Place d'Armes Hotel
625 St. Ann Street, New Orleans between Chartres and Royal
We paid $480 before taxes for four nights ($160/Friday; $169/Saturday; $67/Sunday; $84 Monday) for two queen beds and were in Room 506. Warning: car parking charge of $25/day could add up. Better to take a cab ($30+tip) or shuttle from the airport and walk around town.
Pros: Location is close to everything; inexpensive rate; quick check in/out and friendly staff; continental breakfast included.
Cons: No windows in this particular room; others had balconies overlooking quaint courtyard.
The beds were comfortable, linens clean, and a 21" TV with basic cable. There was a closet and iron/ironing board in the room. There was Ethernet access but I don't know if that service was free. There was no safe or mini-bar in the room although ice, cheap drinks and snacks were available in vending machines near the elevator.
The bedroom area was quite large. I have to say that staying in a room with no windows took some getting used to...it was good in the sense that it was quiet and no sunlight allowed us to sleep in; it was bad in that we didn't know the weather outside until we went down for breakfast. Breakfast was croissants, fruit filled danishes, OJ and coffee. Not a large spread but there was plenty.
The bathroom was basic with a single sink, toilet, and shower/tub. There was plenty of clean (medium thick) towels and hot water. Only the basics of shampoo, lotion, and soap were provided.
Location, Location, Location
• Centrally located within French Quarter
• 1 block to Jackson Square
• 1 block to St. Louis Cathedral
• 2 blocks to Cafe du Monde
• 2 blocks to Moonwalk
• 2 blocks to Bourbon St
The desk help and bell captain were always smiling and friendly. We're outgoing folks and always engaged them in some chat as we passed through the lobby.
This plaque hung on the outside of the hotel. It's long so I decided to post it rather than re-type it.
From what I observed, many of the guest had been here before so they have a nice repeat business. If you're looking for an inexpensive, clean place in the middle of the action, this is a great option. I would stay there again.
See my pics of New Orleans here.
Read my thoughts on New Orleans here.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Review: Place d'Armes Hotel In New Orleans
A Hurricane
I'm not really a drinker but there always seems to be a signature drink wherever you travel. The must-have cocktail if you visit the gulf coast is a hurricane. It's fruity, served over ice, and refreshing. From What's Cooking America:
The hurricane was invented during WWII at Pat O'Brien's bar in New Orleans and was named after the shape of a hurricane lamp.Hurricane
1 ounce fresh-squeezed lemon juice
4 ounces dark rum
4 ounces passion fruit syrup
Crushed ice
Orange and/or lime slice
1 Maraschino Cherry
In a cocktail shaker, add lemon juice, rum, passion fruit syrup, and crushed ice; shake vigorously for 1 to 2 minutes and then strain into a tall glass or hurricane glass.
Garnish with an orange and/or lime slices and a maraschino cherry.
More Thoughts On New Orleans
I had a couple of other things to say about New Orleans that I didn't mention a couple of days ago:
• I had an odd experience that made me think about how we are moving into an economic depression. When I was coming back to the hotel from a restaurant carrying a styrofoam container with my leftovers, I had THREE people ask me if they could have them. I'd never heard of such a thing and it made me think about how things might get if our economic problems go into full meltdown.
• I had two people approach me on the moonwalk, look at my Nike sneakers, and told me they could tell me what store, city, and state where I bought them. When the first guy started talking to me, I thought he was going to snatch my camera and use the sneaker ploy to get close and distract me. Then another guy did the same thing. I pretty much ignored them so I don't know what the game was but they must be right if they are so bold. Anybody know about this?
• When I mentioned Harrah's Casino, I didn't really say that it is a full-blown casino like in Vegas so that might be a draw if you are a gambler. Some casinos, like Indian gaming in California, don't have table games (craps, roulette, etc.) but focus on slots and video poker. I'm a craps man myself but I don't have the luxury of money to fritter away at this point in my life so I had to be content to watch.
• I mentioned in the comments of my last post, but want to reiterate it here, that I found no evidence of Hurricane Katrina in the French Quarter. There weren't any crowds, which may be a factor of Katrina or just that October is traditionally slow, and the hotel rates are cheap! You can find downtown hotels for ~$60/night. We paid $550 for 4 nights right in the center of everything.
Read my initial thoughts on New Orleans here.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Photos From New Orleans 10/2008
I'm going to start with the best shot I took. It gets me out of order on how I wanted to tell the story, but what the heck, I'll lead with the good stuff.
