Now I know I am supposed to be a regular blogger, how else do I keep my loyal readers and build up my fan base? But how can a girl both live her life and find time to write about? Delayed recap is the best I think I will be able to do while New Orleans is in full tilt festival mode and the Sully Mansion bed and Breakfast is hopping with guests! This last weekend there was five different festivals to chose from, one in Algiers across the river offering up good eats and gospel music, another at City Park celebrating all flora and fauna of the area culminating with Arts in Bloom in which there are sculptures made of flowers and plants, there was the Jammin’ on Julia down in the Warehouse District where art galleries open at night accompanied by is music and cocktails in the street, or the two we decided to go to, the Fete Francaise which was a fund- raiser for Ecole Bilingue de la Nouvelle-Orléans. It celebrated all things French complete with can-can girls berets galore and delicious food. The photo of the French poodle was taken there. Many French restaurants were offering their bests frites and moules as well as crepes, champagne and fantastic cheeses. The music was an eclectic mix, my favorite was Sunpie Barnes doing a full Cajun set in French. We then moved on to the Feret Street Festiuval which was a one day huge block party with three stages of music, food which spanned the usual po’boys to cucumber and dill smoothies. I had some cerviche which was incredible and flavorful as my friend lam kebob. While the music and art were great what was most exciting was the nine block stretch was with new stores and commerce in a neighborhood which was decimated after Katrina. There are corner doughnut shops, art galleries, dog grooming places and interesting bars and a vibrancy I do remember just four years ago. Some say that Ferret Street may blossom into a vibrant corridor like Magazine Street in a few more years. Yes French Quarter Fest is next week and the Jazz and Heritage Festival in two weeks after that, but it is the smaller little jewel festivals which makes this city so special, so much fun and so hard to find the time to write a blog.
Posts Tagged ‘New Orleans’
Festival Saturday in New Orleans
April 4th, 2011 by Nancy Fournier
New Orleans Musicians are Back in Town!
January 31st, 2011 by Nancy Fournier
Almost every Friday morning as our guests gather around the table the conversation turns to everyone’s plan for the day/weekend and of course this being New Orleans, going to hear music is high on everyone’s list. We pull out the newspaper and listings in the Offbeat magazine and begin to plot individualized music adventures. You like Dixieland- well we are probably sending you to Fritzel’s on Bourbon street, populated by European ex-patriot jazz musicians who transport you effortless back to the 1940’s. You want traditional blues in a nightclub setting, either the Royal Sonesta for Irvin Mayfield’s playhouse or the Ritz Carrolton to hear Jeremy Davenport. (There is the added bonus of midnight burlesque at Mayfield’s) Up for a little zydeco? Wish you would have told us the day before because Thursday is Zydeco night at the Rock n Bowl but we are sure to find something else. Love slide guitar? Maybe John Mooney is playing at Chickee Wah Wah, anyway you get the idea. This Friday morning we were absolutely amazed at how many fabulous New Orleans musicians were in town and playing at all the local clubs. We are six weeks out from Mardi Gras, it is cloudy and in the 50’s so we know it is not spring time and the Festival season, maybe all these talented folks from Kermit Ruffin to Anders Osbourne to Eric Lindell to Shamar Allen decided it was time to come home for a little bit. We sent one to hear our new favorite Ben Lablatt and the Happy Devils, another to John Boutee and a third to Big Sam’s Funky Nation, once again top quality a little something for everyone’s tastes. So, if you are fed up with the snow in the east and the blowing wind in the mid-west and the non ending rain on the west coast, come on down, it is hot hot hot and full of music here in New Orleans!
New Orleans’ Ten Best
December 31st, 2010 by Nancy Fournier
It seems every magazine and newspaper article has their selected ten best lists of 2010 today so while I am waiting for the guests to come down for breakfast I decided to compile my own 10 best New Orleans personal experiences in 2010.
1. Fishing for redfish in Barataria Bay – A month after they capped the well in the Gulf ad some spots were open for fishing, we decided to support our local charter boat captains and spent the day out on the water catching redfish. They were plentiful and shimmering in the water and delicious to eat!
