Wikimedia Commons The statue of King Louis IX, the namesake of the City of St. Louis, has stood atop Art Hill in Forest Park since 1906.
Evie Hemphill
Isabelle Heidbreder has lived in St. Louis for 22 years. She s the executive director of Alliance Française de St. Louis.
A walk around St. Louis is a subtle reminder of how the French have influenced the city. Street names such as Laclede and Chouteau refer to fur trader Pierre Laclède and his stepson Auguste Chouteau, who constructed a trading post here in 1764. They named it St. Louis after Louis IX, a 13th-century French king who achieved sainthood in 1297.