From my perspective, the center of the French Quarter is Jackson Square. (If you're a Boozy Suzy, you might consider Bourbon Street the center!) I took this photo from the bank of the Mississippi River. You can see the St. Louis Cathedral in the center, museum buildings on the left and right, the gardens in the center surrounding a large statue of Andrew Jackson, and horse-drawn tour carriages lined up for hire on the bottom on Decatur Street.
From a plaque hanging by the Cathedral entrance:
Here is a better shot of the museum building on the left, called The Cabildo (old city hall) where the finalization of the Louisiana Purchase was signed. The promenade in front is filled with artists and musicians during the day, and with fortune tellers and derelicts at night. It is the starting location of many evening walking tours.CATHEDRAL OF ST. LOUIS
KING OF FRANCE
[A MINOR BASILICA]
In observance of the
American Revolution Bicentennial
1975-1976
This historic Church was restored through the generosity of the people of God of the Archdiocese of New Orleans.
The Most Rev. Philip M. Hannan
Archbishiop
Rededicated April 25, 1976 on the 183rd anniversary of the creation of the Diocese of Louisiana and the Floridas with New Orleans as the See City.
Luis Penalver y Cardenas,
First Bishop 1793-1801
I had Jambalaya Pasta at Cafe Pontabla (Chartres x St. Peter) for dinner one night. The restaurant is kitty corner to the museum building...you can see it in the pic above on the far left.
Cafe Pontalba was in this building along Jackson Square. These buildings reminded me of Quincy Market in Boston.
Here's looking into Jackson Square — named for Andrew Jackson. It was called the Plaza d'Armas centuries ago.
A better shot of the statue. I overheard a tour guide say it is one of the few statues of a mounted horse that is only standing on two legs.
The inscription on the base reads:
Directly across from Jackson Square are steps leading up to the Moonwalk (named for former Mayor Moon Landrieu) along the Mississippi. The first photo in this post was taken from the seating area at the top. Cafe du Monde is hard by the stairs to the left just out of frame."THE UNION MUST AND SHALL BE PRESERVED."
Looking at the Mississippi River upstream, then downstream.
And tighter in at the Moonwalk upstream where the Aquarium and Harrah's Casino are, then downstream.
This is the Steamer
A couple of the large downtown hotels and office buildings.
This is a typical building in the French Quarter that was just up the street from my hotel. (I'm going to do a separate post with a review of the hotel. My review posts get a lot of hits.) It's a good example of what I was trying to explain yesterday. You can see "balconies" which are unsupported on the upper left while the "galleries" are supported with posts down to street level. Again, these are cast iron not wrought iron.
The House of Voodoo is a shop on Bourbon Street full of touristy trinkets. There were rainbow flags flying outside and a gay bar directly across the street.
I had the muffuletta here at Pere Antoine (Royal x St. Ann) for Sunday brunch.
Read my thoughts on New Orleans here.
And that, my friends, is a quick synopsis of my four days in New Orleans!
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Thoughts On New Orleans
I'm back safe, although sound is another question entirely.
I thought that the knot in my stomach would go away once I got on the plane but no such luck. I struggled with it through the entire vacation. I've decided that I need to stop calling them va-cations and start calling them sleep-cations since that's what I do most of the time.
It is a recurring theme in my own health (physical and mental) that I don't sleep well here. I've mentioned it before. My brother reported that mom had him up at all hours of the night while he covered the home front, too.
Despite the tummy ache, I made up my mind to just push through. Sometimes just getting out and about can take my mind off of my worries. My bff from CA had some Vicodin and I found that it relaxed my stomach for an hour or two. That way at least I could eat.
With all of that, I think the trip was an overall success. Sure, it wasn't perfect, but there wasn't a bad part about it except for my nerves. I would definitely recommend going and I would like to go back.
Okay, here are some things I notices about New Orleans:
• Nobody calls it N'Awlins. I think that's for t-shirts. However, it is New OR-lins and not New OrLEENS. (On a similar note, Nevada is not Ne-VAH-da, it's Ne-VADD-a with the first 'a' sounding as in cat.)
• The airport seemed a bit old and decrepit.
• We couldn't have had better weather. When planning the trip, we decided on October since it was historically the month with the least rainfall. It was in the mid-70's, clear skies, no humidity, nice breeze. Absolutely perfect.
• Driving into the French Quarter takes you through Metairie and outer New Orleans. It's a pretty bleak low-industrial kinda place.
• Seeing the Superdome brought back all those images from Hurricane Katrina.
• Cab ride was $30+tip. Glad we didn't rent a car since there was so much to do within walking distance and there was a $25/day parking fee at the hotel.
• Odd, but considering that they are on the waterfront of the Mississippi River, I didn't see one seagull. For cripes sakes, I've seen seagulls around here! I hate seagulls, so I shouldn't complain.
