

Closer to the Heart in New Orleans

The usual reaction

The innkeeper and the guest, each one shares his or her part and that's the best start, with heart and with art, crafting good memories together, the kind of good memories that last forever.  It takes two to tango.  We are blessed with guests who arrive set to enjoy New Orleans on its own terms rather than only ticking off the high points they read about in the guide books. 

A week or more is a nice amount of time to spend in New Orleans.  You'll never be bored.

Whatever you have read about New Orleans is true, but there is plenty more left unsaid.  There aren't words enough to pin down what New Orleans really is.  If New Orleans is a butterfly, it is the kind that flutters by.  It is not the kind you find dead and dried in a display case.  

This is a city full of surprises.  New Orleans enchants.  New Orleans is magic.  We love New Orleans.  Most people who stay with us love New Orleans, too.  You will.  You won't be able to stop it or help it.  It is what it is, as inevitable as the river that runs through the city's heart.  It's a wonderful rush.

It's about time to offer a tip of my blue fedora to Rich Tuttle.  Who?  You don't need to know who he is.  Your humble narrator knows who he is and he knows who he is.  His wife and children know who he is better than I do.  I haven't seen Rich Tuttle in person for about 30 years, which is a shame in some ways, but in other ways, the best kind of ways, it's all worked out for the best for all concerned.  It is nice to know that somewhere in the world, you have a friend.  Sometimes, most times, it's nice to have your own blog and it's just nice to offer a random shout-out on a heartfelt whim.  Life is rich.

You have a friend in New Orleans.  Our musical interlude:




Tuttle, like Dibble, is a good Yankee name.  Don't snicker.

In New Orleans, good Creole names are Uglisch, Waugespack, Soniat, Marigny, Marengo, Arnaud, Boudreaux and Thibedeaux, Morial, Ternaud, Haley, Driscoll, Terranova, Liuzza, and Mandina, etcetera, etcetera, etc....



You never know what kind of pageantry you're going to encounter in New Orleans.  You never know what you are going to see when you turn a street corner.  We inhabit a magical city.  It's an urban cornucopia overstuffed like a po' boy with overripe fruit and underripe vegetables.  Leave a green banana on the sidewalk and it will blush golden with joy.  The very air is a perfume, if I can quote Walt Whitman, who was talking about Brooklyn when he wrote that. 

New Orleans.  New Orleans.  New Orleans.  New Orleans.  No matter how many times you say the city's name you'll never get it right, but everyone will know exactly where you mean.  There is no place else quite like it.  There is no place else like New Orleans.

When you live in New Orleans, you live close to the heart.  You live close to the bone.  You know what marrow tastes like because this is a snout-to-tail kind of a place.  You live close to other people, cheek-by-jowl.  Good neighbors make a city strong and vibrant.  When you visit New Orleans, you become a part of it.  You become a part of us.  Welcome to New Orleans.  New Orleans loves you.

New Orleans Botanical Gardens

It's a wild ride in New Orleans.  It's a good ride.  You'll see.  You'll love it.

À votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade

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 #1 Rated B&B in New Orleans

Somebody bumped into me when I was taking this picture

We are not ones to boast because we think it brings bad luck.  Nothing lasts forever.  It has been our good fortune to be ranked as the #1 bed and breakfast on Trip Advisor for one solid year as of this month.  To be more explicit, out of 144 B&Bs listed on Trip Advisor in New Orleans, as of this writing (it used to be 146), we have been considered the top of the list for sleep quality, location, rooms, service, value and cleanliness.  YMMV.

It gets better.  Out of 532 lodging options listed on Trip Advisor, we have scored the highest from traveller reviews for one year, month after month.  You won't see that when you filter the results on Trip Advisor.  They tend to steer people toward the bigger hotels, which is fine.  We only have five suites.  We don't want every Tom, Dick and Jane finding us on the front page when they are looking for someplace to stay.  We wouldn't have time to answer the phone.

Our position is unplanned.  It has taken us by surprise just as much as it has everyone else.  As I may have said before, way back in the day when we opened the inn and started this blog, neither Frau Schmitt nor your humble narrator have any background in the hospitality industry.  We've just made it up as we went along.  This isn't to say that just anyone can be Grade A Number One just by opening the door.  It takes some business sense.  It takes the kind of personality that enjoys interacting will all sorts of people.  It takes an encyclopedic knowledge of the city people are visiting.  It takes humility, goodwill and good cheer and attention to detail.  There are angels in the details.  A good innkeeper has to be willing to not have a day off for months at a time.  Thankfully, we love what we do.  It isn't really work when you enjoy your profession.

