South of St. Louis, to avoid the sprawling suburbia, take I-55 as far as exit 162, where you can rejoin the GRR by picking up US-61 south. If you don’t blink, you may even catch sight of one of Missouri’s rare pilot’s-wheel signs as the busy road ascends a ridge with a fine western panorama. About 55 miles south of St. Louis’s I-270/255 beltway, the GRR reaches the outskirts of Sainte Genevieve, one of several French trading posts established along the Mississippi in the wake of La Salle’s 17th-century expedition. The town’s new trade is tourism, as the B&Bs, “fine dining,” and shops clearly illustrate, but the beauty of Sainte Genevieve lies in its restored 18th- to 19th-century remnants, including a brick belle of a Southern Hotel ($80 and up; 573/883-3493), at 146 S. 3rd Street, one of the oldest hotels west of the Mississippi River. Sara’s Ice Cream (573/883-5890), down toward the water at 124 Merchant Street, provides yet more tasteful distractions, with great handmade ice cream cones, old-fashioned soda fountain drinks and milkshakes.
Since US-61 doesn’t enter town, follow the small blue Tourist Information signs down to the old waterfront to find the area’s historic places, and visit the Great River Road Interpretive Center (daily; free; 573/883-7097 or 800/373-7007) at 66 S. Main Street to learn about the town’s past and present.
To head south, go north: the Mississippi River-Modoc Ferry (daily; $8; 573/883-7382) to Modoc, Illinois, is almost three miles out of town. Follow Main Street north until it dead-ends at the ferry landing. On the Illinois side, twelve rural crop-lined miles from the Modoc Ferry we rejoin the GRR, heading south on Hwy-3 toward Chester.
