Mardi Gras is Coming to New Orleans!!

Baby Jax!

New Orleans is a city of traditions.  Most places have a Baby New Year.  You know him.  He's awarded his sash from an emaciated old man with a long white beard and an exhausted hourglass.  In New Orleans, where nothing is forgotten, we have Baby Jax.

Jax Beer was brewed by the Jackson Brewery, a building that, like our house, is over 110 years old. 

Built in 1883

The old Jackson Brewery is off Jackson Square.  It's still standing.  They don't brew beer there anymore.  Since the 1990's the building has been home to a kind of a mall full of kiosks selling candy and baseball caps and sunglasses.  I have to admit we don't go into the mall very often.  We're not the vendors' target demographic.  We live here.  It's a beautiful building, though.

We welcomed Baby Jax and the new year this past weekend full of festivities and guests who make our profession a joy.  Good guests make good company and, as usual, La Belle Esplanade has been blessed by good guests and good conversation.

For 21 months in a row now, we've been rated the #1 B&B in New Orleans and in all of Louisiana on Trip Advisor.  Thanks again to all our past guests who have written reviews of their experience at our humble boutique inn.

That's a big crawfish

Crawfish (you can pronounce it crayfish if you are from where I'm from) season started the other day.  The warm wet weather we've had in southern Louisiana so far promises a bumper crop.  That means the upcoming crawfish harvest should be plump, plentiful and inexpensive.  Cross your fingers for this trifecta of best possible outcomes.

Crawfish do not get larger than a man.  They don't have a chance to grow that long before they are captured and boiled up.  They get about as long as a man's finger.  Henry Miller liked to call that finger his "stink finger."  Let's not dwell on what he meant by that. 

When a crawfish is as long as a man's good finger, it makes for good eating in its tail parts when the crawfish is boiled up in a spicy brine with sweet corn, garlic and potatoes.  You peel the shell off the tail and pinch the meat out.  You can suck the head if you choose to.  The spices soak into the head meat and make for a tasty niblet that goes well with a chase of cold beer.  I like to make mine Jax Beer.

We have a garden behind our house where guests are welcome to eat crawfish, which are sold boiled by the pound.  Please don't eat crawfish in the house.  They are very messy, as you will quickly learn, and they tend to stink up the whole house---even more than Henry Miller's finger.  Better the back garden stink of boiled crawfish than the bedrooms.  The cats out back like it better that way, too.

La belle d'Esplanade

New Year's Day has come and passed.  Mardi Gras Day will be here before you know it.  We still have some availability around Mardi Gras.  Remember, it isn't just a day, it's a season.  Between January 6 and Mardi Gras Day, New Orleans is an even more magical place than it usually is, and that's saying something.

New Orleans is always magical, but in the next couple of weeks the city and its citizens are going to be pulling out all the stops.  Between January 6 and Mardi Gras Day, New Orleans will be like a pretty girl sporting a pearl necklace studded with diamonds.  When she smiles, the whole world will smile with her.  It's nice to live in New Orleans.  We'll be happy to show you how much.

On behalf of myself, Frau Schmitt, Tammie the Housekeeper, and Baby Jax, on behalf of all New Orleanians, here and abroad, I would like to wish all of our regular readers a happy and prosperous new year and a happy and boisterous Mardi Gras.

It's not what you think.  It's better.  It's more.

À votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade
...where the rest comes easy!

An Esplanade Avenue Snapshot

Statue on Esplanade Avenue

There are three beautiful women who reside on the 2200 block of Esplanade Avenue.  One of them is Clio, Goddess of Peace and Genius of History.  Around hereabouts, her name is pronounced "kl-EYE-oh," though it would be pronounced "KLEE-oh" in most other places, including in Greece, where she would be referred to as the Muse of History, not the genius.

There are Nine Muses, of course, according to Greek mythology.  Each has a street named after her uptown in the Lower Garden District.  Clio: history, Calliope: epic poetry, Erato: lyric poetry, Euturpe: elegiac poetry, Melpomene: tragedy, Polyhymnia: hymns, Terpsichore: dance, Thalia: comedy, and Urania: astronomy.  The street named for Polyhymnia is shortened uptown to Polymnia.  The only ones that are pronounced in their original Greek are Erato and Urania.  Urania is only about two blocks long so nobody really says Urania very often, unless they know someone who lives there.

New Orleans is full of all sorts of confusing things and conundrums.  If you are from anywhere else, you would pronounce the name of our street "ess-plah-NAHD."  Here we say "ess-plan-AID."  Burgundy is "burr-GUN-dee," and Chartres is "charters."  You get the idea.  

