{"id":22890,"date":"2016-01-28T23:34:05","date_gmt":"2016-01-28T22:34:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=22890"},"modified":"2017-10-24T14:57:44","modified_gmt":"2017-10-24T12:57:44","slug":"what-does-this-house-in-san-francisco-have-to-do-with-the-french","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/what-does-this-house-in-san-francisco-have-to-do-with-the-french\/","title":{"rendered":"What Does This House in San Francisco Have to do with the French?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Exactly one year ago today, I hopped on a plane to go visit a friend in San Francisco. I’d originally only planned to stay for 5 weeks, mais je suis tomb\u00e9 amoureux de la ville<\/strong> (but I fell in love with the city), and I never left. Whoops. I was excited about what it had to offer me: a surprisingly small city with a big city feel, more restaurants than I could ever dream of trying, a large francophone community, and most importantly, an opera house right downtown! When you think of San Francisco, certain images pop into mind: the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, the Transamerica Pyramid, the famous Castro theatre, the Fisherman’s Wharf and lots and lots of fog (his name is Karl<\/a>, by the way). In addition to these, the city also has a landmark that’s well known to the French, but for everyone else, it’s just a simple blue house…<\/p>\n

In 1971, Catherine Le Forestier and her younger brother Maxime, both musicians, took the prize money they’d won at a music festival and travelled to San Francisco. Their friend, Belgian actor Luc Alexandre, gave them an address and told them they could stay there. When they arrived, they met a group of hippies who called themselves Hunga Dunga. Maxime later wrote in his autobiography that they arrived at \u00ab une maison bond\u00e9e de hippies et d\u2019insoumis, sans tabous sexuels<\/strong> ni d\u2019aucune sorte, qui mangeaient bio et v\u00e9g\u00e9tarien pour prendre le contre-pied de l\u2019Am\u00e9rique des hamburgers<\/strong> \u00bb (a house full of hippies and draft dodgers with no sexual or other taboos and who ate a vegetarian and organic diet to take the opposing view against Hamburger America).<\/p>\n

The blue house, located at 3841 18th Street in the Castro district, proved to be a source of \u00ab libert\u00e9 <\/strong>\u00bb (freedom) for the Le Forestier siblings. Upon his return to France, Maxime says he essentially became a figurehead for hippies in France.<\/p>\n

When they returned to France, Maxime and Catherine received a letter and drawings from the members of Hunga Dunga. Despite all the evenings discussing politics with Hunga Dunga, Maxime didn’t feel his English was strong enough to return an adequate heartfelt message. Instead, he picked up a guitar and wrote about his summer in the City by the Bay.<\/p>\n

The song was recorded on Maxime’s album Mon fr\u00e8re<\/em><\/strong>, released in 1972. This album brought Le Forestier much success, and “San Francisco” became a musical staple of the 70s.<\/p>\n

For years, French tourists in the city tried to find the famous blue<\/a> house, but it was all in vain. Finally, in 2010, the house was located. And suddenly it all made sense: tourists had trouble finding the house because it had been painted light green<\/a>! In 2011, to celebrate Maxime’s 40th anniversary at his record label, the owners of the house were offered a free paint job if the label could paint it the original blue. On June 21, 2011, Maxime made the final brush stroke on the house. The next day, a plaque was hung explaining the historical significance.<\/p>\n

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