BASTILLE DAYS: STE. GEN. REENACTORS FREE FOUR FORGERS, TWO LUNATICS AND ONE DEBAUCHER

STE. GENEVIEVE -- Some things are best left in French.

Among the songs performed for the Bastille Day celebration this weekend was a traditional French children's tune about how a little girl drowns a cat in a well.

"It's not what you would think of as a children's song, so we sing it in French," said Patti Naeger, leader of the children's choral group, "Les Petits Chanteurs."

Along with the historically accurate freeing of four forgers, two lunatics and one debaucher from the steps of the old county jail, all events for the four-day commemoration of the French revolution's beginning were calm and bloodless.

That's more than can be said of Paris on July 14, 1789. A mob of peasants and disenchanted tradesmen attacked the Bastille, the notorious royal French prison, and chopped off the prison commandant's head.

"The commandant let them in and they beheaded him anyway," said Mike Hankins, Ste. Genevieve's Bastille Day chairman.

Hankins, owner of a bed and breakfast, has directed the celebration ever since it became a town tradition 11 years ago. That was not long after his wife, Barbara, attended a gathering led by then Gov. Kit Bond and former Sen. Stuart Symington to stage an event to commemorate the region's French connection.

"St. Louis didn't want it, and neither did St. Charles, so it fell to us," Hankins said.

The first year drew thousands to the Bastille celebration, with an international bicycle race between St. Louis and Ste. Genevieve as the highlight.

Since then, crowds don't come out in droves, Hankins said. About 50 came as pairs and small family groups to watch the reenactment of storming the Bastille on Sunday.

For some, the history of Bastille is foreign.

"I don't really know too much, but my wife has been here before," said Ted Fiudo of St. Louis, who stood on the old jail house steps wearing a placard saying "forger" as residents in costume marched to liberate him.

The seven who volunteered to represent prisoners in the reenactment kept the mood realistic, since only seven were rescued in 1789.

Only the outward appearance of Hankins' guillotine is real. It's displayed outside his hotel, with life size wooden French soldiers standing guard. A real guillotine would drop a 180-pound blade from a 10-foot height, he said.

"The guillotine didn't have to be sharp to work," Hankins said. "A lot of people don't know that it was used in France up until 1984."

It's doubtful that the original French settlers of Ste. Genevieve would have welcomed a revolutionary holiday, said Carl Shinabargar, who works at the town tourism information center.

"Most of the people came over before the monarchy fell, and they were the well-to-do ones," said Shinabargar, whose grandfather owned thousands of acres of farmland near Normandy in France.

But for most visitors, only a light portion of Ste. Genevieve's French history is served over the Bastille Days.

"We're not discussing the nitty gritty of history here ," said Jim Baker, who has overseen the Felix Valle house state historic site for 16 years. "This is the fun side."

French films and cartoons are shown in the evenings at the tourism center to preserve the mood, Shinabargar said.

And restaurants do their best, offering crepes, wines and French spaghetti.

Spaghetti?

"It has creamy white sauce with a red sauce over it and no meat," explained Rose Huck of the Old Brick House restaurant. "I don't really know what makes it French, but a regular customer gave it to us."