French President Emmanuel Macron visited the historic Frenchmen street venue, dba, to cap off his visit to New Orleans Friday, December 2. Macron spent the day in New Orleans following his White House state dinner Thursday, December 1 where Jon Batiste performed for him and President Joe Biden.
Macron also stopped and visited other venues including Blue Nile and Cafe Negril. He met and saw performances by artists like Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers, Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews, The Soul Rebels, Gee Dang and Lisa Q. Mount.
Macron’s New Orleans visit made history as the first visit by a French President to New Orleans in over 45 years since Valéry Giscard d’Estaing in 1976. Macron met with Gov. John Bel Edwards and discussed longstanding cultural ties, energy policy and climate change.
Macron’s later post on Twitter revealed Macron had a private meeting with Elon Musk where he and the Tesla and Twitter CEO discussed “future green industrial projects” and also the social media platform.
The French president’s visit to Frenchmen Street and at dba highlighted the local culture threatened by climate change.
At the end of the night, Macron quoted a famous New Orleans saying, “Long live France, long live Louisiana and let the good times roll.”
Tom Thayer, the owner of dba, told OffBeat, “We had no idea it was happening until they walked into the front door.”
Thayer heard the French president was coming to New Orleans on the news that morning and said rumors often circulate that celebrities will visit their bar while they’re in town, so he didn’t think much of it. Even The Soul Rebels didn’t know he would come.
“They never come but my wife said we should go and I told her, ‘If I show up no one will come,'” he said.
Thayer did end up missing the event but said he was “very honored and stoked that it happened” and called the spontaneity of the event “typical New Orleans Stuff and that’s fine.”
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