Author name: La Belle Esplanade

Three blocks from our address on Esplanade Avenue, in New Orleans, sits a grove that is home to the Historic St. Ann Shrine, in Tremé.  It was built in the 1920s, a time when the Greater Tremé neighborhood filled in after the swamps were drained. No story in New Orleans is simple.  I will be […]

Everyplace is special, New Orleans is more so.  I see it every day as I welcome people to this wonderful city we call home.  As soon as they step out of the car, they inhale, look around, and smile.  Why not?  Home is where the heart is. Feeding birds in Jackson Square will incur a

I have lived in New Orleans long enough that Sunday found me complaining that a Mardi Gras Indian parade was getting in my way. Who has the gumption to complain about Indians? To be fair, on Saturday, I had gotten held up by the No Kings parade. Both of these parades had me boxed away

Some stories can only happen in New Orleans: Celestine West runs Bywater Taxidermy and Gifts in the front room of her house, one block off St. Claude Avenue, right in the thick of things.  The bell on the door tinkles when we come in.  I’m glad you’re here.  If this story took place anywhere else,

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

Once a year, the New Orleans Museum of Art hosts Art in Bloom, a flower arranging show amid the paintings and sculpture in the galleries.  Mrs. King, who is the better half of this operation, and I went the first hour that the show opened.  The museum was full of garden club ladies, the kind

You’ve got your Irish and you’ve got your Italians, by which I mean Sicilians.  After the Creoles left the French Quarter, the Sicilians moved in.  The people uptown called the Quarter “Little Palermo.”  The Irish lived in the Irish Channel. The best way to move about New Orleans is by muscle memory, leafing through onion

Parades roll. This is what we say in New Orleans. We don’t say they march, we don’t say they pass; we say they roll. That is how New Olreans rolls. This is why we love it so. If you see a city bus this time of year (summer 2025) you will see advertisements on the

Vesparado, why don’t you stay? When the open road calls, the heart answers. Two wheels set one free. I’ve seen a lot of motorcycles in my time, but yesterday took the cake.  Alone Time Gallery is around the corner from my hose. There are exhibits there. I’ve been. I know the owner, ‘natch. She, like

I am at Pontilly Coffee this morning. It is next to the God is Good Carwash on Chef Menteur Highway. It is run by the same people. It is across the street from the New Orleans Baptist Seminary. I am looking at the live oaks on the seminary grounds as I write this. When I