• The Moonwalk is the name of the wide sidewalk and berm along the river. I walked the length every morning and evening.
• On Saturday morning, the Steamer Natchez boat tooted tunes from its whistles, drawing customers to come and take a paddle boat ride on the Mississippi. You could hear the music for blocks. It was a bit corny but I have to say I like corny! I'm still singing "The Good Ship Robert E. Lee" that I performed in a 7th grade version of Showboat.
• Po'Boys. These are special New Orleans sandwiches. Think a 6" sub on a lighter roll. Meat, sauce, shredded lettuce and tomato. I had one with hot roast beef (with dark gravy) and another with grilled chicken that was very good!
• Muffulettas. These are special New Orleans Italian sandwiches. Think Italian cold cuts (salamis etc.) on a soft tasty roll. They usually come with olive salad inside but I was able to order mine without.
• Beignets. Pronounced ben-YAY. These are special "French doughnuts." Ummm, highly overrated in my opinion. They are deep fried, piled high with powdered sugar, but the inside of them is more like Italian bread. One was enough for me.
• Cafe du Monde is the famous place for getting the beignets. It's a bit of a tourist trap...you gotta get them here...blah blah blah. It's like an outdoor coffee shop since they only sell beignets and beverages. There were lines to get seating on the weekend mornings. If you go, don't sit at a table along the sidewalk. While you may think it will give you a good view of all the happenings, you will be subject to beggars, derelicts, people who think they are musicians, etc. looking for a spare dollar.
• They don't bury people in cemeteries. Nothing is underground...I assume because of the high water table. Everyone is put in above-ground crypts/mausoleums. These places are really run down as the weather has just worn away at the brick façades.
• If you want to take a tour, they've got one just for you. Vampires, architecture, gators, cemeteries, walking or horse-drawn or Segues. Each evening, we'd be heading back to the hotel and there would be four vampire tours starting.
• The French Quarter is pretty nice. It captures an old world style housing with more than a few souvenir shops and bars. If you like alcohol, you'll like Bourbon Street in the French Quarter.
• The city is full of artists. Lots of galleries and there were tons of local folks selling their creations around the main square on the weekends.
• There are no fast food restaurants. No McDonalds, BK, or Wendy's. I couldn't find Chinese food, either. I assume these restrictions are done by city code.
• All in all, I found the food to be good, not great, and on the pricey side.
• I made sure to tip everyone big since they are still on tough times.
• Lots of references to VooDoo. I don't know if there's really a secret underground or if it's hype for the tourists. It seems that every local has the ability to tell your fortune and a card table in tow that they can set up in the public square.
• The ornate work on the front of the buildings is cast iron, not wrought iron. And, most are not "balconies" (which do not have supports underneath). Rather, most are "galleries" that are supported by posts that reach down to the sidewalks. I dare say most of them look really rickety and on the verge of collapse!
Tomorrow I will try to post some of my photos. (Update: See my pics of New Orleans here.)
Thursday, August 21, 2008
NOLA: To Boycott Or Not To Boycott
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) is dropping an executive order prohibiting employment discrimination against gay and lesbian state workers that was put in place in 2004 by his Democratic predecessor.
“The reason for allowing the order to lapse is that I don’t think it is necessary to create additional special categories or special rights,” Jindal told The New Orleans Advocate newspaper.
“We are firmly and strongly committed to fair treatment of all of our people and certainly don’t condone discrimination in any form,” Jindal said.
I sent the Governor an email:
I just read that you will not be extending employment protections for LGBT people. If you feel that existing laws already cover us, then what is the harm in extending this executive order?Oh, and FUCK YOU, Bobby Jindal.
My (straight, white, congregant of Saddleback Church) best friend and I just booked a vacation to meet in New Orleans. Our plans were to stay at the Place d'Arms and do some volunteering while we were there.
If you don't care about me, we don't care about you. We are canceling our trip. Every bill that comes up in Congress to help NOLA, I will be on the phone with my local reps urging them to vote NO.
I'm sure every LGBT person in America that has ever sent money for Katrina relief is regretting it. I hope they send their future donations elsewhere. You people have a funny way of showing your appreciation.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Trip To New Orleans Booked
Today I booked my trip to New Orleans in October. Five fantastic days.
Would y'all help me out?
I'll be meeting my bff, a married woman, so I'm not looking for the best bars. I am looking for recommendations for "best po-boy sandwich", "best beignets", "best photo spot", "best hidden treasure", "best gardens", "best Mardi Gras floats tours", etc. I plan on spending quite a bit of time wandering the streets and taking lots of pics. I think we have a cemetery tour on the agenda.
What say you, readers?
