STE. GEN.'S JOUR DE FETE IN FULL SWING THROUGH TODAY

STE. GENEVIEVE, Mo. -- Steamy weather notwithstanding, the 35th annual Jour de Fete drew thousands to Ste. Genevieve Saturday to purchase crafts, sample food, gawk at exhibits and sample some more food.

Jill Chatman watched as festival-goers did double takes at the "boot birdhouses" on sale at her booth.

Her father, Ste. Genevieve resident Jerry Meyer, began creating the birdhouses as a way to recycle his old work shoes and began selling them this year at a parish picnic for Our Lady Hope of Christians.

"It's a retirement project," Chatman laughed.

Meyer's creations involve old boots and a wooden structure topped with a tin, license-plate roof. Chatman said Meyer ran out of his own boots and now uses his friends' shoes.

The birdhouses are one more than 600 crafts on display at Jour de Fete.

All you can eat

Food booths sell all manner of fried, roasted, boiled and steamed treats, and almost anything you can eat on a stick.

The Hillbilly Kettle Korn booth was doing brisk business Saturday as Ben Shelley used a large oar to stir batches of the sweet stuff in a huge cast iron kettle.

Down the street, Troy Hughes of Springfield, Mo. and Chris Tripp of Neosho, Mo., showed off their antique Planter's roaster and garnered a few laughs while hawking fresh-roasted peanuts. The pair also work together as a stand-up comedian team.

The inevitable funnel cakes, shaved ice and cotton candy dot the landscape as well as all manner of drinks.

Speaking of hawking, live eagles, owls, hawks and falcons from the World Bird Sanctuary are on display behind the Bolduc-LeMeilleur house complex.

A screech owl named Acorn gave a worried eye to the much larger red-tailed hawk nearby.

But the guests aren't just of the feathered variety.

At handler Debbie Galyen's urging, "Cricket," a Savannah monitor lizard from Africa, seemed to smile at visitors. Galyen is a volunteer at the World Bird Sanctuary in St. Louis, which has a display at the festival.

Music to suit almost any taste can be heard in the streets.

Southeast Missouri State University graduate Travis Lee, frontman for the Travis Lee Band, sang enthusiastically about being a "Jesus Freak" on one end of town Saturday while Humberto Muenala of Otavalo, Ecuador, played a "flauta de Pan" at the other.

Somewhere in the middle, The Vintage Music Band played covers of popular country songs.

Jour de Fete continues all day today.

335-6611 extension 160

Want to go?

WHAT: Jour de Fete

WHEN: All day today

WHERE: Ste. Genevieve, Mo.

INFORMATION: Parking is available at the Eric Scott Leathers parking lot on Route M with shuttles leaving every few minutes. The service is available for $1 per person.