2. Listening to roosters’ crow on an early morning in the Marigny- We stayed with friends in the Fauborg Marigny (the neighborhood to the east of the French Quarter) who have a large backyard garden. Sitting with coffee in hand in the diffused morning sun we heard roosters throughout the neighborhood and it brought me back to times in the Dominican Republic. We really are the northern most Caribbean country!
3. Treme at Treme- Going to the Treme Gumbo Festival and seeing Wendall Pierce and Clark Peters from the HBO Treme series there eating gumbo and dancing to Shamar Allen like the rest of us.
4. Beignets at café Du Monde- Yes a touristy thing to do but something every local enjoys every once in a while. Our son and girlfriend were visiting, the sun was shining the café au lait was perfect and the powdered sugar five inches deep, good company and yummy beignets.
5. Marching with the Krewe of Dead Pelicans- when the BP oil spill happened we all felt so angry and helpless and worked out our frustration with a good old New Orleans parade complete with costumes and a brass band.
6. Attending the Burlesque Review- New Orleans hosts a national burlesque competition in the fall. Curious about how burlesque is making a resurgence we went to the final night review showcasing the winners of the competition, while I enjoyed the acts, it was the merchandise in the lobby I really loved, who knew there so many versions of fishnets and pasties existed?
7. Wearing my Saints shirt every Sunday- I never really rooted for a team before and living in New Orleans in 2010 means you are a Saints fan. Everyone dresses on game day and you cannot go anywhere without seeing folks in saints shirts, and that includes nurses working in the hospital, wearing them under their scrubs. I sport my “12” Colston jersey with pride and feel part of something larger than myself on game day.
8. Listening to Kermit Ruffins rehearse with a full orchestra swing band – We made the rounds on my birthday and one stop was at the Mid City Rock and Bowl (dance hall and bowling alley for the uninitiated) and before the show we went in and listened to my favorite trumpeter play and croon songs from the 1940’s, even took a spin on the dance floor!
9. Surrounded by tubas- Tuba Fats was one of New Orleans most famous tuba players and they had a second line for him this year at the jazz and Heritage Festival with all the best tuba players in the city participating. I don’t know how but I ended up in the middle of them as we marched throughout the Fairgrounds, tubas as far as the eye could see and the swell of their music, it was like marching in the midst of musical elephants.
10. Landing a Drew Brees football during the Bacchaus Mardi Gras Parade- Long story, suffice it to say there were crowds, Superbowl champions , Saturday before Mardi Gras and Drew Brees throwing plastic footballs to the crowd. I am my far the smallest and most sober of those around me, but when the smoke cleared, we have a keepsake on our mantle! Here’s hoping for a wonderful 2011 and Two dat to all!
New Orleans Thanksgiving Food
November 16th, 2010 by Nancy Fournier
We are rounding the corner into holiday season, and of course New Orleans has its own way of doing the most traditional of American meals- Thanksgiving dinner. No roast turkey for the true New Orleanian, nope they will be chowing down on Turducken. That’s right a a Turducken “What the heck is a Turducken?” As any good cook will tell you a turducken is a chicken stuffed inside a duck that is then stuffed inside a turkey, all of which have been de-boned. Between each bird is a layer of stuffing, which ranges from the mild and traditional cornbread stuffing to other Cajun fare such as andouille sausage stuffing, oyster stuffing and even shrimp étouffée. The entire trio is then either deep fried, Acadian-style, or slow-cooked by braising, roasting, grilling or barbecuing. According to local lore, the Turducken was born on that fateful day when there wasn’t enough room in the oven for all three birds side by side! No one’s quite sure who got it started. There are records of “nested bird roasts” from Europe in the 19th century, while the noted chef Paul Prudhomme is said to have created the first in America sometime around 1983. We have memories of when we first hosted the extended family for Thanksgiving (and a four day stay at our home- we should have known then that inn keeping was in our blood) we awoke to the radio and Emeril Lagasse’s voice explaining how to debone the birds to allow them to be stuffed inside one another- suddenly our carefully prepared meal featuring a smoked turkey out on the grill sounded so mundane. But there were yams to peel and cranberries to crush,so if memory serves we crept downstairs past our sleeping guests, poured ourselves a good luck shot of bourbon and got to work! Hoping your Thanksgiving time is filled with those you love and a taste of turducken.
