A party at Peter's house!

Lined up on top of a marble top Louis Philippe commode are vintage linen napkins, 19th French fiddle and thread silver flatware and 18th & 19th century wedding band and cornflower Old Paris porcelain plates. 

Around this time last year, I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of a new friend, Isabelle, introduce to me through a mutual friend Peter. Isabelle is a amazing person. She is a private chef and artist! Who doesn't love a artist that can cook well? Isabelle is half French and half American, born in Paris to A French mother, Her father is from Rhode Island. Isabelle has lived in both worlds. For the first time last year she visited Creole New Orleans and thank goodness fell into the hands of the right people. Our friend Peter decided to have a party at his Creole Antique filled French Quarter home with Chef Isabelle doing the cooking for the party, as a Isabelle and her cooking debut to New Orleans! 

A Empire gold gilt ormolu clock  next to a early fan. 

To the right my house guest at the time Romano from Switzerland and a neighbor of Peter's 

19th century Louisiana portraits overlook the party. 

Isabelle's seafood and vegetable stew 

marinated beets 

Strawberries 

Isabelle made lots of fabulous Strawberry cream tarts. 

This one displayed on a 18th century French porcelain platter. 

19th century Louisiana ancestral portrait of Peter's

18th Louisiana ancestral portrait of Peter's 

The party in full swing 

Isabelle 

Neoclassical carved details hanging in Peter's bathroom 

Neoclassical carved details hanging in Peter's bathroom 

Neoclassical carved details hanging in Peter's bathroom 

The bar 

18th Louisiana Creole ancestral portrait of Peter 

French 1830's Louis Philippe Champagne flutes await champagne next to Isabelle's fabulous Strawberry cream tart.

Isabelle entertaining us 

Peter pouring up some Louisiana made Satsuma-cello! 

A good time was had by all! 

Bon Séjour/Oak Alley Plantation 1837-1839 part 1 the Live oaks

Perhaps the most famous plantation in the American Deep South would be Bon Séjour ("good living") plantation. Better known by it's name that riverboat captains dubbed "Oak Alley". The most famous and recognizable feature of the plantation is not the house it self but the 300 year old double row of live oaks about 800 feet (240 meters) long that was planted in the early 18th century, long before the present house was built. 

The present mansion was built under the oversight of George Swainy, using mostly enslaved labor, between 1837 and 1839 for Jacques Telesphore Roman and his wife Celina Pilie. Roman's father-in-law, Joseph Pilie, was an architect and probably designed the American styled Greek Revival house. The design is Greek Revival architecture, with some facets of French Creole architecture, which was heavily influenced by Caribbean plantation architecture. The mansion has a square floor plan, organized around a central hall that runs from the front to the rear on both floors. The exterior features a free-standing colonnade of 28 Doric columns on all four sides, a common feature of antebellum mansions of the Mississippi Valley.

At the time Oak Alley was being built, the fortunes of the Roman family had reached their pinnacle. Jacques' brother, Andre was serving his first term as Governor of Louisiana, and his sister Josephine, was married to Francois Gabriel "Valcour" Aime, whose wealth, interest in the sugar industry and opulent life style had won him the title of "Sugar King Of Louisiana". On May 19, 1836, Valcour Aime, sold Jacques Telesphore the plantation riverboat captains later dubbed "Oak Alley".

The house has high ceilings, large windows, a symmetrical facade and interior plan, and a second-floor gallery for viewing the surroundings. The original flooring on the first floor was gray and white marble tile ruined by cows living in the house during the late 19th century (since replaced by hardwood flooring), Also the original spiral staircase was ruined by the cows trying to go up the staircase. The roof was slate, the exterior walls and columns were of stuccoed brick scored and originally painted white to resemble marble.

Bon Séjour was built to be a showplace. Jacques Telesphore Roman younger wife Celina. Was a city girl from New Orleans, she had no interest in plantation life or country living. Although Bon Séjour was a magnificent house, every chance Celina would take the children to the fast paced life of colorful Creole New Orleans in the French Quarter. Sadly Celina and the children were away in New Orleans in 1848 when her husband Jacques Telesphore Roman died, a victim of tuberculosis. Without any experience in business or sugarcane farming, Jacques' wife Celina took over management of the plantation. 

Mixing her lack of experience along with her penchant for opulent spending, Celina drove the plantation into near bankruptcy. Jacques' only surviving son, Henri, assumed manhood and responsibility for family affairs in 1859. His valiant efforts to preserve the position and holdings of his family failed against the overwhelming social and political turmoil resulting from the Civil War and Reconstruction, joined the ever-growing tide of once powerful and proud Creoles caught in a downhill slide toward oblivion. Oak Alley, it's land and contents was sold at auction in 1866 to a carpetbagger for $32,800 not making a dent in the debt The Roman family owed.