CANADIAN TV PROGRAM TO SPOTLIGHT HERITAGE OF REGION'S FRENCH

A camera crew is coming to the region in December to film segments for a TV program that introduces Canadians to French-speaking communities in North, Central and South America.

The cultural TV program "Bons Baisers d'Amerique" airs Sunday evenings in Canada and reaches more than 65 million households around the world.

The crew already has filmed as far south as St. Louis. They are looking for French settlements along the river as well as river-oriented attractions.

Ste. Genevieve, which boasts the finest examples of French Colonial architecture west of the Mississippi, is expected to be a stop. The producers reportedly also are interested in Cape Girardeau founder Don Louis Lorimier, who was French Canadian.

In May, Cape Girardeau, Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis were the sites for the first La Fete Francaise, a festival celebrating the area's French heritage. It was sponsored by a group called Les Amis.

Trisha Wischmann of the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau said the program will include three long segments with interviews of French-speaking people and two shorter segments featuring specific attractions.

Some of the possible stories include Mark Twain, livestock auctions, riverboats, Indian powwows, French settlements and wild rice harvesting. The producers are looking for additional story ideas.

Mississippi River Country USA, a marketing program that promotes the 10 Mississippi River states to international audiences, is coordinating the film crew's visit. The other states represented by MRC are Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana.

MRC is sponsored by the Mississippi River Parkway Commission.

Attempts to contact a spokesman for the Canadian television show or Mississippi River Country USA, the film company, were unsuccessful.

Wischmann said a Public Broadcasting System crew also is headed to town soon. The PBS official who contacted the CVB would not reveal the crew's purpose for being here.