Longwood Gardens Childrens Christmas Tree Display 2008 . White Owl Ornament

The Christmas ornaments created by local school students are absolutely priceless examples of the marvelous minds of of children. This particular ornament shows a spotted white owl sitting in front of a sugar cookie moon on a real branch.

To learn more about the Christmas Tree Display visit Longwood’s Website Here.

Pumpkins, Fall Colors Photo and Halloween

On Thursday, October 6th, a friend and I stopped by Trauger’s Farm Market in Kintnersville, Pennsylvania. What confronted us was a sea of orange pumpkins and hubbard squash, and other assorted strange fall plant creatures.

Fall Colors of Bucks County Pennsylvania: Click on photo to see more fall photos from Kintnersville PA

One Great Assortment, Gourds at a Bucks County Pennsylvania Farm: Click on photo to see more fall photos

Happy Pumpkin For Halloween, Click on photo to see more fall Bucks County photos

Funky Pumpkins, Or Are Those Gourds? Bucks County Farm Market, Click on Photo to go to our Fall Flickr Collection

Trauger’s Farm Market is located near the Delaware River in the charming little community of Kintnersville, Pennsylvania which is 15 minutes north of Frenchtown NJ, and about 30 minutes from Lambertville, New Hope and Doylestown. They do not have a website, but you can contact them with the following information:

Trauger’s Farm Market
Route 611
Kintnersville, PA 18930
Contact Person: Laura Kressman
Phone: (610) 847-5702
Email: lkressman@hotmail.com

Trauger’s Farm Market in Upper Bucks County Pennsylvania: Click on Photo to see more photos from this collection

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Fall and Halloween Pumpkin Patches in Bucks County PA

There’s an abundance of local farms where you can go out in the field and pick your own pumpkin or simply choose from ones already harvested like the ones shown above at Traugers Farm in Riegelsville in northern Bucks County. The pumpkins, gourds and corn stalks grown on these local farms are perfect for Halloween and fall decorating. Some of these farms also are featuring hayrides, corn mazes and haunted houses or barns. Call for hours and more details.

Here is our list of these farms in Bucks County, Pennsylvania updated for 2008.

Photo: by John Stringfellow of Frenchtowner.com

Active Acres Farm
881 Highland Road
Newtown, PA
Phone: 215-860-6855

Charlann Farm
586 Stony Hill Road
Yardley, PA
Phone: 215-493-1831

Hellerick’s Farm
5500 Easton Road,
Plumstead Township, PA
Phone: 215-766-8388

None Such Farms
Route 263 (4493 York Road)
Buckingham, PA
Phone: 215-794-7742

Penn Vermont Fruit Farm (no website)
Route 113 and Rolling Hills Road
Bedminster, PA
215-795-2475

Shady Brook Farm
931 Stony Hill Road
Yardley, PA
Phone: 215-968-1670

Solly’s Farm Market
707 Almshouse Road
Ivyland, PA
Phone: 215-357-2850

Styer Orchards
97 Styer’s Lane
Langhorne, PA
Phone: 215-702-9633

Peter Taylor Farmstead
229 Wrights Road
Newtown, PA
215-860-2253

Thorpe Farm
371 Stoney Brook Road
Newtown, PA
Phone: 215-493-4900

Trauger’s Farm Market
Route 611
Kintnersville, PA
Phone: 610-847-5702

Winding Brook Farm
3014 Bristol Road
Warrington, PA
215-343-8880

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Best of Savannah Georgia . Cover Photo

This feature was originally posted on March 3, 2007 at 1:42 am

Frenchtowner.com and The Hunterdon Bucks Blog aren’t just about Frenchtown, Hunterdon or Bucks County anymore. We do have to go on vacation sometimes, and for the past two years, we have spent the first week of January in a much warmer place than NJ. That place is Savannah Georgia. It is a place that we have fallen in love with.

In order to tell others about this great city of the South, we are introducing a new feature to the site, The Best of Savannah. As we do for places that we love close to home, we will be adding lodging and dining guides as well as a virtual tour or photo album of the places that caught our eyes and captured our spirits.

This new travel feature on the site is just the beginning of great new things on Frenchtowner. We will be introducing other new travel features soon on Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton NJ (near Trenton), a virtual tour of historic Bucks County Bridges, and a new expanded feature on our trip to New Orleans.

