STE. GEN'S BASTILLE DAYS CELEBRATES FRENCH HERITAGE

STE. GENEVIEVE Missouri's oldest city, Ste. Genevieve, will celebrate the fourth annual Bastille Days July 9-12.

The town, with its colonial French heritage, celebrates the French Revolution each year when hundreds of people assemble at Third and Market Streets to march to the old Ste. Genevieve jail. There they hear the same words heard by Parisians in 1789: Rousseau's classic "The Rights of Man."

The event takes place at 2 p.m. July 11 and 12.

The Bastille Days celebration begins with a free concert north of the town square at 8 p.m. July 9. The following night, guests can attend a dinner theater in the garden of the historic Guibourd-Valle House on Fourth and Merchant Streets.

An art exhibit will be on view at the Shaw House at Second and Market Streets. The house is owned by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and is undergoing restoration.

A candlelight tour of four historic homes will take place at 7 p.m., July 11. Homes on the tour are the Felix-Valle, Bolduc-LeMeilleur, Bolduc and Guibourd-Valle houses. For more information call 800-275-1412 or 800-373-7007.