During a recent trip to New Orleans in May, I explored the French Quarter, Marigny, and Garden District with my sister. We listened to live music, ate scrumptious food, enjoyed late-night cafe au laits and beignets at the Cafe du Monde, and met some interesting people. During all this fun, I managed to carve out some time to visit the stationery shop Scriptura on Magazine Street.
The shop offered a welcome respite from the torrential downpour that threatened to further swell the Mississippi over its already record highs. I took the picture above as I left the shop, when the rain had abated.
Scriptura offers an excellent selection of fine stationery, fountain pens, and journals. Most of their wares you can find in nice stationery shops everywhere. I was on the look out for something unique to New Orleans. I was thrilled to find these flat-card sets made by Scriptura and sold only in their shop:
The “Jazz Hall” flats celebrate one of New Orleans’ greatest gifts–music!
I loved the blue flat cards below with a stamp image and postal cancellation featuring New Orleans’ unofficial motto “Let the Good Times Roll.”
And the green flat cards sporting the historic St. Charles street car design bring back memories of riding the rickety street car through the Garden District on a gorgeous spring day…windows down, sun shining.
Here’s a shot of the street car coming to pick us up and take us back to Canal Street.
The ladies at Scriptura said they will mail orders to folks out of town, but they have not yet established their website for taking orders. So if you’d like to get these sets for yourself, give them a call!
As is the case in most stationery stores these days, Scriptura did not sell loose-leaf stationery sets to write letters with beyond the nice, but plain, Crane sets. I’ll continue my search for stationery sets suitable for actual letters and not just notes, but I fear they’re a dying breed.
P.S.
To continue the tradition I began with my France entries, I wanted to share a few non-snail mail related photos from my adventures. Of course, pastries are involved. Here are the hot, fresh beignets and a cafe au lait from Cafe du Monde. It’s a requirement that I have a beignet-a-day anytime I’m in New Orleans!
Of course, there’s lots of other yummy food. Here’s a pizza from Angeli on Decatur St. Yes, those are whole roasted garlic cloves:
And what would a trip to NOLA be without some live music? We checked out some street performers, nearly went deaf listening to a big brass band at d.b.a., and heard a couple acts at Mimi’s, including Gal Holiday and the Honky Tonk Revue:
And while checking out what other live shows were in the offering in the area, I saw this band was going to perform (sadly, after I left town!):
I leave you with a photo of a simply awesome tree, overgrown with other greenery that decided to grow right out of its boughs and branches. I think the sultry weather in Louisiana supports this glorious overgrowth:
We really let the good times roll and I can’t wait to go back!
You can find the Pony Express Google Doodle archived here after April 14th.
