“I fell in enjoy with New Year’s Eve a 10 years in the past, when a number of girlfriends and I spontaneously went to a location named the Commander’s Palace in New Orleans. I have under no circumstances been a massive New Year’s person—I normally come across that it can be form of strike-or-miss out on. This celebration was searching the identical, in particular considering that all the eating places all around had been whole. But then I got a random cellular phone call that someone experienced canceled their reservation and to appear by correct away.
We had entertaining ingesting wine and having fun with Creole-impressed hors d’oeuvres, but what I’ll in no way forget about is what occurred correct just after we still left. Some male was handing out these huge bunches of silver balloons, big sufficient that it virtually felt like they could carry us. We tied them to the handlebars of our bicycles and identified ourselves, at two in the early morning, driving down a avenue in the Backyard garden District—past grand historic mansions with ornate iron railings and incredible gardens—with these big bunches of balloons bobbing in the wind. It was a entirely unplanned experience that felt like a scene in a motion picture: a instant of bliss that I would like anyone could have.
And that’s what New Orleans is all about, which is why I finished up getting a home there—you can not have a program and conclude up carrying out some thing truly attention-grabbing and enjoyable. I’ve had evenings the place a wedding bash took about the bar I was at for the duration of a rainstorm and we all ended up dancing, soaking soaked and among strangers, into the night time collectively. Or where a random guy commenced playing the piano at a lounge and a different lady began singing and it wound up remaining some of the most effective songs I have at any time read. I indicate, look—I never know a great deal of cities the place I would somewhat be out on my bicycle on New Year’s Eve than at a fabulous occasion.” —As told to Scott Bay
Jennifer Coolidge stars in period 2 of The White Lotus, airing Oct 30 on HBO.
This posting appeared in the November 2022 concern of Condé Nast Traveler. Subscribe to the magazine in this article.