To our readers who have complained about the new broader focus of our site, and how we don’t care about Frenchtown or that we are somehow ashamed of New Jersey, you could not be more wrong. We simply feel that our little hometown and our wonderful state of New Jersey will do better when they are seen as part of a much broader area with their own particular beauty.

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Technorati Tags: savannah, savannah ga, savannah georgia, travel, vacation
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Savannah Georgia Windows

Frederic Leon . Four Seasons Philadelphia Museum of Art

February, 22, 2005: Philadelphia Museum of Art

While my friend and I were waiting to see the Dali exhibition, we stumbled across an artist that neither one of us had ever heard of before, Belgian Symbolist, Leon Frederic.

The first image featured here is from Frederic’s “Four Seasons: Fall”. The series portrays the four seasons symbolically with four child angels of Spiring, Summer, Fall and Winter.

Frederic’s incredible workmanship and lyrical visualization has made him a new favorite of ours.

In all of my years of art history somehow this genius was never mentioned. Perhaps it is the new focus on realism and a reexamination of movements outside of modernism that has brought Frederic to the surface after years of obscurity. It is great to see realism and abstraction and fantasy all getting their own fair recognition.

The second image is from the same series and features Summer. We have not shown the other images from this series because we want you to go and visit them in person at the museum.

Frederic Leon . 4 Seasons Figure . Summer . Philadelphia Museum of Art

You can visit the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Website Here.

You can learn more about the artist on Whitford Fine Art’s Biography Page on Leon Frederic.

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Seasons Philadelphia

February 22, 2005

Architectural Frieze of Zeus @ The Philadelphia Museum of Art

One of my favorite things about visiting Philadelphia is visiting Zeus. I come back over and over again to stare up at him and admire his beauty. Zeus is the central figure on the pediement of the Northern frieze of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The sculptures were done by C. Paul Jennewein and awarded the Medal of Honor of the Architectural League.

The photo above shows Zeus at the center along with other Greek Gods and Goddesses. The photo below shows the same figures from a distance.

You can read more about Jennewein on this page from the State of New York’s Local Legacies Page: C. Paul Jennewein

Technorati Tags: Zeus, Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Architecture,

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This Story was originally posted on February 6, 2005.

Day One: Wendy’s - Atlanta Airport and Marigny Brasserie - New Orleans Louisiana

When we arrived in New Orleans, we had not gotten any sleep the night before, and had only eaten an incredibly tasteless and cardboard like breakfast sandwich at the airport in Atlanta from Wendy’s. How they managed to put those ingredients together to be so utterly devoid of any taste - good or bad - has to be something that they have worked at for years. We were famished and took to the streets for a good meal. At this point, we had not read our Frommer’s Guide for restaurant recommendations so we headed out to pick the best place ourselves just based on visual presentation and curb appeal and the menu posted on the windows or outside.

Starting out on Frenchmen Street, we walked half a block and bumped into a place called the Marigny Brasserie. Being the first place we saw, even though were impressed by the look of the place, we decided to keep walking and see what else struck our fancy. On our way, we kept being pulled into antique stores and art galleries that we could not resist, but famished as we were, we pressed on in our quest for good food. Every restaurant and bar that we passed seemed to get dirtier and smellier. It does not give one any confidence in the kitchen of these places when it seems that the windows haven’t been washed in years. With increasing hunger, desperation, and frustration we decided to go back to the Marigny that was the only eating establishment on the edge of the French Quarter that looked like it might hold the slightest bit of promise.

Walking in, we were struck by the elegant modern stark and cool feel of the place. Seating ourselves we noticed a concoction on the gigantic chalkboard bar drink menu called The Cucumber Cosmo. It would have to be great or incredibly unthinkably undrinkable.

Our bartender was busy serving a group of Good Ole Boys in the lounge behind us but managed to serve us with style, speed and professional mixology. Sharon Brown brought us our Cucumber Cosmopolitans that were incredibly subtle, and a little less sweet than your normal Cosmopolitan. A great discovery that we now make at home, with a little more cucumber than the Marigny used.