It isn't only limited to pronunciation.  Our lobby is a cabinet of curiosities, full of odd exhibits of things I've picked up while wandering the city's streets.  For instance, most people think that squid are strictly saltwater animals.  In Louisiana, we have bayou squid, examples of which I keep in a jar in the lobby:

Bayou squid preserved in formaldehyde

Don't believe me?  Here's a closer look at the card:

Documentary evidence

"Article No. 67: Bayou Squid.  Captured from the Florida Avenue Canal on June 2, 2012."  

I was standing in front of our house when a tour bus paused next to the statue of Clio across the street.  They stop in front of our house all the time.  I don't know what the driver is telling his or her passengers.  Maybe he is telling them the history of the statue, which is the last artifact remaining from the 1884 World's Fair that was held in New Orleans.  I do know that flash bulbs are always going off on the side of the bus facing our house.  I always try to wave.  Hello.  I hope you're enjoying your VIP city tour.

The side of a tour bus in New Orleans

At this particular stop, the VIP tourists got to snap a picture of the other two beautiful women who reside on Esplanade Avenue.

Two more beautiful women on Esplanade Avenue

Frau Schmitt is going to be happy when she sees this.  We are both very proud of our sign.  

Our sign through the fence

Some people say that the lady on our sign resembles Tammie the Housekeeper.  There is a passing resemblance.  

La Belle de l'Avenue d'Esplanade

Tammie the Housekeeper

If you are still awake after reading this far, I know what you're thinking.  I started off this post by saying that three beautiful women reside on the 2200 block of Esplanade Avenue.  Doesn't Tammie the Housekeeper make four?

Tammie the Housekeeper only spends here workday here, if you can call it that.  When she sleeps after a long day's work, she sleeps in Metarie, across the border in Jefferson Parish.  She has a lovely family.  She doesn't really resemble the picture I always put up when her name is mentioned.  Tammie the Housekeeper doesn't smoke a pipe.  She does, however, like to complain whenever I use this picture.  You're welcome, Tammie.

As I've mentioned before, we got our sign made at Mystic Blue Signs, uptown on Magazine Street.  It's handmade by a lady who is a professional sign painter.  You don't find many sign painters anymore.  Then again, you find all kinds of things in New Orleans that you don't find anyplace else anymore.  It's an old city full of traditions.  It's a big city with a heart.  New Orleans has an old soul.

To give you a sense of scale of how tall our sign is, I'll put up one last picture.  I don't want Frau Schmitt or Tammie the Housekeeper to accuse me of being afraid of publishing my own ugly mug.  Shield your eyes...

A humble New Orleans innkeeper

Unlike Tammie the Housekeeper, your humble narrator is not ashamed of being seen clenching a pipe in his mouth.  Bienvenue.

A votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

Another Side of New Orleans

Not La Boef Gras

As regular readers and bed and breakfast guests know, there is nothing an innkeeper enjoys so much as telling variations on a story.  

I was looking through my scrapbook the other day and noticed that I have taken a lot of pictures of statues that most visitors to New Orleans never see.  This shouldn't come as too much of a surprise.  As regular readers and guests at La Belle Esplanade Bed and Breakfast know, Frau Schmitt and your humble narrator spend much of our time in the neighborhoods less visited.  

Anybody want to go to Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard?  

The coroner's office is located there and it is a sight to see.  To get an idea of how things run in New Orleans, take a look at the corner office's link:  neworleanscoroner.org.  The site used to have information about, well, the accomplishments of the elected coroner, mostly.  As of this writing, its domain is name is available for sale.

You don't say

Behind Brown's Dairy, which abuts Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, there are two monumental fiberglass statues of cows.

The bigger one is black and serious about producing milk.  The smaller one is brown and seems a bit more lackadaisical about the matter.

Separated at birth

For an added sense of scale, here they are in front of the house next door:

Add caption

They must have names, but I don't know them.  I do, however, always make a point to visit them when I'm in the neighborhood.  

Another place I stop by on Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd, which doesn't have a website, is the Central City Market.

99-cent breakfast and free cell phones in New Orleans

The starbursts read:  BOILED SEAFOOD.  FRUIT AND VEG.  CHICKEN NUGGETS.  HOT LUNCH.  The side of the building tells why I usually come here.

Best sandwiches in New Orleans

Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd has a wide and shady neutral ground. It's a good place for a picnic.

