Remember when you were young and your birthday fell on a weekend and you had decided every element of your party down to the type of icing on your cake and all you had to do is get through the days between now and then? That is sort of how the whole town feels the beginning of the week of the first weekend of Jazz Fest. The weekly newspapers are twice their size with advertisements for Fest Dresses , Fest Hats and music club acts. All the hanging baskets adorning porches throughout the city are overflowing with brightly colored annuals and every restaurant is advertising a Fest special (although all the good places pretty much have all their tables reserved by now ). Even the weather is putting on its Fest best with sunny skies slight breeze and no hint of the wrap around humidity which is right around the corner (maybe Sunday??)The Fest puts out their music schedule of the seven days in which the times are blocked out on a grid and these are affectionately called Fest Cubes which visitors and locals alike study closely trying to map out their time on the Fairgrounds in between the incredible food, second line and Mardi Gras Indian parades which wind their way through the paths between the stages. Out in the coffee shops people are studying the cubes like an Ouija Board. As I bolt around town doing the errands all good innkeepers do I can see New Orleans the way the thousand of visitors who are about to descend see it with its Caribbean colors, intoxicating mix of Palm Trees and live oaks, the faint sound of a trumpet in the background the clop clop of a mule drawn carriage in the foreground against this unique light which makes the sides of buildings look as if they are lit from within and even the blighted wooden shotgun with the faded sign offering hot lunches and p’orboys painted on the side looks magical. And this time of year there is a smell of crawfish cooking mingling with the scent of the confederate jasmine blooming in riotous abandon along every fence. I must admit as much as we love our visitors we do not put this joy for the sense just for you, it is our back drop everyday and we cannot wait to share it with you over the next ten days. Let the Festing begin!
Posts Tagged ‘New Orleans Bed and Breakfast’
Count Down to Jazz Fest
April 26th, 2011 by Nancy Fournier
The Jasmine is in Bloom in New Orleans
March 18th, 2011 by Nancy Fournier
It is time to put away the socks and sweaters boys and girls as it is spring in New Orleans and everywhere you walk your olfactory glands are in overload with the scents of jasmine, sweet olive and wisteria. Walking around the Garden District every block brings a different delight, while Gracie goes wild sniffing the sidewalk her trusted walker is following the scent from the vines which wrap around the wrought iron fences and stucco walls. Everything is in bloom from the azaleas to the pansies to the crepe myrtle and the fragrant vines are starting the first of their three blooms from now till August. The sky is robin egg blue and gentle sunshine is everywhere glittering off the Mardi Gras beads dangling from trees left by an exuberant float rider. There is zero humidity and suddenly everyone is out on their porches and sitting in parks, along café tables on Magazine street. There is no better time or place to be than New Orleans in the spring (unless it is New Orleans in the fall!). And did I mention it is the beginning of festival season? Every weekend if it is eating crawfish, watching Tennessee Williams plays, dancing to salsa or listening to Haitian drum circles, or good old N’awlins jazz -there is a festival for that. While most of the country is still looking at that last bit of frozen tundra the March weather has not erased, we are digging out our flip flops all set and ready for fun.
Carnival Season Begins in New Orleans
January 8th, 2011 by Nancy Fournier
For those of you not living in New Orleans , you may not have known that this past Thursday the 6th of January was 12th night and official beginning of the Carnival season which will culminate
with Mardi Gras on March 8th. There king cakes throughout every office, a small parade for Joan of Arc, the mayor held his kickoff breakfast with king cake and gumbo and you see all the purple green and gold bunting for sale. It feels a little early to start decorating seeing as we just took our tree down and revelers from the Sugar Bowl just left town but at the Sully Mansion this year’s Twelfth Night had a special meaning as January 6 2006 was the day we took over operations of the inn.