When Sharon went back over to help the boys, they asked her to turn on the game. (I forgot to mention, we arrived in New Orleans on the day of the Sugar Bowl with Auburn and Virginia Tech) As Sharon was trying to find the game, one of the men made a statement that made all of us turn our heads. In his best Southern Gentleman tone, he said “Honey let me do that for you”. This immediately started a whispered conversation between my partner and I about the South and attitudes that good ole boys take towards women and blacks (of which Sharon was both proudly woman and black). Sharon caught my statement about Southern stereotypes and how some men in the south think that a woman needs help with everything and the man should do it for her, and it made her take a second look at us. This started an incredible conversation between the three of us about New Orleans and it’s racial makeup and problems, money and the south, southern gentlemen and other regions of the country and the world (New Jersey, Chicago and Japan) where attitudes are more progressive.

While we were continuing this philosophical, sociological discussion, Sharon brought us the Dinner Menu. What we saw on the menu intrigued us and made us even more famished than we already were. The current offerings by Chef Richard “Bingo” Starr can best be described as Nouvelle Cuisine with a Lowcountry - New Orleans Twist. {not so fussy and not so skimpy as high-end snooty Nouvelle Cuisine can be}

The creativity shown on the menu was executed beautifully in the presentation of every dish and in the taste. My Pork Shank nestled in a bed of southern greens surrounded by a lively Cajun Baked Beans was out of this world, with an incredibly tender and not to sweet pork shank. The overall combination was masterful and unique.

My partner, Val ordered the Soft Shell Crab Entree similar results to mine. I grew up hating fish and shellfish, and it is only in the past decade that I will not run from the room when someone is serving seafood. The presentation made me have to try Val’s entree which was superb. It was the absolute best presentation that I have ever seen of Soft Shell Crab.

Our entire experience that night let us know that we would be back here to dine on another night, as there were other items on the menu that we were dying to try.

We thanked Sharon for our meal and promised to be back. Marigny Brasserie gets our vote for The Best Restaurant in New Orleans, and as you will read below, it had some stiff, well known and respected competition.

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Day Two: Bayona New Orleans LA

The next morning started with reading our Frommer’s Guide to New Orleans and one of the local restaurant feature magazines. From what I read in Frommer’s, and the sound of the menus from the local mag, I had two distinct recommendations to my partner when he woke up that morning: Bayona and Dominiques. Bayona won out based on the Frommer’s guide review. One statement somehow made it our choice: “…lamb dish, topped with goat cheese that may have been the best lamb we’ve ever tasted.” As I review that statement now I see that this “best of” statement has a weak qualifier: MAY HAVE BEEN.

We spent the day walking the streets of the Garden District and working up an appetite and returned back to the quarter to get ready for our much anticipated dinner. We arrived and approached the hostess station, and were greeted by a young woman sitting behind the hostess counter with the snottiest attitude that we have ever encountered upon entering a restaurant. Her blond assistant that took us to the porch waiting area was incredibly gracious, but this only partially made up for the initial slap in the face. We ordered our cocktails while waiting for our table in the back garden.

We know that this is fine dining and I keep thinking that somehow she did not like the way that we were dressed, which was dress casual. Most of the customers that night were dressed more formally than we were, but the restaurant reviews and the local magazine ad and article mentioned nothing about a dress code. This was not a good way to start a dinner that we were looking forward to.

The problems just continued at Bayona. Once seated Val realized that his main view was of the kitchen window, with a service area behind him that was constantly abuzz with clanging dishes and waitresses rushing in and out of the kitchen. Being a chef, this was far too close to the fire for him and he could not stop staring into the kitchen which is a place he spends most of his life.

When our waitress arrived we immediately connected and started talking about the incredible temperature that night and she handed us our menus. The first impression of the menu was chaos. It presented not one menu, but two. We did not know what we were supposed to look at. We knew the problem instantly when another waitress approached the table next to us and immediately explained the menu which was divided into the regular menu and the specials menu. Our server had not explained this, and the menu for some strange reason did not make this clear either. What? Is there something déclassé about printing “Menu” and “Specials”/”Spécial du Jour” at the top of the menu? After muddling through and somehow not being impressed with what the offerings were, we placed our order for food and wine.