Here are the three most frequently asked questions we answer in order of appearance:

1.  Which way is the French Quarter?

2.  Is this neighborhood safe?

3.  Where do the locals eat?

If you are thinking about staying in New Orleans, think about staying at La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.  It is very rare for anyone to have a bad meal in New Orleans.  Your hosts have been around town.

A votre sante.

New Orleans Corsican Connection

A Moor's head

I've always said that the prettiest women in the world come from Hamburg.  I have heard other people say, however, that the prettiest women in the world come from Corsica.  Frau Schmitt and I met a gentleman from San Francisco this weekend who would definitely agree with those other people.  

Remember the other day when our neighbor gave us two flags?  I hung the flags at about 2:00 in the afternoon.  Our first guests were scheduled to arrive at 4:00.  Our guests arrived via taxi.  A casually stylish couple stepped out with their luggage.  The lady looked up.  "Did you know I was coming?" she asked.

We replied that they did have a reservation, and that was why we were waiting on the front porch for their arrival.  "That's not what I mean," she said with a lilting French accent.  "Did you put up my country's flag because you knew I was coming?"  Her companion, the gentleman mentioned in the first paragraph, told us, "She's Corsican.  We never expected to see a Corsican flag in America."

I called over our neighbor to explain his flag choices.  Every day in New Orleans is full of serendipitous surprises.  Napoleon, the Emperor of France, was a Corsican.

That couple checked out yesterday morning.  It was a pleasure to be their hosts during their short stay in New Orleans.  Good guests make good company.

Yesterday afternoon someone new, from Ohio, checked in.  She's attending that big health information convention in New Orleans this week.  "Why do you have a Corsican flag?" she asked.  Two people in one week, and Frau Schmitt predicted no one would recognize these flags.  She is usually right about these things.  

"I've been to Corsica," our newest guest said.  "You know, they say that the most beautiful women in the world come from Corsica.  From what I saw there, I tend to agree," she added.  I said that I have heard that more than once, but I have to respectfully disagree.

In other news, when we are sitting on the front porch waiting for guests to arrive, we'll have company from now on.  The day has finally arrived for our final SIGN UPDATE:

Who is la belle d'Esplanade?

We got a call from Mystic Blue Signs yesterday that our handmade sign was ready.  I put it on the front porch this morning.  Sorry about the glare on the lettering.  The colors are so true that I couldn't bring myself to do any adjusting of the pixels.  Our house really is that orange.

In fact, as I was taking the pictures this morning, a man walked by.  "Whatever you're doing, I hope you aren't thinking about changing the colors of this house," he said.  "I walk this street every day under doctor's orders for my ticker." He patted his chest.  "This is my favorite block of Esplanade Avenue.  Every time I see your house it does my heart good."  He patted his chest again, smiling as he looked at La Belle Esplanade.

Again, unretouched

I invited him to take a closer look at our new sign.  "La Belle Esplanade," he read.  He pointed. "That's her," he said.  "This is her home.  There's no doubt about it."

I assured him that we are not considering changing the color scheme.  Though our historic New Orleans bed and breakfast inn is a work in progress, as long as we are caretakers of this beautiful property, it will be the orange house with blue shutters that the tour buses stop in front of.  

We opened our inn in September 2012.  It is only March 2013.  Our first guests would recognize the inn today, but they would also be delighted by all the new surprising additions we've made to the decor inside.  Just like the difference between our old sign:

The chalkboard look

...and our new sign:

New and old, side by side

We are always adding new things: new curios, new pictures, new sculptures, new items to the breakfast menu, and new suggestions of where to eat and what to see that you can't find in a tourism brochure, and new stories. 

All those new things are subjects for other days.  In other news, it was 2:00AM last night.  Bud's Broiler was open, as it is 24 hours every day.  We had two Number Nines with onions.

Bud's Broiler, City Park Avenue

A votre sante.

New Orleans Rock 'n' Roll Marathon

New Orleans Rock and Roll Marathon

There is a marathon in New Orleans on February 24th, just two weeks away!  It had slipped my mind even though it is one of my favorite days of the year.  I am not a runner.  It's the only day of the year that the city cleans the street.

On the evening of February 23rd, whatever cars are still parked on the street will be towed, then, as people are falling asleep, street sweeping trucks will go up and down Esplanade Avenue.  For young children, it is like seeing a fleet of unicorns.  

For people from Boston, where the streets are swept every week, it is nostalgic.  Even if they don't keep the streets as tidy as they do in New England, New Orleans always feels like home.  There are more important things in urban life than tidy avenues.

