That wry, accepting, it-can-only-happen-here attitude is what gets us through the day in New Orleans, let alone the year. It’s because some things really CAN only happen in New Orleans. It is a city unlike any other.

There isn’t any reason to come to New Orleans if you already know how to celebrate both life’s lows and highs with equal gusto. No matter where we are in life, if we are are in New Orleans, life is good. You wouldn’t know it from a brief visit, but we really are fully rounded and fully grounded people with our own cares and concerns. The difference between someone who lives in New Orleans and one who doesn’t has more to do with geography. Living in New Orleans is a state of mind.

Can you do it where you live? I don’t recommend it. What is normal in New Orleans is eccentric, at best, anywhere else in America. At worst, it’s criminal. New Orleans is nothing like Las Vegas, though both cities know how to keep their secrets. The difference between New Orleans and everywhere else is voodoo. There is nothing evil about it, so much as it is ancient and impossible to root out. New Orleans without voodoo would be… something else.

Don’t think about it. There is plenty of voodoo, white as well as black, to go around, still, in this magical city we call home. When it is time for you to get some New Orleans in your veins, you know where you should stay. You are on the website. La Belle Esplanade is here because you deserve to live in the real New Orleans, if only for a short while. Stay with La Belle Esplanade.