New Toulouse

Determined to test the truth of William Blake’s proverb “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom,” a bacchanalian throng of New Toulouse citizens and visitors ate, drank, and reveled their way through the Carnival season, which culminated in the annual Samedi Gras Parade on Saturday, February 10. Masked men, flirtatiously fleshy women, and even a team of stately unicorns rolled through the streets, either leading or atop a series of intricately wrought floats, all of which stood out as pristine works of art. A further delight was the surprise appearance of Ms. Maggie Hawksby as Queen of Carnival, a revelation which warmed the memories of even the most inebriated Taloosters. Ms. Hawksby reigned with elegance over Carnival just a short two years ago, and her presence served as a poignant reminder of our fair city’s storied history and deep tradition.

While eager onlookers were treated to a multitude of different “throws” from the float riders, the prize catch of the season was the Krewe of Wulfenbach’s engraved silver beer stein. Though there were reports of at least two unaware onlookers requiring a set of stitches to repair gashes resulting from stray steins, those with quick reflexes and sticky mitts came away with a keepsake both lovely and useful.


Having arrived at the end of the road of excess, the more pious among us marked the beginning of the Lenten season by attending the Ash Wednesday liturgy at the recently renamed Our Lady of Wisdom chapel. Visiting archbishop Aloysius Nolasco presided over the solemn service, marking the foreheads of each penitent with ashes, a reminder that our lives, like our revels, are impermanent.




With Carnival officially closed, one jelly-legged and red-eyed penitent paused while leaving the chapel and remarked, “Holy and profane, sordid and sacred … that’s New Toulouse. That’s the rhythm of our lives.” He then tipped his hat, bid me adieu, and shuffled off bayou way, singing out to the stars, “Dum vivimus vivamus” (“While we live, let us live”).

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Diogenes Teufelsdröckh resides in New Toulouse Bayou, where he drinks bourbon, wrestles mudbugs, and ponders the Mysteries.

With bleary eyes and wobbling gaits, hungover residents of New Toulouse filed into Our Lady of Bourbon Street to celebrate Ash Wednesday.

A Mr. Charles Trudeau, last seen cheering and hanging off the back of a boat in the Krewe du Canard parade with a bottle of bourbon in each hand and someone else’s longjohns tied around his neck like an ascot, stumbled into the historic church wearing clothes that were rather rumpled but at least right-side out and on the correct parts of his body. “I’m giving up alcohol for Lent,” he insisted before taking his place in the pew next to his neighbors.

“The way we do Mardi Gras around here, I’m always relieved when it’s time for fasting and abstinence,” another local chimed in, asking not to be quoted by name as she shielded her bloodshot eyes from the light streaming in through the beautiful stained-glass windows.

The traditional service included the distribution of ashes and the solemn reminder, “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

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Jane Moreaux keeps all four eyes on New Toulouse.