Merry Christmas from New Orleans

A Creole Christmas at the Lighting of the Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans
​ From left: Pierre de Pontalba, his mother and father, Isabelle and Charles-Edouard, Baron & Baroness de Pontalba
​ are flanking me - 2nd from right, Roosevelt Hotel, New Orleans. Photo by Grevy Photography ​

Dear Friends, 

One of the most exciting moments of my life happened: helping the Louisiana State Museum and the Louisiana Museum Foundation celebrate the New Orleans Tricentennial. 

My friends, the Baron & Baroness de Pontalba and their family, came to New Orleans from France for this epic event: The Founders Ball and the launch of the Baroness Pontalba & the Rise of Jackson Square Exhibition at the Cabildo. ​

I'm still pinching myself that this all really happened!

It's been a thrill of my life to meet the Pontalbas at their family home château de Mont-l'Eveque, near Senlis, France, and to reconnect them to their Louisiana heritage.

Merry Christmas and my best wishes for a Happy New Year!

MY BEST FROM BOURBON,
Peter Patout 

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Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser said it best: “For a city so steeped in history, to be able to showcase an exhibit as important to the development of Jackson Square, the focal point of the city of New Orleans, is historical in and of itself. The legacy Don Andrés Almonester and his daughter, Baroness Micaela de Pontalba, left on the architecture and culture of the city attracts millions of visitors every year,” ​

​At left: Isabelle, Baroness de Pontalba's dream fulfilled to hear
​ Jazz at Preservation Hall. It was magical!

Above: Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser - in the middle - lights the way at the Roosevelt Hotel,
and  greets Baron and Baroness de Pontalba and Pierre de Pontalba to New Orleans!