“I fell in adore with New Year’s Eve a 10 years back, when a number of girlfriends and I spontaneously went to a area named the Commander’s Palace in New Orleans. I’ve never ever been a massive New Year’s person—I generally come across that it can be form of hit-or-miss. This celebration was on the lookout the exact same, especially given that all the dining places all over were being whole. But then I bought a random cellular phone phone that someone had canceled their reservation and to appear by appropriate away.
We had pleasurable ingesting wine and taking pleasure in Creole-influenced hors d’oeuvres, but what I am going to in no way ignore is what occurred ideal after we remaining. Some man was handing out these large bunches of silver balloons, large more than enough that it practically felt like they could elevate us. We tied them to the handlebars of our bicycles and observed ourselves, at two in the early morning, driving down a avenue in the Back garden District—past grand historic mansions with ornate iron railings and incredible gardens—with these huge bunches of balloons bobbing in the wind. It was a wholly unplanned experience that felt like a scene in a film: a instant of bliss that I desire every person could have.
And that’s what New Orleans is all about, which is why I finished up purchasing a property there—you can not have a strategy and conclude up doing anything actually appealing and exciting. I have had nights exactly where a wedding day occasion took above the bar I was at for the duration of a rainstorm and we all ended up dancing, soaking moist and amongst strangers, into the night time with each other. Or exactly where a random male started out participating in the piano at a lounge and a different lady started off singing and it wound up staying some of the ideal audio I have at any time read. I indicate, look—I do not know a great deal of cities the place I would relatively be out on my bicycle on New Year’s Eve than at a magnificent bash.” —As explained to to Scott Bay
Jennifer Coolidge stars in year 2 of The White Lotus, airing October 30 on HBO.
This write-up appeared in the November 2022 difficulty of Condé Nast Traveler. Subscribe to the magazine below.
