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. 

What's New Orleans Like?

Joe "King" Oliver

Just as there is more than one gumbo in New Orleans.  There is more one beat, more than one melody, more than one chorus, and more than one song.

I know, it's been video week on the blog.  I know, it's only Monday.  When you are a professional innkeeper, the week starts when the first guests arrive.  Every day is somebody's vacation.  Our work week started on Wednesday.  The Super Bowl was in town and all our guests complimented the city on its exceptional hospitality.

The guy from Chicago said, "I haven't been here for twenty years.  You can still dance like you mean it.  I've missed New Orleans."  He added, "I don't know what I was waiting for."

For your viewing and listening pleasure, allow me to introduce you to Big Freedia.  She is New Orleans all the way: Uptown, Downtown, West Bank, East.  If that seems confusing, you haven't seen anything yet.



It's not all dixieland jazz in New Orleans.  The recent Super Bowl coverage in various media highlighted some other aspects of the city's culture beyond infectious goodwill and unfailing hospitality.  

The soundtrack of the video above may not be to your liking.  We have to admit that while the song is growing on me, Frau Schmitt cannot listen to more than about a minute.  "Are you watching that Big Freedia video again?!?" she scolds.  She is right, as she usually is.  I like the visuals.

Do you want to know what New Orleans is like?  It is like dancing both within and beyond the city's scope and scape.  New Orleans is more than the sum of its buildings and bridges.  The city's people are bigger.  They dance like no one is watching.  They bounce as much they improvise their next steps.  As every visitor knows, every day in New Orleans makes good memories.

Big Freedia was interviewed on NPR the other day.

There is no place on earth that contains so many promising surprises as New Orleans does.  There is nowhere else on earth where so many dreams come true every day and every evening.  There is no other city where everyone is their best self, and we  blossom like a flowers on the side of a Mardi Gras float.  When you are alive in New Orleans, you know it.  When you live in New Orleans, you live with a purpose.

We've added more paper blossoms to the wall since this picture was taken

It's a big and fertile city.  The Super Bowl is over, but New Orleans persists and thrives against all odds, much like the San Francisco 49ers last night.  When your heart is in the game, the game is always thrilling.  You rally after the lights go out.  That is what New Orleans is like.  Tennessee Williams thought that there are only three cities in America worth being called cities.  One of them is New Orleans.  The other two are not Baltimore.  

La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast is located right in the middle of Esplanade Avenue, between the French Quarter, where the TV cameras were this weekend's action off the gridiron, and City Park, where the city is enjoyed by the people who live here and make New Orleans their own every day.  It's about a 20 minute walk either way.  We really are right in the middle.

Here is what our inn looks like from the outside:

See our website to reserve a suite for your visit

We look forward to welcoming you inside.

Unless you are eating a bag of cracklins at the bar, if the Saints or LSU aren't playing, the only pigskin people care about in New Orleans is the barbecue trailer following behind a second line.

A votre sante.

Eating in New Orleans

If you are wondering what is New Orleans, one answer is as good as another.  New Orleans is a many-splendored, organic thing, a city with more than one face.  

This much is true:  On saturdays, New Orleans is a cold cut sandwich.  Yes, it's a cold cut sandwich fully dressed on a half loaf of french bread.  You can have one freshly made in the back of any corner grocer.

On the corner of Paris Avenue and Gentilly Road, there is a sign over the gas pumps that says, "JIMMY SAYS WE MAKE THE TASTIEST SANDWICHES IN TOWN!" That sign doesn't lie.  Neither does Jimmy.  

You can have an oyster, havarti and bacon loaf at Ye Olde College Inn, or you can have a barbecue shrimp po' boy at Liuzza's-by-the-Track.  You can have a Ray-Ray at Sammy's on Elysian Fields Avenue, or you can have The Peacemaker at Mahoney's on Magazine Street.  A peacemaker is a fat loaf of french bread stuffed with fried oysters, fried bacon and melted cheese.

You will always find something to eat in New Orleans, at Tujaque's, the Court of the Two Sisters, the Camellia Grill, the Ruby Slipper, K-Paul's, Emeril's, Theo's, Juan's Flying Burrito, or at Mona's.  You will never have a bad meal in New Orleans.  Especially not at breakfast.

When it is a cold cut sandwich that was made with love of tradition and craft, like a muffuletta from Central Grocery, you know you are in New Orleans on a Saturday.  

The view from stage right

The view from stage left

Every meal and every day is good in New Orleans.

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.