Perched just below the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, three hundred miles south of Chicago and north of Memphis, cosmopolitan ST LOUIS (pronounced, whatever any song might say, as Lewis) owes its vaguely European air to its history and developed cultural infrastructure. Any city capable of producing two of the twentieth century's greatest poets - T.S. Eliot and Chuck Berry - probably has a lot going for it. St Louis was founded in 1764 by the French fur trader Pierre Laclede , but the American immigration that followed its sale to the US under the Louisiana Purchase all but extinguished the refinement it had gained during French and Spanish rule. It subsequently became crucial as the major gateway for pioneers on the wagon trails westward. Transportation - first steamboats, then trains and now air haulage - has long been the basis of its considerable industrial strength. However, St Louis has not always had an easy ride. Downtown reached a nadir during the 1970s, but the years since then have seen a remarkable turnaround, with attractions on the revitalized riverfront including the magnificent Gateway Arch and the restored warehouses of Laclede's Landing . Try not to leave without sampling the outlying districts. To the west lie arty Central West End and studenty University (or "U") City , on either side of prodigious Forest Park with its museums and playing fields. The blue-collar southside features the markets, antique shops and jazz pubs of Soulard and the Italian shops and cafés of the Hill . Directly across the river in Illinois, East St Louis , once the stomping ground of jazz stars like Miles Davis and John Coltrane, has very little to offer visitors.