Souls Rebel in New Orleans.

When I say rebel as a verb, I don’t stay it like “Rebel Yell”, I say it like Ravel’s Bolero.  Souls rebel in New Orleans.

Louisiana was one of the Confederate States of America but New Orleans has always been a cosmopolitan city, more French and Haitian than the rest of the Louisiana Purchase or anywhere else south of the Mason-Dixon Line.  The history of New Orleans is a long slow jazzy and syncopated fugue of improvisations accumulated on every street over decades and decades and decades.  C’est bon.

You don’t have to know what you want in New Orleans.  New Orleans will take care of you.  I always say to not over-plan.  Don’t book a lot of tours before you get here.  Don’t make a lot of restaurant reservations.  You won’t know what is happening until you get here.  If you are dying to go to Preservation Hall, then, yes, buy tickets beforehand—-that way you’ll get a seat. If you really, really, really want to go to dinner at Commander’s Palace on Valentine’s Day, then, yes, make a reservation.  If you are willing to follow your nose and let this wonderful city we call home take care of you, then just show up.

New Orleans will take care of you.  I see it happen every day.  Good memories are made in New Orleans every day.  The best New Orleans memories begin at La Belle Esplanade.  You are on the right website.  We don’t call this, “The Best-Written Blog in New Orleans,” for no reason.  This is it.

SOULS REBEL IN NEW ORLEANS.

Souls rebel in New Orleans.  They rebel everywhere.  We are all human.  Our nature betrays us.  New Orleanians are made of tough stuff.  No catastrophe can keep this good city down.

New Orleans is predominantly a Roman Catholic City (there is a long history there) and New Orleans is, at the same time, a city overflowing with temptations to indulge any of the Seven Deadly Sins.  The Devil goes where he knows the easy marks are.

People yearn to be free in New Orleans.  That is why they come here.  New Orleans is like no where else you have ever been.  The city is like an onion.  It contains layer after layer after layer, and, New Orleans will make you cry for no reason.  In a New Orleans state of mind, even the angles dream of spending 3, 4, 5 nights, a week, on Esplanade Avenue.  Love is where you find it.

Friendliness makes New Orleans go around.

DON’T REBEL AGAINST NEW ORLEANS.

There are no strangers in New Orleans.  Everyone is a friend you haven’t yet met.  Hello.  It is good to see you.

If souls rebel in New Orleans so does common sense.  People who should know better make darned fools of themselves and they drink to much and the think they have to get naked on Bourbon Street.  Don’t be a chump in New Orleans.  Be a champ.  Be yourself.  Don’t pretend your in a bachelorette party.  There are plenty of pass-out drunk destination bridal showers on Bourbon Street.  Be yourself and explore New Orleans the way it is meant to be lived, not visited.  Get outside the typical tourist bubble.

You’re not 20 years old, anymore, are you?  If you’ve read this far, I don’t need to tell you to act like you.  You belong here.

Be close the tourist must-sees, but be far enough away so that it’s quiet enough for a good night’s sleep.  Go out an explore New Orleans during the day, outside the French Quarter, where we live.  Discover what it means to fall in love with the real New Orleans.  You belong here.

A weary heart finds respite in New Orleans.  Relax. Rejuvenate.  Be reborn in a New Orleans state of mind.  When everything comes up crepe myrtle and oleander, the breeze is a perfume of wistful daydreams sure to come true.  I can happen to you.

There really is only one place to stay in New Orleans if you want to find some peace and quiet and if you want to experience, first-hand, what it is like to live here with two friends ready and willing to offer advice.  You belong at La belle Esplanade.

We only have five suites and TripAdvisor has ranked us the #1 place to stay in New Orleans since April 2014 (and #2 in the United States, and, #16 in the whole world).  We tend to fill up early.  Make a reservation as soon as you decide on when you want to visit.  The only way to do it is through our online calendar.

We look forward to meeting you and we look forward to sharing our part of New Orleans with you.  Happy Mardi Gras!

—Your pals at La Belle Esplanade.