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.

Some down time

The last week of our stay was pretty non-stop, since we wanted the cousins to get to experience as many things as possible in the U.S. But we took some down time on Sunday.

Noah found time to make cupcakes from his new cookbook.

Cats eating fishbones.

The cousins played some board games together.

And we had a nice, big dinner, with Aunt Claire & Uncle Curtis, and Betty & Wayne.

Route 66: Old Chain of Rocks Bridge

No visit to St Louis would be complete for a French tourist without some Route 66 stops. Ted Drewes is on old route 66, and so is the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge, which crosses the Mississippi north of St Louis.

It was hot the day we went, but we crossed the Mississippi River on foot.

Route 66 cicada

The bridge has a 45° angle.

The Art Museum

Our cousin Kimberley wanted to visit the art museum, so since rain was forecast one morning, we thought that would be the perfect time for an indoor activity. The St Louis art museum is great - and free!

Even the Philistine found a painting he liked!

I need a dresser like this one.

The Arch (Revisited)

The boys and I had already visited the Arch this trip and discovered the newly-opened and newly-renovated museum, but we couldn't not take Frédéric's cousins to this iconic symbol of St Louis. 

And since we are crazy people, we visited the Arch the same day we visited the zoo.

After the Arch, we had dinner at my parents' house - then loaded everyone up in the van and headed down to Ted Drewes for another classic St Louis experience.