Video Tour of La Belle Esplanade (Part II)
Today, we’re going to continue our video tour of La Belle Esplanade’s five suites. We’re starting the overall tour with Les Fleurs Suite. There’s no particular reason we started with Les Fleurs, except maybe it’s the only one on the ground floor so I didn’t have to walk upstairs to start the tour.
I don’t mind walking upstairs. I still have both original hips and both original knees. Both original ankles, too. My anatomy is blessed to be without any rods or pins. I’m 51 years old as of this writing. If you’re in your 20s while you read this, you’re probably thinking, “He’s an old man.” If you’re in your 60s, your thinking, “He’s just a kid.” Let’s just say I’m a combination of the two. I’ve got my aches and pains and I’ve tucked a lot of experiences under my belt, but I still begin each day with the astonishment of a child. That’s really pretty easy to do in New Orleans.
Just ask Jimmy Durante:
Fairy tales can come true. It can happen to you. I live in New Orleans. I know. What’s taking you so long to visit here? I’m a little shy of halfway to 105 and yet look at all I derive from being alive in New Orleans. New Orleans is like no place else. New Orleans will invigorate you.
The food is good in New Orleans, stuff that will stick to your ribs. Where else can you get a muffuletta?
I was at Terranova’s Grocery last Saturday and I saw three wedges of muffuletta on the counter by the cash register. At Terranova’s, which is a shop known for it’s sausages and stuffed pork chops, they make muffulettas on Saturdays only. The shop opens at 9:00 on Saturdays and the sandwiches are usually sold out before 10:30. I go to Terranova’s just about every day and I had never seen one of their muffulettas before. There’s a first time for everything.
The secret to a good muffuletta is the olive salad. They don’t skimp on that at Terranova’s.
Well, that’s all well and good, but what does any of this have to do with our ongoing video tour of Les Fleurs Suite at La Belle Esplanade that I’ve been promising to publish? Nothing. The secret to good blog writing, like the secret to comedy is…timing.
Without further ado, here’s the second half of our video tour of Les Fleurs Suite, the bedroom part of it. Your humble narrator is in full swing and he describes what’s in the suite and offers a hint of what it’s like to stay at La Belle Esplanade.
Some people say my writing voice is somewhat different from my speaking voice. I’ll let you decide if that’s true. Just read everything on this blog like the fella who’s narrating that video and you’ll get into the swing of things. It’s a cadence and pronunciation thing. Whaddayawant? Shakespeare? You’re not gonna get it here. Instead, what you’ll get is an authentic slice of New Orleans culture down yer gullet and your gonna like it. I know. I live here.
Part I of Les Fleurs video tour starts here.
À votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade
…where every morning begins with a curated breakfast salon.
Thursday, January 19, 2017: It rained today. It wasn’t much by New Orleans standards. If it weren’t cloudy right now, the sun would be shining. The sun always shines in New Orleans.