When I arrived back from taking a smoke break, our wine had arrived. Another problem, and it goes back once again to the Frommer’s Guide. We also made our choice for the evening based on Frommer’s assertion that the wine list was extensive and the staff extremely helpful in suggesting a good wine. Our correction here, the selection of wines was extensive, but the wine menu organization was again chaotic, just like the food menu. Our overall conception of the wine list was that it was More Expensive than Extensive. We ordered an inexpensive white, which I cannot tell you the name of which was young, bitey, and totally unremarkable and unrefined. A good Yellow Tail Reserve would have been twice as good as this one, and our price tag for it was well over $30.00. Our problem with this, is that we had already been shocked at how inexpensive wine and cocktails were in Louisiana as compared with New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

For appetizers, I had the Garlic Soup which was one of the best dishes put in front of me in New Orleans. For our entrees, Val had “The Best Lamb Ever”, and I had the Niman Ranch Pork Chops with Cheddar Cheese Spoonbread and Greens. Val’s highly recommended lamb was probably the worst disappointment of the evening, and the biggest dining failure of our stay in the Big NO. When someone tells you to expect possibly the best lamb ever, you do not expect a tough and gristled piece of lamb. How will the best lamb you may have ever had start with a lackluster cut of lamb — Not Possible. My entree overall was masterfully designed with an incredible mix of delightful tastes that contrasted and complimented each other so much so that you wanted a small bite of each one on your fork to experience them all together. The execution was not the best as the Double Cut Chops were overcooked and slightly but not horribly dry.

Our deserts were both good, but by the time they arrived, they could not overcome this night’s and Bayona’s failure to please. All things considered: the atmosphere in the fabulous back courtyard, our moods, the tropical temperatures and the expectation of wonderful things, should have made for one incredible dining experience. None of these things matter when the restaurant fails in so many ways as Bayona did during the first week of January, 2005.

Please let it be known also, that we thought Chef Susan Spicer was incredibly talented in designing the food and pairing different disparate tastes together. Much of our bad dining experience could be laid at the feet of the staff that did not make us feel special in any way. For this reason we award Chef Susan Spicer and Bayona: New Orlean’s Best Gastronomic Conceptualizations.

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Day Three: Johnny’s Po-Boys, La Madeleine, and Feelings Cafe

After Bayona we felt like we should look for some smaller places with simple food and lower prices. We got a local recommendation for both of the places that we went to the next day. First off, Johnny’s Po-Boys is located across the street from one of Emeril’s famous restaurants, Nola on St. Louis Street. What drew us there was the constant traffic in and out the door and the homey atmosphere of it all. Once in the door, we were astounded at the variety of the menu and the outrageously low prices for entire meals. The kitchen which was more of a narrow hallway, was jammed with more staff than I think I saw at any restaurant in New Orleans, along with the owner. As we sat waiting for our food a local resident assured us that the food was very good and that he ate here every day. For less than $10.00, we both ate well and were on our way to see more of this incredible city.

Johnny’s Po-Boys ties for first in our award for The Best Quick Lunch in New Orleans

La Madeleine, Jackson Square, New Orleans, Louisiana

Late in the afternoon we wanted a coffee and a pastry and stopped in at La Madeleine. On the afternoon that we were there, the staff was abundant and far too occupied with talking with each other to really bother with helping us. Our coffees were good, and the pastries were boring, tough and badly prepared. The place looks charming sitting there on the corner on Jackson Square, and the view that looks oh so much like Paris is breathtaking, but don’t waste your money on this place, there are far too many good places in New Orleans with great views.

Feelings Cafe D’Aunoy, New Orleans LA

Following in this same spirit which had rewarded us at lunch, we decided to go to Feelings Cafe D’Aunoy for dinner. Once again because of the warm weather we chose to dine on the patio. I cannot tell you what we had that night. Feelings Cafe was unremarkable except for the host that was very interested in selling us his ties and in us seeing his paintings in the Dining Room. OK, I guess it wasn’t totally unremarkable, I did have a remark about our gregarious host, that’s it.

