It was a stormy day in New Orleans, but I magically missed the downpours, by just six minutes on my ride home from work and altogether on my ride up from the Treme, where I enjoyed a delicious homemade organic carrot cake from D. I snapped this photo of two facades, door to door, at Dauphine and Toulouse. I pass these two buildings all the time, always struck by their differences. The one is distressed, and you can almost make out an old painted sign between those two shutters. The other is exactly the same as the first, with the slight overhang and tall windows. But it has been remodeled, or at least re-stuccoed. The first makes me feel like I’m in the French Quarter of old, but the other makes me feel like I’m kind of just in another neighborhood. But I don’t trust those distressed doors. I’m used to seeing decay all over this city, but the Quarter is just different. I’m suspicious of everything there, assuming it’s a plant for tourists, to make them feel like they’re really somewhere different. But people do live here, and buildings are decaying here. Not everything in the Quarter is for show. But I still don’t know about this one. I do know, however, that they’ve finished putting down new asphalt on Louisiana. Come ride it–it’s like silk, and makes me very, very happy. Man, I love riding at night.