November Festivals in New Orleans
November 3rd, 2010 by Nancy Fournier
A Party in the Streets at the Po-Boy Festival
Every one knows that spring is prime time for Festivals in New Orleans where things start with Mardi Gras and culminate with the Jazz and Heritage Festival and a ton of music and food events in between. But the fun little secret is ever since Katrina the Fall has also become chock full of lesser known but great New Orleans festivals. This weekend on the 6th of November, one of our favorite little local festivals, the Mirliton Festival in the Bywater happening with great bands, food and local music. It has a totally local vibe with neighborhood restaurants, local artisans and musicians, in a pretty little park about ten minutes from the French Quarter. Next weekend the New Orleans Po-boy Festival is back and expanded on Oak Street in the Riverbend section of New Orleans. In addition to thirty different purveyors of delicious New Orleans po-boys,(everything from oysters to duck to Vietnamese poorboys, umm umm) there will be three music stages with the likes of Jon Cleary, Rebirth Brass band and appropriately enough Los Poboycitos which is a great fusion of swamp/tecate music. Only in New Orleans, we can’t wait, will you be there?
A Community of Guests
October 17th, 2010 by Nancy Fournier
Every morning around the inn’s dining room table through breakfast conversations our guests create their own temporary community of commonalities and shared interests. Usually there are places visited or occupations shared in common, or there are clusters of anniversary or birthdays being celebrated. We have had mornings with wedding anniversaries ranging from one to forty-six years all around the table. Once we had all eight couples around the table celebrating their anniversary weekend! It’s October in New Orleans so our table has been full most mornings and we watched over the last few day a shared community that be formed that was a first for us, based on parental and spousal concern with medical issues. There is a daughter starting graduate school with mobility issues and another newly transplanted to the city with an abnormal pap smear and a wife needing specialized surgery and a son recovering from a coma. As innkeepers we knew little bits of these personal histories as we checked guests in and asked the purpose of their stay. Yet over the course of three morning meals we listened to the respectful sharing of worries and hopes for our guests’ loved ones and watched strangers become a close impromptu family. We felt humbled to be a part of such personal movements. There are a million reasons why we love being innkeepers, many of them have to do with our enjoyment of hosting and sharing our remarkable city with others, but at the core we run an inn because we like people and remain intrigued and moved by their life experiences. These last few days we witnessed the sharing of the finest of human emotions, hope, perseverance and love all around our table and no desk job can give you that type of satisfaction. We wish health and speedy recoveries to all.
Sully loves the Saints
September 12th, 2010 by Nancy Fournier
Just another week in New Orleans- national press covering
the Saints opening game, guests from Minnesota all decked out in Viking horns
and purple hair at breakfast and gumbo pots fired up for mid week tailgating
all at ten in the morning. We rode our
bikes down to the Superdome to see Champions Square, just outside the dome, a
wide plaza ringed by NOLA restaurants, with these six story high banners of
prolific New Orleans athletes. It was
such a festive atmosphere, everyone in black and gold, fleur de lis press on tattoos
and feathered boas everywhere (except for those pesky Minnesota guys in breast
plates and blond braids! I am soo glad we don’t have to dress up like
Vikings) We have never been football
fans until we moved to New Orleans and suddenly Guy just had to have a white
Saints shirt for the opener (the black one he bought last year would not do)
and we have a huge TWO DAT banner adorning our porch and cannot think of
anything else we should be doing when the Saints are playing. The
city got to shine for a national audience, what a relief to finally have cameras here for
some reason other than a disaster or the anniversary of a disaster, and once
again we showed the country what everyone here already knows, if you want to
have fun and be around a ton of other friendly people who want to have fun,
hear great music eat incredible food and cheer for a national champion, ain’t
no place like New Orleans.
Katrina Remembrance
August 28th, 2010 by Nancy Fournier
We have been inundated all week with pictures of Katrina’s
wrath. To live here and confront so many
graphic reminders covered in the newspaper, documentaries on the television,
oral histories on the radio, portraits of destruction in the art galleries and
dirges in the music clubs, it has been a long week. There are more moist eyes, hollow stomachs,
catches in the throat and searing aches this week than usual. The last few days the air has been full of remembrances
from people deciding to evacuate and the folly of what they took with them
thinking they would gone a week, not the months and sometimes years until they
could return home. Those who stayed have
tales of horror and bravery which still seem unfathomable.