The New Orleans Rock 'n' Roll Marathon starts at 7:00 in the morning, when it guaranteed to be cool.  Both the full marathon and the half marathon run the length of Esplanade Avenue right in front of our New Orleans bed and breakfast inn.  Here is what it will look like around 8:00:

Nobody races in the neutral ground

The runners take over the street until a little after noon.  Most people after eleven aren't really running any more.  They are more forming up a second line on the way to the finish line.

The view from the front porch of Les Fleurs suite:

Where Esplanade is crossed by Bayou Road

People from blocks around come to the route to cheer and offer encouragement.  Last year the crew set up a bandstand on North Broad Street to entertain the runners and the neighbors.  What classic music did they play?  This marathon's name says it all.  

We like to walk up and down the street enjoying the atmosphere, seeing people we know, exchanging chitchat, and making new acquaintances.  It's a congenial atmosphere, but, then, it is most every day on Esplanade Avenue.  The marathon is special because there are more than the usual amount of cheerful people out in the morning.

Across from the bandstand you'll see a sight you don't see any other time of year:

Tastee Donuts on North Broad Street

People are usually running to get inside Tastee Donuts, not running past it.  

If you want to watch the New Orleans Rock 'n' Roll Marathon this year, consider La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.  You can sip coffee with chicory on the balcony and watch the race go by.  When you're ready, you can walk leisurely up to the finish line at the end of our street, relaxed and well rested.

In other news...

The proudest sign in New Orleans

...we have a sign update!!  We met with the sign painter this afternoon to finalize the design and color scheme.  As I mentioned before, I am fond our current chalk-written ghost sign.  I have always been proud of my penmanship.  The old sign won't be replaced.  The new sign will be, well, a new sign.

The new sign won't be done in time for this month's marathon (you can't rush perfection), but it will be done by the time of the Crescent City Classic on March 30.  The city doesn't sweep the streets for this 10k run, but it is still a magical morning on a beautiful street.  Stay tuned.

A votre sante. 

That New Orleans State of Mind

Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans?

What is like to live in New Orleans?  It is as good as you would expect.  We certainly have no complaints.  It's not a never-ending party, but it is always a celebration.  Life is good in the City That Care Forgot.

A house and a motor scooter on Esplanade Avenue

Somebody will play the Eurhythmics on the jukebox, "Sweet Dreams Are Made of This."  Nobody pays attention, but the person who chose this song has a method to her madness.  After Annie Lennox is done singing, the next song comes on.  It's by the Soul Rebels Brass Band.


Then people pay attention.  In New Orleans, what is made locally is always better than what is made for mass consumption.  Things sound different in New Orleans.  Food tastes better.  Time moves at a different pace.

In New Orleans, the old ways are best.  In a city that has stood the test of time against all odds, tradition means something, especially when the traditions are homegrown.  

A group of lovely women who belong to the Krewe of Excalibur are staying with us this weekend.  They are from Austin, Texas of all places.  One of their neighbors is from New Orleans, and he got them involved with the krewe.  "You should see his house," one of the ladies said.  "It's like a shrine to New Orleans.  It's tasteful, but you can tell he has a passion about his hometown."

I would venture to guess that every home in New Orleans contains at least one fleur de lis, a Mardi Gras poster, a mask on the wall, or a framed ticket to Jazz Fest.  When you live in New Orleans, you don't think about much else.  The city inflames the imagination.  Imagine living under its influence 24 hours a day.  It is intoxicating.  Once bitten, never shy.

One of our balconies

This time of year, more than any other time, you feel the special appeal New Orleans offers to everyone bold enough to take a taste.    It isn't because the Super Bowl is in the Super Dome this year.  In the places I hang out, people are waiting for Monday.  The Saints aren't in the Super Bowl so there is little point to watching the game unless there is nothing else going on.

There is always something going on in New Orleans.  Mardi Gras is on March 12 this year.  The Super Bowl is just a distraction from what is really important.

We went to Mystic Blue Signs on Magazine Street to get a sign for La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.  With so many tour buses stopping in front of our house, we may as well advertise better than we do.  Esplanade Avenue is a tastefully elegant street, one where neon wouldn't be welcome.  Our current sign is handwritten in chalk:

Perfect penmanship

The new sign will be something to see, like the bed and breakfast it announces.  People stop to take pictures of the property all the time.  Soon, they will have another detail to focus their lens on.  Details to follow.

We hope to see you soon.

A votre sante.