Feelings gets our award for Best New Orleans Restaurant Host or Hostess

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Day Four: Café Beignet and Gene’s Po-Boys

Café Beignet, New Orleans LA

Our last day dining in New Orleans did not start well. Before we left, we had been told to go to Cafe Beignet for breakfast. Reading the menu outside describing the Andouille Hash Browns: with Cajun Andouille sausage, potatoes, bell pepper & onion
served with scrambled egg & french bread, our appetites were heightened in anticipation of this marvelous sounding dish. What sounded wonderful and should have been with those ingredients was a pale grey dish (symbolically in terms of taste, not color) with little more flavor than the Wendy’s breakfast sandwich we had in Atlanta.

The staff were marvelous and cheery and the service was exceptionally fast. The light streaming in the front windows was marvelous and should have made for a great atmosphere for a great breakfast. The food was absolutely forgettable.

Café Beignet gets our award for Best New Orleans Bright and Sunny Room for Breakfast

Gene’s Po-Boys, New Orleans LA

Gene’s Po-Boys is one of the first place in New Orleans that shocked us when we came in from the airport. This gigantic building is painted the brightest and most offensive pink you have ever seen. It looks like a humongous pink monster. As we turned the corner Val noticed that is was next to another pink building that proudly boasted Walk In Divorces (or do they mean “Walk In And Take Out Divorces”?). Sharon our bartender at the Marigny had recommended Gene’s as having the best Po-Boy in New Orleans, which I did not believe because no good place could possibly be in a building that was probably the ugliest piece of architecture that I had ever seen (wait—when a building is that bad, maybe it doesn’t qualify as architecture anymore?)

Walking in the door one is not impressed either. Don’t dare go to Gene’s for atmosphere honey, cause it aint there!!!

Looking at the menu, our fears of another bad meal were creeping up again. Regardless of our trepidations we ordered and had one of the Best Gastronomic Experiences of our entire New Orleans visit!!! As I sat eating my Po-Boy with incredibly wonderful French Bread and a hot and lively sausage, I noticed that the customers at Gene’s were from every walk of life, from black women with their babies out to get some groceries and go back home that had stopped in for a quick and inexpensive meal, to corporate business executives on their lunch break. As we sat there delighted by this incredibly good and inexpensive meal, I pointed out to Val that we could have had breakfast at Gene’s for 99 cents and avoided the overprocessed and soulless breakfast we had paid dearly for at a tony French Quarter Cafe.

Gene’s Po-boys is one of those places that makes New Orleans what it is. An oxymoron and an enigma. It feels like you’re in a novel while you sit there and observe the characters acting their parts around you.

Gene’s is open 24 hours a day, but we don’t recommend going there too late or too early. You can read more about another visitor’s experience on the:

Looka! Blog’s Gumbo Pages (Looka, said with a New Orleans accent that is)

Gene’s Po-Boys gets our award for Best New Orleans Po-Boy. *** Note *** This page references another review of Gene’s. I don’t think Gene’s will ever have a website.

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Conclusion

Our stay in New Orleans was an incredible success overall. In terms of dining, it was spotty. Our Bayona experience made us timid, and kept us away from the better known, Star restaurants. This was our fault. I guess this gives us an excuse to return for another Taste of New Orleans.

New Orleans Garden District Home

This story was originally posted on the Frenchtown NJ Blog/Jaunt Blog on February 6, 2005.

A Journey from Frenchtown NJ to Newark NJ to New Orleans LA, to Dothan AL, to Panama City FL, to St. Augustine FL and back to Newark and Frenchtown NJ

There is something true about the old saying: “You can never go home again”. Anytime that I consider a trip back to LA, “Lower Alabama”, where I was born, my heart fills with dread, as I am reminded of all of the things that I experienced in the south growing up too poor and too smart and too white that made we want to leave it. The photoblog documentary that follows documents my trip back home, or Down Home as it is referred to in Northern Alabama and Central Georgia. My trip starts in New Orleans, that is a city that keeps calling me back again and again in my life somehow.

New Orleans, Louisiana

My photoblog of New Orleans starts out with architecture, which turned into my focus for the entire time I was there. The photo above shows a hidden courtyard that was tucked away in the back of a contemporary art gallery selling shaped mural fragment paintings by a contemporary artist.

