Who were those gals riding motorized bathtubs in the Muses Mardi Gras parade?

What is more luxurious than reclining in a warm bathtub, surrounded by a mountain range of fragrant foam, while sipping from a glittering flute of Champagne?

And what is more enchantingly absurd than watching a fleet of rolling tubs occupied by luxuriating women, motoring through the city streets in the midst of a Carnival parade?

Two weeks ago, Les Bonnes Vivantes, which translates roughly as “those who enjoy good living,” charmed crowds along the Krewe of Muses parade, leaving drifting bubbles, hand-decorated Champagne glasses, and a craving for more information in their wake.

Who were these bathing beauties? How did their tubs seem to drift so smoothly along? And, most importantly, is there room for more members?

Dim the lights, drop another bath bomb, dear readers, and prepare for elucidation.

It was 2021 and Metairie native Anne-Marie Crifasi Riley was jealous. Her boyfriend belonged to the popular Laissez Boys, a group of languid gentlemen who participate in Mardi Gras parades in the comfort of motorized, lamp-lit reclining chairs.

Wouldn’t it be fun, Riley thought, if there was a female answer to the Laissez Boys concept. Searching her mind for a tongue-in-cheek analog to the Boys’ relaxed, smoking jacket, cigar, and-brandy snifter aesthetic, she hit on the concept of the mobile bathtub.

“After a few cocktails,” Riley recalls, “I said somebody needs to do this.”

“After a few more cocktails, I said, ‘I’ll do it!’”

And thus, like Venus emerging from the frothy sea, the Bonnes Vivantes parade element was born.

Riley, who was a medical equipment salesperson at the time, enlisted female pals to join the nascent club. The members, she said, are mostly professionals and entrepreneurs whose demanding lives put relaxation at a premium.

Riley said that joining the group, just like taking a long, quiet bath after a hard day, is one of those rare “just for me” indulgences among the women.

The bathtubs, Riley said, are real. The magic carpet-like mechanism that allows them to roll along like sudsy bumper cars is a trade secret. Each woman pimps her own ride, so to speak, and costumes with appropriate alluring decadence.

When the first batch of mobile tubs were ready, the Bonnes Vivantes took them on an Uptown test ride to Audubon Park, where they turned heads and caught the attention of cellphone videographers, who heralded the event on social media.

The LBV debuted near the end of the 2022 Muses parade, where they made a splash.

Les Bonnes Vivantes member Lauren Lipscomb said she’d ridden on floats, marched, and performed in dance troupes in past parades. But nothing compares with gliding along in a tub.

“I can tell you, it’s so different than anything else,” she said. “The reaction is so wild. Being able to react with people at ground level is exhilarating.”

In 2023, the Muses parade manager placed the small fleet of rolling tubs behind the krewe’s enormous bathtub float near the start of the procession. It was a perfect fit. Lipscomb said that by their second year, word had already spread, and they were greeted as stars.

Since the founding of Les Bonnes Vivantes, Riley has relocated to Washington, D.C, with her Laissez Boy boyfriend, who is now her Laissez Boy husband. She likes the nation’s capital, she said, though “nobody walks along with glitter and feathers.”

Riley is 37. She studied anthropology and sociology at Rhodes College in Memphis, and later took courses in medieval studies at Oxford. Yes, that Oxford. She said that she’ll be eternally grateful to New Orleans, “a city that lets me be creative.”

Riley said she’s “completely tickled by the reaction of the city” to the Bonnes Vivantes. But she’s leery of trying to expand too quickly. There were originally 13 tubs; now there are 19.

“We will continue to grow,” Riley said, “but we want to grow slowly.”

As Lipscomb put it, the waiting list to join “is insane.”

A summertime LBV bar crawl is being planned, Riley said, and next year the group may appear in a second parade as well as Muses.

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