Being an innkeeper doesn't necessarily require good organizational skills, but it helps if your wife has them (doesn't it always?).  My usual befuddlement about what is going on tends to add to our inn's charm.  I'm quick on my feet when I need to be.

The sign in our foyer

NEW ORLEANS, LA.  

LA BELLE ESPLANADE.  

M. SCHMITT & M. KING.  

SEPTEMBER 2012.

I took the above photo the other night, in the wee still hours of the morning.  The reflection in the glass is our address, 2216, as the moonlight and star shine spill though the transom over our front door.  We live in a magical city.  New Orleans has treated us well.  That is what we try to share with our guests.  Dreams can come true on Esplanade Avenue.

Almost certainly, some young Turks will open a New Orleans B&B, tap into the zeitgeist, and claim the No. 1 position.  Nothing lasts forever.  Almost certainly, one of our fellow innkeepers will again reclaim their rightful place at the top of the list.  You'll notice that I don't call our fellow innkeepers our competition.  There is no competition, or, when there is, it is the most friendliest and convivial sort.  In New Orleans, you only have friends, whether you have met them yet or not.

Mardi Gras flowers in our lobby

We opened La Belle Esplanade in September, 2012.  We would like to thank the many, many guests who have stayed with us and who have shared their experiences with the worldwide web.  

Sometimes, people stay with us and accuse us of having our family or friends plant reviews on various online travel sites.  We've never done that.  Your humble narrator's mother, who is the other person who reads this blog (Hi Mom!) has never written a review on our behalf.  Neither has anyone who hasn't stayed with us.  Nor do we offer discounts or treats to people who do decide to write a review.  Firstly, we are allergic to discounts and, secondly, we believe in honesty.

I learned early on, when I was a wee lad, that honesty is the best policy.  This is one of the few things upon which Frau Schmitt and I both agree, and she is usually right about these things.

We are not young Turks, and we are not New Orleans natives either.  We have only lived in New Orleans five years now, but we call the city home.  The city calls us citizens, and there is no nicer compliment than that, let me tell you.

When you find yourself in the September of your years, we hope you find yourself as happy as your humble narrator.  We hope you meet wonderful, interesting people every day and that you get a chance to share what you know to enrich their time in the wonderful city that you, yourself, call home.

What's that he said?  The title of two Sinatra songs in the same post?  Why, yes, I do believe that's what I said, but I'm not going to share a Sinatra video, or even one of Maurice Chevalier.  I'm sorry to disappoint our regular readers (Hi Carol!) who think they've discovered my method.  Let's end this with The Soul Rebels Brass Band.  The Soul Rebels were at the front of a second line parade that went past our house this afternoon.  Why not?



Sweet dreams are made of this.  Let it roll.  That's jazz.

À votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

Where Smart People Stay in New Orleans

A parade went by our house recently

If you are thinking about staying at our inn, I'm not trying to flatter you by implying that your one of the smart set.  Plenty of smart people stay in the French Quarter.  They also stay in the Marigny, in the Bywater, in the Central Business District (CBD), in the Garden District, and in those indistinct neighborhoods that get collectively lumped together as being in "Uptown."

We live in Downtown, which means we live on the downriver side of Canal Street.  We are not in the French Quarter.  I should say that again and italicize it in case some people don't understand that.  We are not in the French Quarter.  We are a located a mile away.  The Quarter is about a 20 minute walk.  We live on a beautiful street, so most people don't mind, but if you don't like to walk and you want to spend all of your time on Bourbon Street, you should probably stay in the French Quarter.  If you want to spend all your stay walking around the Garden District or on Magazine Street---you should stay in the Garden District.  We are not in the Garden District.

I know it is more expensive to stay in the French Quarter and that you'll probably have to stay in a hotel or an illegal short-term rental apartment you found on Air B&B.  You really can't fault us on our location when we make it perfectly clear that we are not in the French Quarter when we explicitly say this, even on our website.



