This is a photo of the Royal Sonesta Hotel on Bourbon Street. I can't take credit for this one however. It came from the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau.The airport shuttle deposited me at the Royal Sonesta Hotel on Bourbon Street in the heart of the French Quarter. I have no idea what the rack rate for the hotel is, but I can say if you ever go to New Orleans and want to see the Quarter, this hotel’s location is perfect.
The lobby is beautiful with white marble, quasi Victorian decor and the sort of large chandeliers that could only exist in a hotel lobby. There’s a lovely courtyard with a fountain at the center of the hotel. My room was, well, a hotel room, but it had a plasma TV and a set of French doors that opened onto a balcony overlooking the courtyard. Considering all the drunken chaos right outside the hotel, inside things were amazingly quiet.
The hotel sales staff had left me a bottle of champagne and two glasses. I wonder who they think was joining me on this trip? I’m not much of a drinker, and even less of a champagne drinker – but the challenge of getting this bottle open, to be polite of course, proved addictive. A half hour later, after much chiding from Ryan and Matt on the phone, success! What can I say? Not much a champagne fan and this bottle didn’t change my mind.
After conquering the champagne bottle, I set out to inspect the infamous Bourbon Street at about 10:30 pm. It wasn’t at all what I remembered. Yes, it was loud and pulsing with competing beats from surrounding bars. Yes, the sleazy strip joints and bars with blasting music were all there in their neon glory – but nothing smelled bad. In fact, the street was spotless! There wasn’t a single piece of litter to be seen. That Bourbon Street smell – a sort of mixture of stale beer, urine and vomit – was missing. The street had plenty of librarians exploring, accompanied by more of a police presence than I’d ever seen. At every cross street there was a police cruiser and a few officers, and in between cross streets there were police on horseback prancing up and down the street. New Orleans was determined that the media would not be full of stories of tourists and crime!
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