Yes, I photographed the sidewalk! I have always loved the abstract visual power of cracks, surfaces and textures that sidewalks offer to the eye. Actually as much as we walked over these streets and sidewalks of New Orleans on our 4 day trip there, this photograph captures I think, the only level sidewalk spot in the entire city of New Orleans, which has I can safely say, the worst system of broken and neglected sidewalks in the nation. Maybe that’s the reason everyone walks in the street.

Another project during my trip was documenting the abundance and variety of fleur de lis images in New Orleans. My hometown of Frenchtown NJ also uses the symbol as New Orleans does. This photograph shows a fleur de lis made up of palm leaves. This graphic logo was by far, the most elegant fleur de lis icon that we found during the trip. This little sign was done for the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau and appears in store windows all over town.

Facade in the French Quarter

One of the best things about New Orleans is that it is so “en deshabille” (French for partially dressed). The photo above illustrates this beautifully. In the spirit of a town something is lost when everything gets restored or over-restored. New Orleans is a city that lets you see her age. She comes out for the day with scraggly hair, no make up, and shabbily, partially dressed. That is her beauty. New Orleans is not a Disney resort that is always putting on a show. It is raw, it is dirty, It Is Real.

[photography note: The large version of this photo does not have the vibration distortion that this smaller version does. I had to present these photos in a smaller format, or this page would have taken hours to download.]

Now, away from the French Quarter, we took a walk downtown to the Aquarium and Convention Center and found an incredible public square down by the river. The entire surface was covered with these bricks that each were donated by a New Orleans resident to complete the space. It is an incredible concept for funding expensive public works projects.

Garden Courtyard New Orleans

This is not a good photograph, but I include it because it documents another of New Orleans charms, hidden private courtyards and gardens.

The Colors of New Orleans

This title could easily be an entire coffee table book about New Orleans, and probably already is. As you walk the streets of New Orleans, (and it is one of the best walking cities in the world), you are constantly encountering new colors. If anyone is considering a study of architecture and color, New Orleans should be your first stop. The combinations of colors are as numerous as the number of streets in New Orleans with French names.

The Flags of New Orleans

American, French, and others (maybe the flag of the city itself)

Hotel Monteleone and Garden District Sacred Sculpture

I present these two photographs together because of the strange way they blend with each other visually and the discordant contrast they present in terms of subject matter representing the grand buildings of men and the grand religious concepts of men, and the worlds of commerce and religion. The Monteleone’s awning seems to be sheltering the Virgin Mary and Christ Child sculpture.

This imposing facade is from our favorite large hotel in New Orleans. Looking at the structure, you feel like you are in Paris. The hotel is the oldest hotel in New Orleans, and has been a family owned and operated business since 1886. It is also the home of the famous Carousel Bar, which is a must see in New Orleans regardless of whether you’re a drink martinis or not.

The sacred sculpture is in the Garden District.

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The architecture of New Orleans is another reason to visit there. When I was telling everyone before we left on our vacation that we were going to New Orleans, they all thought that I was going there to “engage in debauchery”. This is a common misconception about New Orleans: New Orleans=Debauchery. It is true, if that is what you choose to get out of this incredible place, well then, have a good time! There is probably not a better Party City in the entire United States, but that is not even 10% of this city’s heart. For me, New Orleans is Art. For me, New Orleans is like walking into a painting, a Fellini movie, or an avant-Garde Theater piece. New Orleans is an Experience unlike any other. For me: New Orleans=Art (It is a masterpiece itself, but you don’t sit back and observe it passively, it pulls you into it, surrounds you, and you become not yourself, but part of the art itself — I do not mean simply that New Orleans has artists, art and art galleries in it. New Orleans is art itself)

This home is behind wrought iron gates that only make it more irresistible and attractive. Once again, we see the beauty of refined gentle restoration and maintenance with the allowance and preservation of “dirty paint”, a bloom of algae and mildew that gives this coral, light terra cotta stucco such a fabulous patina.

Bird of Paradise, Front Yard Garden in the Garden District, New Orleans

Southern Mansion, Garden District, New Orleans Louisiana

If scale is everything, well then this one has a problem: where is the rest of the Temple that goes with those columns? Don’t you just love electrical, phone lines in photography? I know I can edit these things out, but then I would never finish this story and photo-documentary.

