“I fell in enjoy with New Year’s Eve a ten years in the past, when a couple girlfriends and I spontaneously went to a location named the Commander’s Palace in New Orleans. I’ve in no way been a big New Year’s person—I always uncover that it really is sort of strike-or-skip. This celebration was looking the exact, specially due to the fact all the eating places about were being complete. But then I received a random telephone call that somebody had canceled their reservation and to appear by right absent.
We had entertaining drinking wine and making the most of Creole-influenced hors d’oeuvres, but what I’ll hardly ever overlook is what occurred ideal soon after we left. Some person was handing out these massive bunches of silver balloons, large enough that it pretty much felt like they could carry us. We tied them to the handlebars of our bicycles and found ourselves, at two in the morning, using down a avenue in the Garden District—past grand historic mansions with ornate iron railings and remarkable gardens—with these giant bunches of balloons bobbing in the wind. It was a absolutely unplanned experience that felt like a scene in a movie: a moment of bliss that I desire everybody could have.
And which is what New Orleans is all about, which is why I ended up purchasing a property there—you can not have a prepare and conclusion up carrying out some thing really interesting and enjoyment. I’ve experienced evenings where a wedding day occasion took over the bar I was at through a rainstorm and we all finished up dancing, soaking wet and amongst strangers, into the evening collectively. Or the place a random man began actively playing the piano at a lounge and another woman began singing and it wound up becoming some of the best music I’ve at any time heard. I indicate, look—I never know a large amount of cities in which I would rather be out on my bicycle on New Year’s Eve than at a magnificent bash.” —As instructed to Scott Bay
Jennifer Coolidge stars in season 2 of The White Lotus, airing Oct 30 on HBO.
This write-up appeared in the November 2022 problem of Condé Nast Traveler. Subscribe to the journal here.
