Who would imagine that athletics would inspire art in rural Missouri? But in two separate cases that I’ve witnessed personally, the Tour de Missouri bicycle race did exactly that.

I blogged about a street mural that was painted in Farmington, Missouri the evening before the Tour de Missouri Stage 3 Kickoff in September, 2009.

On Saturday, I discovered another public art display inspired by Tour de Missouri, this one in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri.

As I crouched down on the sidewalk to photograph these brightly painted bicycles chained to a street-tree-bed, the proprietress of shop called Lulu’s walked up to explain the bikes to me. She painted the bikes for Tour de Missouri, and once the race ended was asked by local officials to remove the bikes.

Although the bikes are resting on the sidewalk, the sidewalk is not city property, but is part of the property owned to by the proprietress. So despite the wishes of officials, this colorful public art display remains as a reminder of the internationally recognized Tour de Missouri bicycle race.

Chalk one up for the creative community of this small Missouri town – sometimes small town Missouri life surprises me in very good ways.

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For other posts related to Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri:

Public Art in Ste. Genevieve

The Brooklyn Bridge

Tour de Missouri

O’Dear!

Pickle Springs State Natural Area

Hawn State Park

Baetje Farms

Contemplating Corn

Ste. Genevieve Chocolate Walk Pt. I: Hats

Ste. Genevieve Chocolate Walk Pt. II: The Walk

Ste. Genevieve Chocolate Walk Pt. III: Trust

Hello From Big MO, photo by milligfunk

Saturday’s Chocolate Walk in historic Ste. Genevieve, Missouri was a friendly reminder that small town folks are…well…friendly. My mom and I made friends in nearly every shop, and as the day progressed, we came across one shop who’s trusting owner left a sign in the window saying “I went next door to stay warm. Come on in and look around!”

This next shop’s owner must have had a vested interest in the Mineral Area Athletic Association basketball tournament, because he left his chocolate sitting on the street with his own variation on the other shop owner’s friendly note:

Help Yourself, photo by milligfunk

I think it’s worth noting that the same window that holds the “The Cranberry Merchant” sign here is the window that used to hold a black and white photo of the Brooklyn Bridge. I blogged about that storefront window this fall.

In yet another window – this time of a gallery – was an 8.5″ x 11″ piece of paper with friendly, block-printed, Sharpee marker letters saying, “They listed me by accident. I’m not here. Sorry!!!”

Ste. Gen. is the vision of small town life with it’s quaint shops, historic buildings, and incredibly trusting and friendly people. If you find yourself tooling down the the Mississippi Riverfront, I highly recommend a stop in this fantastic little town.

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For other posts related to Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri:

Public Art in Ste. Genevieve

The Brooklyn Bridge

Tour de Missouri

O’Dear!

Pickle Springs State Natural Area

Hawn State Park

Baetje Farms

Contemplating Corn

Ste. Genevieve Chocolate Walk Pt. I: Hats

Ste. Genevieve Chocolate Walk Pt. II: The Walk

Saturday from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., the town of Ste. Genevieve, Missouri held its second annual Chocolate Walk. The walk was designed to promote business in downtown Ste. Genevieve, and it worked! There was $5.00 ticket price, and a list of nearly twenty-five businesses all of whom promised to have something chocolate for each guest to sample.

My mom and I found the Chocolate Walk to be a perfectly wonderful excuse for a mom-daughter day out. We arrived in Ste. Gen. at around noon, skipping lunch and heading straight for the chocolate. Several businesses were already sold out of chocolate tickets when we arrived, so we were given makeshift tickets to use on our walk.

From cookie-covered Hershey’s kisses to heavenly hash to fudge, there was no shortage of chocolate for us to taste. And there were no shortage of people, either – lots of women were out on Saturday, celebrating Valentine’s Day, chocolate, and small town Missouri with their moms, sisters, and girlfriends.

Ste. Genevieve is one of those quaint little Mississippi River towns that makes me happy to be from Missouri. I’ve heard rumor that they hold an awesome spring Garden Tour, and you can bet your boxes of chocolate that I’m gonna do my best to be there for it. Maybe if I’m lucky, the amazing MommaG will join me.

MilliGFunk and MommaG

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For other posts related to Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri:

Public Art in Ste. Genevieve

The Brooklyn Bridge

Tour de Missouri

O’Dear!

Pickle Springs State Natural Area

Hawn State Park

Baetje Farms

Contemplating Corn

Ste. Genevieve Chocolate Walk Pt. I: Hats

While much of the under-30 population of Greater St. Louis imbibed in Soulard today for Mardi Gras, I celebrated my awesome mom by spending the day with her at the Ste. Genevieve, Missouri’s Chocolate Walk.

For the most part, the only thing Mardi Gras-esque about our day today was that Ste. Genevieve – like New Orleans – is a historic, French, Mississippi River town. The pageantry of our trip into Odile’s Linen & Lace, Etc. where we tried on antique hats, was a bit reminiscent of Mardi Gras floats, costumes, and balls.

