Duh Day of Duh-Gah

I used to say Day-gah but now I know it is duh-gah.

 For Christmas, Julie gave us a gift certificate for a tour of the Degas House and also for the Cafe Degas so we did that today.

The house is on Esplanade Avenue which is where the wealthy creoles ( born in New Orleans of French or Spanish blood) used to build their homes. We watched a great video about Degas's visit to the Mussons, His mother's brother, a wealthy cotton merchant..He only stayed there for 6 months but did many paintings while there.

The juiciest info was that his younger bro, Rene had met the Musson women when they escaped to their French relatives during the Civil War. Well, he fell in love with and married (against the family and church) his first cousin, Estelle. They all came back to New Orleans, including Edgar and the younger brother. Estelle went blind and creepo Rene abandoned her and their 5 children and went back to France with the neighbor America, who came over every day to read prayer books to Estelle. (among other things). The dirty,rotten couple took off to France to spend the family money into bankruptcy, leaving poor Edgar (who was also losing his sight) to pay off the debts.

Poor Estelle, who had been widowed by her first husband (nephew of Jefferson Davis) while she was expecting a child, was left with six children and blind with no money. Four of the six died of Yellow fever or Scarlet Fever. (I'm not making this up.) As the World Turns

Degas is the one who painted all the ballet dancers.

 After the Degas House, we went to Cafe Degas which was down the street. It was a small, but very charming French Bistro. We shared a Oyster Rockafellowish thingy and then I had  L'omelette aux Crevettes. Le Foie De Veau aux Oignons et Petits Lardons  was Boo's choice.  Eggs and liver and onions sounds so much better in French and tastes better too. (but costs more).
Dessert-Crepes Suzette and Raspberry liquor sorbet followed by demi-tasse cafe and port. Life is Good.

Thank You, Julie.