Sainte Genevieve

After our day of rest, we were on the go again, this time to Sainte Genevieve, a city founded in 1740 by French Canadian settlers. Ste Genevieve was the de facto first capital of Missouri due to its population and position in commerce in the late 1700s and early 1800s.

We started our visit at the tourist office, where we saw a short video about the history of Ste Genevieve. From there, we went to the Centre for French Colonial Life, a free museum with artifacts from the early days of Ste Genevieve.

And dioramas of creole houses.

And larger models of "poteau-en-terre" Creole houses.

There are several older houses left in the town.

We also visited the catholic church, built in 1876.

Then we took a guided tour of the Felix Vallé house.

We had planned to make a longer day of it, with a visit to Fort de Chartres as well, but it was an oven outside, so we found a park, had our picnic, and headed back home to pack up. We drove back to Chicago the next day to fly back to France.