The Wrought Iron of New Orleans

Another charming entranceway in the Garden District

Ann Rice, The Garden District, and the “Great Society of the South”

Reading our Frommer’s Walking Tour Book, we discovered this was the home of the Vampire Gothic writer, Ann Rice. The place was abuzz the day we were there, with Real Estate “For Sale: Sold” signs, and workmen who apparently were hard at work readying the home for it’s new owner.

From local sources we learned that the Grand Society Ladies of the Garden District have never been too kind to Ann, and they have been fighting for years so much so that the rumor was that The Beloved Ann Rice was leaving the Garden District altogether to live in an unhaunted home in the suburbs. Read the story on “Right Thinking Girl” Blog.

Lord knows I understand the heart of this issue. My comment about being too poor, too smart and too white in the south growing up is in reference to my own experience with the culture of the American South. There is a lot that is bad about race relations in the South, but what has not been written about nearly as much as it should, is the pervasive, demeaning and strict class structure of the South that is based on money and heritage. As a young far too creative and sensitive young child growing up in South Alabama, I was seen as Poor White Trash because we lived in the “Project Houses”, built by the Federal Government to allow families like my own to have decent, safe and respectable homes. My classmates mothers would not let my friends come over to our house late in the afternoon because our innocent little poor neighborhood with absolutely no crime statistics was renowned in their heads for being dangerous after sundown, with “strange things happening all night long”. Besides this incident of concrete prejudice, there was always the feeling that we did not fit in and did not belong because we had no money. We were not good enough to associate with these stalwarts of Middle Class examples of Grand Society Southern Good Ole Boy and Junior League Woman Aristocracy. What made it worse, was that I and all of my sisters and brothers were blessed by both of our parents with incredible drive and smarts that poor people are not supposed to have. This made us peers with our richer school classmates and superiors often in our grades. Not only I, but my entire family had committed the unpardonable sin of being Too Smart to be So Poor.

Ann Rice offended The Ladies for one reason. She had committed another unpardonable sin of Southern Culture: Being Too New To Be So Rich And Powerful. Ann was not from an old New Orleans family. How dare she come into the city and make herself known and become a benefactor for the city and the Garden District, just who did this writer woman think she was? She should have “Stayed in Her Place”. Didn’t she know that she was the servant of The Society, not a force in it or even a part of it.

How dare us Far Too Creatives dare think that we are part of The South, we are it’s Slaves.

Garden District Botanicals:

Oh good, a thing of beauty, I promise I won’t rant on now for a few photos. My life partner has always been in love with botany and used to make his living doing fine ceramic painting of flowers for Lenox. He still makes me stop and look at these wonders of nature in their never ending diversity. I do not know what these flowers were but the color and form were magnificent.

New Orleans Mansion still decked out for Christmas in early January when I was there. I was blessed on my trip to the Big Easy with temperatures in the 60’s to high 70’s on all four days.

Lafayette Cemetery, Garden District, New Orleans Louisianna

I had been warned about going into the cemeteries in New Orleans because they were the sites of preditory crime. Just the image of that gives you the image of dark strangers hiding behind gravestones lurking there to stab you and take all your money and credit cards. When I approached Lafayette, it was the middle of the afternoon without a cloud in the sky and delightful spring weather in early January. How could I not go in. Somehow the real experience of the graveyard was not what I had imagined. It was a true dissapointment. I did not get the feeling of delightful deshabille here, I got the feeling of abused and neglected history. It seemed that no one cared for these souls that have passed on to another world, and the monuments were simply there to be defaced or rented out the next-dead highest bidder.

Parlor of the Parkview Marigny on Washington Square in the Marigny Historic District, New Orleans, LA

The Parkview was my home for the four days I was in New Orleans. As shown in the photograph above, the Inn is incredibly sophisticated and refined. Walking in the front door feels like walking into an Architectural Digest feature story. The tallness of the ceilings, the richness of the fabrics and textures, the classical and fine furniture and accessories scream luxury and elegance. The Parkview is located just outside of the French Quarter bordering a large public park called Washington Square.