As it was Twelfth Night and Fifth year anniversary all at once we had to commemorate the day. We got all gussied up and had a fabulous night of dining and dancing at the Ritz Carlton. We ate at the M Bistro and listen to Jeremy Davenport and even took a spin or two on the dance floor. A long five years, when we arrive the Sully as serving as a FEMA hotel and we had displaced New Orleans around our dinign room table and everything they owned in bags in the guest rooms. The traffic lights did niot work along St. Charles Avenue, there was no street car and for most of the city simple things like street signs and water pressure were a longed for hope. We remember both the resilience of the people to try to create some sense of normal when everything was sodden, the Army Corps of Engineers was saying everyone had to elevate their houses four feet and it looked like the corner would never be turned. From them to now has been a long hard road but we have never been prouder to be a part of the re0borth of this amazing city. Yes the challenges of blight and crime are daunting and the continual assaults on the fragile coastline make the later part of hurricane season full of white knuckle moments, but as we often tell our guests- there are many things which make it hard to live here but many more which make it impossible to live anywhere else- here’s to another five years and happy carnival to all.
Christmas Shopping in New Orleans
December 16th, 2010 by Nancy Fournier
Yes Christmas is coming and there is baking and shopping to be done as well as parties to attend. If most of the country is finding their bundles for under the tree on line or at the mall, here is New Orleans we prefer to perform our elf duties at street festivals. After all our guests were settled on their activities for the day, Guy and I spent the entire Saturday going from one street festival to another to get our fill of presents, music and of course food. We started at the Kingpin Christmas Fair which is a small little watering hole
a few blocks from the inn, described in Zagats as one of the greatest dive bars in the city.. Every December they host an art market for the holidays, it is strange to enter a bar (the contrast from a bright sunny day to the dark diffuse light of a dive bar was a novel Christmas shopping experience!) and see handmade masks and pottery on the bar and hand painted purses next to the jukebox. My favorite this year were necklaces made of zippers fashioned as flower petals and rosebuds. A friend of ours was selling her small ceramic dolls which looked like a cross between Mexican Day of the Dead figures and Toulouse Lautrec dancers. Very bohemian and perhaps a bit much for early Saturday afternoon so we headed to Ferret street for their annual Ferrestivus a fusion of art market, libations and music. So many wonderful crafts to choose from, I particularly loved the antique leather fingerless gloves refashioned through a batik tea stain and small rosettes at the wrist made from the fingers. There were beautiful ceramics and soaps and heavenly jewelry. Strolling through the aisles to the sounds of the Free Agent Brass band, munching on a tasty cochon du lait po-boy and sipping fresh spiced tea. There is a friendly neighborhood vibe there and everything to hand rolled tamales to Christmas wreaths done up in black and gold in honor of the Saints. 
We then headed down to the Treme Gumbo Festival which is put on by the Jazz and Heritage Foundation. Again more Christmas present possibilities (we picked up a 2008 Jazz Festival tote bag for $5, what a bargain) and admired the blown glass pelicans. The highlight of the festival is the multiple samplings of gumbo available and the music. We arrived in time to hear Shamar Allen and Kermit Ruffins play. Fabulous music and food all for free. While catching up with friends and the gumbo and music was great the highlight was seeing Wendell Pierce and Clark Peters both featured actors on the HBO series Treme. How perfect to see the cast of Treme in Treme! That was all we wanted for Christmas. Beats a day at the mall anyday!
