French San Francisco

Nineteenth-century California was not a destination for the faint of heart, and Frenchmen are usually said to prefer their slippers to their traveling boots. Yet many visitors from France--starting in 1786 with legendary explorer Count de LapAA(c)rouse--made their way to the remote and beautiful territory, leaving enduring accounts and images of their experience. As France's troubled revolutionary era began in the 1840s, tens of thousands of Frenchmen journeyed to California's goldfields. Some found wealth, others freedom, and some death. Many remained in San Francisco, helping shape the city and make it French from the inside.

Author and native of France Claudine Chalmers, Ph.D., was so captivated by the tales of these pioneers that she devoted years of study to their influence on California's development, following their trail from the goldfields to San Francisco. Her research, encompassing museums, libraries, and collectors in France and California, contributed to her doctorate in 1991 and is used here with vintage images to illustrate the roles of the French in the city's early years. From the days of "Paris of the West," to the bakeries, businesses, and schools of the modern era, there has always been a large French presence in the City by the Bay.