This isn’t my first time trying on silly hats in an antiques shop. Check out my post from Caledonia, Missouri’s Old Village Mercantile last summer. Life’s hard sometimes, and once in awhile you’ve just GOT to get a little silly to survive it.

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For other posts related to silly hats:

SmallTownGirl’s Many Hats

Maplewood Arts Walk

For other posts related to Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri:

Public Art in Ste. Genevieve

The Brooklyn Bridge

Tour de Missouri

O’Dear!

Pickle Springs State Natural Area

Hawn State Park

Baetje Farms

Contemplating Corn

O'Fallon Wheat

O’Fallon, Missouri isn’t exactly a small Missouri town, but in the nature of learning new things, I’ve decided to share a little bit about this not-so-small town.

What do I know about O’Fallon?

1. Established in 1856

2. Located in St. Charles County, just west of St. Louis

3. Home of the Celebration of Lights

4. Home to O’Fallon Beers

O’Fallon Brewery is a small, family-owned business that was founded in 2000, and I really enjoyed the O’Fallon Gold that I had with dinner following the Celebration of Lights last week. It was my first O’Fallon Beer, and it won’t be my last.

I love it when locally-produced beers outshine the beer world big dogs. Go, O’Fallon!

Baetje Farms Brie, photo by smalltowngirl

I met one of the owners on Saturday at the Apple Butter Festival in Kimmswick, Missouri, and was able to taste several flavors of Baetje brie before deciding to take home dark chocolate brie and brie with cranberry and oranges.

Tasting Baetje Farms Brie, photo by smalltowngirl

The owner of the farm suggested that the cranberry and orange brie would be great used in stuffed pork or chicken, and that the dark chocolate brie would be great with brownies. I spent my Sunday afternoon and evening experimenting on my parents with both suggestions.

The verdict: even my dad, who was raised on a cattle farm and is a good old steak and potato man raved about the chicken. Unfortunately, I was so anxious to eat the chicken that I forgot to photograph it. I’ll definitely be using the recipe again.

Dark Chocolate Brie brownies, photo (and brownies) by smalltowngirl

My mom, who didn’t care for the dark chocolate cheese on crackers, LOVED it in the brownies. I will, without a doubt, purchase more Baetje Farms brie, and it’s my recommendation that you do, too.

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For more information about Baetjie Farms, visit their website at www.baetjefarms.com.

You can find Baetje Farms cheeses at the Soulard Farmers Market, the Clayton Farmers Market, and the Kirkwood Farmers Market. Baetje Farms can also be found at many of Ste. Genevieve’s wineries and restaurants. See their website for a full list of vendors.

Dear FTC: Baetje Farms gives samples to everyone when they’re out at events like the Apple Butter Festival, so I’m pretty sure that doesn’t count as a freebie to get me to blog about them.

Baetje Farms, photo by smalltowngirl

Through the window, photo by smalltowngirl

Ste. Genevieve, Missouri is among the small towns I’ve explored that has a few murals to brag about. The close-up of the guy in the window is great. Check out his missing eye and bubble gum nose…

Bubble gum nose, photo by smalltowngirl

I like think that if this little girl could talk, she’d be saying,  ”Ugggh, PLEASE dude.  Get the gum out of your nose and put your eyeball back in. SEEEriously, dude, uggggh.”

Annoyed and Disgusted, photo by smalltowngirl

And this guy was like, totally inspired by me, trekking around rural Missouri with my camera. Only he’s tall and I’m short, and he’s a dude and I’m not, and he’s got dude hair and I’ve got girl hair. Oh, and I’m pretty sure this mural has been around since before I trekked about Missouri with my camera.

But otherwise, totally and completely inspired by me.

Inspired by smalltowngirl, photo by smalltowngirl

My favorite Ste. Genevieve mural though is this one. I love how it isn’t clearly framed at the edges, creating a real sense of three dimensions.

Ste. Gen Mural, photo by smalltowngirl

New York City still takes the cake where art is concerned, but I think Ste. Genevieve’s murals are evidence of the valiant effort rural Missouri is  making to stay on the cultural maps. Nice work, home state. Nice work.

NYC=1, MO=0.5 (Yes, I’m now scoring in half-points. You got something to say about that?)

Ste. Genevieve is a truly beautiful and historic town, but the part of Ste. Gen I’d like to share with you this morning is just a simple store front window with my reflection in it; a little piece of a place I hold dear to my heart (literally, since I wear a necklace with a pendant of the Brooklyn Bridge most days).

If you look closely, you can see reflections of Ste. Genevieve’s downtown just below an image of the Brooklyn Bridge and New York City.

Brooklyn Bridge - Ste. Gen style, photo by/of smalltowngirl

Today I leave for a weekend trip to Pittsburgh, where a close friend of mine is getting married. Twelve hours in the car today doesn’t leave much time for talking to twitter friends or reminding people that a new post is up, so do a smalltowngirl a favor, and pass this link on to your friends!