Romantic New Orleans
October 23rd, 2010 by Nancy Fournier
New Orleans is o
ne of the more romantic cities in the world; the way the light falls on the intricate architecture, the canopy of century old trees, the smell of jasmine and sweet olive in the air. It is a town of sensual experiences from the food to sound of a distant tuba and the irresistible urge to tap your feet coupled with a host of visual delights around every corner. We host so many couples newly in love, steadfastly after all those years in love and everything in between. We have had six proposals for marriage (all accepted) take place at the Sully Mansion and have hosted a number of weddings. One this beautiful Saturday afternoon with blue skies and gentle wind off the Mississippi we are waiting for a bride to be and her mother to look at the inn for possible hosting of their late summer wedding. This morning around our breakfast table a young women who has stayed with us four years ago when she moved down to New Orleans to work for Teach For America sat with her fiancé (who she met here) her parents and his parents. The parents have met for the first time this weekend and as they spend the weekend tasting wedding cakes, sampling menus and music for the big day they bask in the reflected glow of this young couple starting a new branch of their now joined family tree. One can’t help but feel that love is grand and romance is alive in New Orleans
New (not York but) Orleans
June 19th, 2010 by Nancy Fournier
Just got back from a little trip up North. It is early summer there so things look bright green and lush. It is always nice to experience the hills and forested roads in the New York, Connecticut area, such different landscape than the one we find outside our windows. The Hudson River has such a different look than the Mississippi, the Palisades on one side and towering skyscrapers on the other as you glide into Manhattan. NYC in the early summer months, before the bus fumes and tar have been exposed to extended heat feels all full of promise with summer dresses and a more casual feel. It reminds me of seeing your office mate, usually in a shirt and tie in shorts and sneakers for the first time The store windows are full with beach ware, and while couples fill all open spaces dining al fresco, the undercurrent is things are happening somewhere else, the beach, the mountains, by the little lake – outside the city where everyone wants to be. I cannot imagine a more different vibe than what you get on the streets of New Orleans. Here the obsession with the hand held devices is still manageable so people make eye contact when they walk pass each other on the street and even though it is hot and sticky, we may want a pool in our immediate future, or perhaps a cold beer or just and air conditioned venue you don’t have the sense that everyone is biding their time until they can get somewhere more conducive to the season. We sweat, we dance, we eat, we sweat some more but we are here and contentedly so.
Hope Springs Eternal
May 25th, 2010 by Nancy Fournier
We have some many things to potentially worry about here in Louisiana. The oil continues its path unabated and hurricane season will soon arrive. Still -in an act of optimism as predictable as the seasons, Sully Mansion hosted its first wedding this last weekend. Our bride and groom was a lovely young couple, both artists who were drawn to the beauty and graciousness of the inn and its grounds. It made for a lovely setting for ninety guests. They took their vows on our front steps witnessed by friends and family from across the country. We had lanterns strung across the hundred year old oak tree in our front yard and twinkle lights across the side fence transforming the garden into a wonderland. Of course, it being New Orleans, there were delicious things to eat and drink including gumbo and a specially made run punch for the guests. The evening ended with a brass band and much laughter. Our neighbors told us the next day they loved the band and were dancing on their porches while the wedding guests danced the night away on the porch and on that magical night, the world was full of promise and hope.
Dancing for a Cause
May 17th, 2010 by Nancy Fournier
It is ten days since our last post and we still don’t know the impact of the oil spill in the Gulf. All of us in New Orleans are following the news closely and there is a sense of waiting , as the currents move the slick first closer than further from our coast lines, and while we wait, some local corporations decided to throw a party to raise money for the shrimpers, oystermen and fishermen of Louisiana whose lives have been put on hold. There was a review 
of the music of the Treme series in the New York Times this weekend which put it better than we can “…more than any particulars of charters or plot, it is the stubborn persistence of New Orleans music- as communal ritual, as cultural currency that forms the backbone (they were talking about the television show but it is easily applicable to any facet of the city). So after cleaning the inn we went down and among enormous Mardi Gras floats, with the Mississippi River flowing by, amazing seafood specialties offered from our best restaurants we listened and danced to Big Sam’s Funky Nations, Soul Rebels, John Legend, Zachary Richard, Lenny Kravitz, John Legend, Ani DiFranco, Allen Toussaint and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, , and the Voice of the Wetlands as afternoon slipped into the evening- all played soulfully tunefully and beautifully. It was one of those special New Orleans moments where we really felt like a special community, bringing our best gifts of food music and compassion to respond to a crisis. Wish you were here to share it.
Keeping the New Orleans Music Tradition Alive
NOLA's Loney Planet
We Love a Good Parade
