Celebrating the Season at Degas House

This past week it was my great pleasure to have the opportunity to attend the annual Christmas party at Degas House on Esplanade Ave. Even though I am originally from New Orleans and have spent most of my life here, it was only my second visit to the lovely historic house that was once owned by the family of painter, Edgar Degas. Now a museum, Bed and Breakfast, and wedding venue, the house sits just minutes away from the French Quarter.

It was nice to have a free evening and to actually be able to relax and enjoy myself. Last year I was able to make the party and get a quick look at the house, but I was only able to stay a short time as I had to rush off to another event with the Singles Meetup.

I wish I'd thought to get a photograph of it, but in one of the buildings is a model that shows how the original property was divided into the current two buildings that now make up the Museum and B&B. I did manage to get a few photos of the rooms in the B&B this time, and I realized that there was a third floor I hadn't seen before.

Alas, I only took photos in the one building, and none of the courtyard either. What can I say? It was chilly out and I'd had a long day. There was a DJ in the courtyard where one of the bars was set up, and a live band inside the B&B. I'm going to call this room the double parlor. As you can see there are copies of Degas' work hung about all over the house.

What would the party be without an appearance from the Grand Dame of social events, herself? If there is something worth doing or an event worth attending, it's a bet that Senora Margarita Bergen will be there, and she'll be telling about it on her blog.

This riff-raff are fixtures at the Swirl Sensational Wines Friday tasting. I used to see them weekly until life got in the way and I was unable to make it across town on a regular basis.

Tom missed out on the photo above, but that just gave me an excuse to get one of the two of us together. We rarely get to see each other now that I am not running the Wine Meetup or working in the CBD anymore. I suppose I should have checked the image...

This year's party also afforded me the opportunity to meet David's mother. Too bad I didn't realize she wasn't looking when I took the picture. I usually prefer to take candid shots of whatever activity is going on, and someone will look up and smile and cause everyone else to turn as well. Maybe I should go back to that...

As I said, (well, typed) above, I barely had a chance to look around last year, though David insisted I see upstairs before leaving. There were delicious little sweet treats up there the last time and I was looking forward to visiting that section of the house again to indulge in a chocolate petits fours (okay, I had two).

As you can see, this lovely room leads out onto a balcony, which overlooks Esplanade Ave. on the front of the property.

The doorway above, just to the left of the bed, leads to the room that is pictured two photos down.

This room is situated at the opposite end of the house just as you come up the stairs. It had already turned dark out, so there wasn't much point in trying to take photos of the views from any of the windows, but this room overlooks the courtyard.

It was upon leaving that burgundy room that I realized that you could go up to the third floor and decided to take a peek at those rooms.

That last one's a bit dark, sorry about that. At least these images give you an idea of what the inside of the house is like. Of course, there are more photos on the Degas House web site. I wonder if next year I'll get to make it three in a row...

If you're a history buff and/or an art lover, this is a must see when travelling to New Orleans. You can visit in the morning in time for breakfast and then take the neighborhood tour. (That's another thing I'll have to add to my Tourist at Home bucket list.)