We purchased the Sully Mansion four months after Katrina and
came to inspect the property on my birthday, November 5 2005. The city had been partially re-opened a scant
two weeks before we came. We will never
forget what the city looked like on that ironically sunny weekend. Television coverage never prepares you for
wholesale destruction. Block upon block
of toppled homes, a layer of mud film on every surface and crevice, cars in their
sides, boats upended on sidewalks and the formerly lush city brown and fetid,
no birds, no sounds. From that nuclear
looking weekend to today we were struck by the determination and zealousness of
New Orleanians to reclaim their home.
Back then there were little purple yard signs claiming WE’RE HOME on the
lawns of those who had returned. They
were our new urban flower.
We have lived through a New Orleans with no street signs or
doctors, no streetcars or water pressure, unplanned reunions in grocery stores
of friends unaware the other had returned, the tears in gift shop from women
who had lost everything- the marching bands so reduced in number that first
Mardi Gras, the aching sadness of Jazz Fest 2006 as each musician paid homage
to what was lost, the slippery feeling we would just never get traction to get
things moving again. Still small steps,
some political gains with levee boards and assessors, block by block
rebuilding, mothers less frightful to let their children attend college here, a
growth of farmers markets, young people from across the country flocking here
to make a difference, new leadership, less tolerance for corruption and
apathy. And throughout these five years
have been our guests, first just journalist and those coming to tie up loose
ends and move away, followed by the curious and those who love the city and
wanted to help by spending tourist dollars and for the last two years the new
and returning visitors who fall under the city’s spell.
We have lived in five different American cities and know nowhere
else would have people pulled together so tightly and worked so hard to reclaim
their hometown. Is it all we dream it
could be? Absolutely not, old habits of provincialness,
laziness and graft are still with us.
Is our trajectory right?
Absolutely, with new leadership and pride the city is on an upward
path. Are we recovered? Not yet there much work to do before everyone
can come home to a city they deserve and there is still six weeks left of
hurricane season and the great unknown of the long term impact of the BP spill
to determine. Bu there is nowhere else
in America we would want to be.
So on this fifth anniversary of Katrina please join us in remembering
all those we have lost, thank all of those who have volunteered to help rebuild
our city and vow that this will be the year you come and experience this great
experiment in living and visit 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.
Saturday in New Orleans
June 14th, 2010 by Nancy Fournier
We went to the Louisiana Cajun-Zydeco Festival yesterday to enjoy the Creole tomatoes, eat our local seafood and hear some good dancing music. It was a typical June day in New Orleans, hot and steamy, bougainvillea blooming against a steel blue sky. The festival is held along the river in the French Quarter and is actually three festivals in one, celebrating the Creole tomato, local seafood and Cajun and Zydeco music. The tomatoes are fabulous, rich earthy smooth taste, seafood is still thankfully plentiful and the music is just what a hot sultry day called for. Cajun is a slower waltz-tempo music sung in French with a mournful fiddle accompaniment. Zydeco is kick up your heels dancing music featuring an accordion and washboard.
Just as we walked up to Dwayne Dopsie & the Zydeco Hellraisers the sky opened up to a Louisiana rainstorm pelting the area with thick wet drops. With steam rising from the sidewalks, a few ran for cover but most folks just kept dancing. The band was tearing it up and their washboard player was incredible with energy and a great sense of rhythm, he had long arms and a skinny torso so from the side he looked like a stick figure with a washboard drawn on his front but boy could he play. A few hours of listening, a dance of two between the raindrops, toe tapping under a wrought-iron gallery, a beer or two we hopped back on the streetcar to the Sully Mansion where two couples who were guest of the inn and had formed a friendship at breakfast were sitting in the porch together drinking wine sharing stories of their lives. Just another Saturday in New Orleans
Keeping the New Orleans Music Tradition Alive
NOLA's Loney Planet
We Love a Good Parade
