Delicious days
(This was written Friday, June 16, with more to come about New Orleans soon.)The last day and a half have been an indulgence in beauty, an overloading of the senses. We don’t have Internet access at our hotel in the French Quarter, New Orleans, but I need to write a post before this afternoon.
This afternoon we’ll take a tour of the hurricane damage. Right now, we’re holed up in our beautiful hotel on Toulouse Street, post rain shower, getting ready for the tour.
Today we had breakfast at Café du Monde on Decatur Street, at an outside table, listening to a street musician perform. His first hymn on the trumpet finished with a note so strong and steady it pierced the air. That note kept going, without losing its tone, past where my ear expected it to drop away. It was an emergency bell, it was a dirge, it was one long moment where time slowed, waiting for an ending. But that note kept going. Finally, it wavered, shimmered and shook off into silence.
That’s courage. That’s talent. And it got people’s attention.
Yesterday we shopped at the perfume shop Hove, which was a step back into time and also a place where my sense of smell lifted up to the foreground. My nose was in paradise. I could have stayed there all afternoon. Amy, the proprietor, was preparing for a photo shoot for a Better Homes and Garden spread. You can read about the shop in the magazine’s November edition.
We also went to a great knitting and embroidery store, The Quarter Stitch on Chartres Street, where I bought a brightly patterned Noro skein that winds bright colors all into one. It’ll definitely remind me of New Orleans, like a braiding of Mardi Gras beads. We met Michelle there, who lost her house in the hurricane. She wound my skein into a ball for easy afghan making. We hope she comes to visit Oregon someday.
Today was another step back in time at a millinery. Fleur de Paris is on the Rue Royal, near Hove in fact, and it’s a gorgeous hat shop. Women order their hats for the Kentucky Derby there. I circled and circled again, while Joann invited Jonathan to sit down on the couch and take a rest. Each hat is handmade, and they are all different. And exquisite. I fell in love with a gorgeous teal one, with black and teal ribbons and a tickly feather plume. It’s sitting happily in its box in our hotel room. It was the best hat shop I’ve ever been to, and Joann said there aren’t many like it left in existence. This one has been around for 26 years, and the milliner who works in the shop has been there for 23. It was an incredible experience to wander around there. What beauty and elegance.
The whole time here has been fantastic. We’ve been eating good Creole meals, savoring the complex spices we aren’t used to, and, yes, we cruised Bourbon Street last night, but no, we weren’t drunk, it was an after-dinner walk. A few people from a balcony threw us beads (we were fully dressed, thank you very much), and we caught them and waved up at the folks who sent them our way.
The photo is of our café au laits with Café du Monde’s chicory coffee and their famous beignets.
posted by Laura the Writer @ 7:47 AM
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