The Marigny gets my highest recommendation for elegant high end Bed and Breakfast accommodations, and one of our Best of New Orleans Awards for my trip. The B&B currently is in the process of being sold, but the new owners were looking to continue it’s operation as a luxury bed and breakfast. The inn can be found online with incredible 360 degree virtual tours of the rooms at: The Best New Orleans Luxury Bed and Breakfast Inn: Parkview Marigny

The Colors of New Orleans 2

Passing down one of the streets near the Parkview, I came across this impromptu stoop garden that embodied once again what I love about this city, it’s color and it’s age.

Shuttered Windows:

This architectural photograph was taken a few steps from the stoop photo. It presents simply a window with the shutters closed, with subtle greys and greens. The patina on this shutter made me want to rip it off the building, take it home and hang it on the wall. Architectural fragments are an artform that I have always loved.

Being an Old Display Queen like I am, I could not pass up recording this fabulous pink and silver Christmas Tree outside a dress shop bordering Jackson Square.

Traditional Cliched Tourist Shot of Jackson Square and the Incredible Church of the Archdiocese of New Orleans St. Louis Cathedral in the background. No, this is not Disney World, this is real.

The Fleur de Lis in Advertising in a French Town

Back to our documentary on the varied forms that the Fleur de Lis takes in New Orleans graphics. This one is split down the middle to accomodate the “For Rent” ad and sign text.

Classic Spiky Fleur de Lis Sign for Olivier’s Restaurant New Orleans Lousianna

Perverted/Converted Fleur de Lis Graphic for a Cigar Store: The Cigar Factory sign features a fleur de lis formed by tobacco leaves. This was one of my favorite Fleur de Lis images. The absolute best one is one I missed however which was a fleur de lis made up of two staffs of wheat in the middle surrounded by two croissants.

The Colors of New Orleans # 3

This delightful and wacky paint job was found on a little house on a back street near the inn where we stayed.

Washington Square across from the Parkview Marigny.

Exterior view of the Parkview Marigny, 2 blocks from the French Quarter, New Orleans Lousianna. Photo taken from the park. Don’t let the exterior simplicity fool you, it is incredibly elegant.

Frenchmen

Frenchmen is the name of a street in New Orleans, and my temporary address for my short stay in New Orleans. It is with It is a fitting symbol for my little journey as I started in a town in New Jersey that somehow got named incorrectly a “French Town” because the local residents thought that the French speaking man that had just moved there and bought all the land there was one of a class of men called Frenchmen. He wasn’t. (He was Swiss) You can read more about this man: Paul Henri Mallet-Prevost on Frenchtowner.com’s History of Frenchtown NJ Page: The Malletian Era.

This photo closes out the New Orleans Trip Photo Blog. What follows next is a restaurant and dining review for my trip there with no photos (It is hard to take your camera out and do food photographs and still enjoy your meal). The photoblog feature will pick back up in a few blog posts to document the Alabama and Florida portions of my trip.

Vintage TV Image from Wikipedia 

I just got home from doing some errands to find a marvelous surprise in my email box. This is an incredible opportunity for any foodie in New Jersey or New York. Act fast everyone!

I write to you on behalf of A&E. We are doing a cooking show with chef Rocco DiSpirito, and we’re looking for people in the New York/New Jersey area who would like to cook with Rocco. If any of your subscribers would be interested in this opportunity, you may feel free to post or forward the following press release. Thank you!

Celebrity chef and author Rocco DiSpirito wants to cook with YOU in YOUR KITCHEN! If you are planning an important meal or just want to share a significant moment over food, then A&E’s new show “Rocco to the Rescue!” (working title) wants to help.

Invite Rocco into your kitchen, and he will teach you what to cook, where to find the ingredients and how to prepare the ideal meal for your extra special occasion. Are you cooking for your first housewarming? A soldier’s homecoming? A very special birthday, anniversary or reunion? Are you going to propose marriage or make an announcement? Do you need to impress someone, thank someone, or tell someone that you’re sorry?

A&E is looking for people who need Rocco’s help. To apply for the show, email cookwithrocco@gmail.com with your name, age, phone number, a recent photo and the reason you need to cook with Rocco. You can also call our casting hotline: 818-752-5559.

Everyone loves to share the important moments in life over food, and Rocco knows exactly how to make those moments memorable!

Aurore Barry
Associate Casting Producer
Pilgrim Films and Television, Inc.

Public domain photo above of a vintage Braun television made in 1959.

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