I'm the first to admit that we are not the cheapest accommodations in town, especially if you are newlyweds in your salad days, but we aren't the most expensive either.  We try to offer good value for the money spent.  We don't try to nickel and dime you.  We offer plenty of lagniappe.  

New Orleans itself does a lot of the heavy lifting making your stay memorable.  Our job is to be ambassadors to this wonderful city we call home.  That's why we spend so much time in the morning chitchatting over breakfast, making recommendations and trying to explain what you've seen the day before.  What's important to us is that you understand, at least a little, of what it's like to be part of this grand social experiment we call New Orleans. 

The same picture twice.

As a small boutique operation, we only have five suites available at any given time.  That means we can only really accommodate 10 people each night.  We've been rated the #1 B&B in New Orleans for a year now (which isn't something we like to brag about---it won't last forever) so we tend to fill up early.  If we don't have anything available when you're thinking of visiting our fair city, please check out bbnola.com, which the site for the Professional Innkeepers Association of New Orleans (PIANO).  Every room and suite listed on that site belongs to a licensed B&B in the city and they are serious about providing an experience above and beyond what you'll get in a hotel.

Some people prefer a hotel and they try a B&B for the adventure of it.  Most of the time, it's a rewarding experience.  Some people, however, belong in a hotel.  We tend to win those people over but, again, remember, we are not in the French Quarter.  We are in a real neighborhood where people live.  It's not like the neighborhood you live in (I feel pretty confident saying that) but it is a typical New Orleans neighborhood.  Nobody in New Orleans goes to Bourbon Street every night to catch beads tossed off the balconies by drunken tourists.  Nobody.  People who live here have other things to do, much richer and more rewarding things.

Did I mention a parade went by our house recently?

If you are looking to learn what it is like to live in America's most unique city, consider staying in a B&B.  If you are looking to learn what it is like to live on Esplanade Avenue, in our part of town, think about staying with us.  If we don't have a vacancy, there are five other B&Bs on our street a pearl's throw away.  If they don't have a vacancy, the whole city is your oyster, really.  You won't leave disappointed.

A day spent in New Orleans is better than a week spent in most other places.  I feel pretty confident saying that, too.

À votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

New Prices at the Original Bud's Broiler

The menu board at Bud's Broiler

Bud's Broiler is a local franchise of hamburger stands in New Orleans.  The original one is just outside City Park, across from the Delgado Community College campus.  The original Bud's is open 24 hours a day, the way it should be in a city that is open 24 hours a day.  

I don't have a picture of the outside because the neon is always burned out in places so it looks less impressive in photos than it does in person.  It's a magical place, like many places in New Orleans.  It's low-key, but that doesn't make it any less magical.  Can you get a charcoal broiled hamburger and a Heineken at 4:00 in the morning where you live?  I have to admit, though I have the opportunity to do so, I never opt for the Heineken that early in the AM.

When I was in Bud's Broiler the other day, I noticed that the prices have changed.  Here's a close up of the menu board:

Meat and hot dog prices at Bud's Broiler

You order by number here, and you have to specify if you want onions on that.  Prices have gone up about a quarter (25 cents to our non-American readers) for most things.  Meat refers to hamburgers.  Notice that hot dog prices haven't changed.  You can still get a #9 (my personal favorite) for $1.90.  It's a frankfurter smothered in house made BBQ sauce, cut into thirds and placed on a hamburger bun.  It's delish.

Wheat buns still cost an extra 25 cents.

Your humble narrator's New Orleans Face

Someone recently asked to see a picture of me in my new cowboy hat.  Here you go.  I wear my cowboy hat when we have people from out west.  It's a three gallon hat.  I don't really like to wear it around town, but around the property, I think it's pretty flattering.  It's certainly a conversation piece.  This is my New Orleans face.

You know how I always say the nicest people live in Iowa?  Well, I would like to add Kansas to that list.  Do you know the second-most populous city in Kansas?  I didn't either until we had guests stay with us from Overland Park, pop. 173,372 according to the 2010 U.S. census.  The most populous city in Kansas is Wichita.  Overland Park is above and beyond Wichita, by design.

Our guest was describing the Christmas lights in Overland Park.  "Have you ever been?" she asked.  "How many people have you met outside Kansas who have been to Overland Park?" I countered.  

I think Frau Schmitt and I are going to schedule an Overland Park vacation.  We have to visit Nebraska first, though, before we go to Kansas.  I promised her that years ago.  It was during our honeymoon.

