Another New Orleans New Year...

We rang in 2018 in New Orleans for the second year in a row. Our old friends Scott and Ellen joined us on the trip. It was a weekend of food, music, history and of course a parade. It's nice to know that I have been going to New Orleans since 1983 and I can still find something new each visit so that I am not just going over the same old ground.

Now that I mention the same old ground the French Quarter and surrounding neighborhoods are full of hotels. I always see neat places I think I would like to stay and I have a couple of not too fancy places that are favorites and we stayed in one of them, the Frenchman Hotel. It dates from 1860.

We have stayed at the Frenchman once before. It's just right outside the Quarter in the Marigny neighborhood on Frenchman Street. The Street has become a nightlife hub with bars and bands

going on constantly and next door is the Louisiana Music Factory where you can pick up a cd of anything you hear that you like. The hotel serves good coffee and a nice light breakfast of fruit and bagel that gives you time to think in the morning about where to go for a good heavy meal later.

 

I give them extra points because Scott and Ellen gave a quick call before leaving and discovered that their reservation was lost and the staff took care of it. Down the street overlooking the park at the other end is a recently opened sister hotel, The Royal Frenchman. They fixed our friends up here for half price and saved our trip.



 



 

It's on the National Register for Historic Places.

 

The Frenchman Courtyard. The pool was heated on a previous spring time trip but not this frigid weekend. Our room is the second from the left upstairs. Kind of split level with a bed in a loft and everything else downstairs. Mostly modern but a few nice furniture pieces to give it an old time feel.  

 

Probably not a place for a light sleeper. I saw something that mentioned asking for a quiet room but I don't know which one that would be. There is at least two loud street bars with bands covering blues and classic rock to varying degrees of authenticity nearby. A new thing is the hotel has it's own roof top bar with duo and solo performers. Did not bother us sleeping as this is what I come for. I did sometimes wake up in the wee hours realizing the music had stopped.

 

The parking garage entrance. Looks to be designed for horse and buggy. Don't show up as I did once in an F-150 and expect easy parking. In fact I pulled in my small car this time and one space was left next to a crookedly parked Mercedes. I opted for the lot a block away which was cheaper but you have to keep track of how long you have paid for.  

 

Cathy in the roof top bar. Looks like a cool place to hang and you might have been able to see the fireworks but just too cold for this trip.

 

It was a very good trip and I took lots of photos. A recent computer crash robbed me of the photos of many New Orleans trips but you can come back again and that is just what I plan on doing.