City seal of Overland Park, KS

Overland Park was founded in 1905, a blink of an eye, historically speaking.  New Orleans was founded in 1718.  Our tricentennial is coming up.  Naturally, it's seen as a reason to get more tourists to visit the city.  None of this interests your humble narrator too much.  He comes from a state that celebrated it's 350th anniversary years ago.  Frau Schmitt, well, she comes from a country that predates the Romans.  Still, we'd like to visit the OP, as they call it in Kansas.

Speaking of history, how did New Orleans become a part of the United States?  You can find out at the New Orleans Wax Museum.

Great moments in history

1803 was the year Napoleon decided to divest the French Empire's colonial holdings and to deal with the United States, making both America and Louisiana better places.  It was a momentous decision.  Emperor Bonaparte didn't take it lightly.  He soaked in the bathtub awhile before deciding his course of action.  He was Churchillian in some ways.  According to the wax museum, this is what his bath suite looked like:

Cleanliness is next to godliness

Did I mention we recently had some guests who arrived from Kansas?  Ah! Kansas!  The way they described it, it sounds like God's country.  Living in New Orleans, the way we do, it's hard to imagine someplace better.  I asked Tammie the Housekeeper what she thought about our Kansas guests.

Tammy the Housekeeper

Tammy the Housekeeper had only this to say: "They were very tidy and neat."

I'm not going to say I'm going to offer a discount for Kansas guests any more than I offer one to guests from Iowa (i.e. none) but we welcome people from all over the world.  The more the merrier.  We have yet to host guests from Nebraska.  I have no idea why.

À votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

The bearable lightness of New Orleans

We've been a tad busy the past couple of days doing this and that and whatnot, keeping things in working order, making improvements, tweaking a seemingly successful formula to become better innkeepers.  When I say we're already too busy, Frau Schmitt likes to tell me, "Idle hands are the Devil's tools."  She is usually right about these things, especially when it comes to her husband.  

While I have a few future articles in the hopper, they are going to have to wait awhile until I catch up with other business.  Now, if this were some other bed and breakfast blog, I'd feature some warmed over recipes for you to enjoy.  The kitchen isn't my department, though.

When I was in elementary school, in Connecticut, we couldn't go outside for recess if it was raining.  Snow was no problem, though.  When it was raining, we went to the school auditorium to watch a movie instead.  It kept us occupied.  I'm going to show you a movie today:




The Backstreet Cultural Museum is about a ten minute walk from our house.  We always recommend it.  You'll learn something about what it is like to live in New Orleans.  It is better than you can imagine.

Until I'm ready to sit down and write a real blog post...

A votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

New Orleans Cemetery Tour

Saint Louis King of France

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

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

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

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

Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta

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

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

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

Saint Padre Pio

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

Our Lady of Grace

A New Orleans Brass Band

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

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

Our Lady of Dorgenois

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

I couldn't agree more.

A votre sante,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

Family Ties Second Line 2012

The 91 Bus was held up this morning

We were sitting on one of the front balconies of 2216 Esplanade Avenue, and more than the usual amount of people seemed to be walking up to John McDonough High School.  Soon enough,we heard the unmistakable sound of a second line starting.  We joined the behind two folks; the man was dancing as he went.  It sounded like the brass band had three tubas.

A little soft shoe past the Degas House

A block away from our destination

We could smell grilled sausage as we approached.

Just getting started in front of the school 

Now that's an umbrella

The crowd was pretty deep.  We stuck to the sidewalk, so no breathtaking photos, just a sense of what a second line is like.  This was the Family Ties second line.  The theme was "No Bucks? No Gators!"  I have no idea what this means, but each of the men's fans featured a stuffed baby alligator head holding a jewel in its open jaws.  

There were, indeed, three tubas

We never made it to the front to capture a shot of the banner.  I did manage to get a picture of the uniform.

They danced much better than the guy I followed to the parade

This was the route: Pretty much back and forth around the neighborhood for a few hours.  We'll be listening for when they head up Ursulines Avenue, just 2 blocks behind La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.  

Now that I know where to find this information:   The next second line that will be close to us is on the afternoon of Saturday, October 20, 2012.  The Black Men of Labor are starting from Sweet Lorraine's.