Maxime Le Forestier: San Francisco
Maxime Le Forestier, 1973
Bruno Le Forestier was born in Paris in 1949 but later changed his first name to Maxime. He and his older sister Catherine (Cat) began playing in Left Bank Parisian cabarets in 1965, covering songs written by Georges Moustaki.
In July 1971, they won first prize in a song competition at the Festival de Spa (Belgium), for a song that Cat wrote and sang (“Au pays de ton corps”) and Maxime accompanied on guitar. They used their prize money for their trip to San Francisco.
As a sidebar to this story, in May 1971 Maxime had been tasked to greet American singer Joan Baez at the Cannes film festival. She was there to perform “Here’s to You, Nicola and Bart,” her ballad from the film score that Ennio Morricone had written for the movie “Sacco and Vanzetti.” Joan arrived and "did Cannes" in full plumage (left).
Shortly after, when Baez returned to France for a concert in Paris, Maxime found his new friend in tears at the airport. Her 1880 Martin guitar had cracked on the trip. Maxime took her and the guitar for repairs to Jacques Favino, a famous Italian luthier in Paris. When they returned the next day and asked Favino how much it cost, he replied “repair work is free.” Baez gave him $1000 and said: “in this case, you build a guitar for Maxime.”
Maxime Le Forestier included “San Francisco” in his 1973 debut album “Mon Frère.” This song soon became the French equivalent of Scott McKenzie’s 1967 “San Francisco--Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair.” It was an anthem for travel-animated French people, and the “maison bleue” described in the song became an icon for them. The lyrics were strewn with era and place-appropriate images (“long-haired people,” “flooded with music,” “swimming in the fog”) and it was populated by the names of real people (“Tom on the guitar,” “Phil on the quena,” Luc, Lizard and Psylvia). The album itself, for reasons evident from its cover picture, was widely known as the “rose album” and was a smash hit in France.
That year, an enterprising journalist named Alexis Venifleis tracked down the house at 3841 18th Street between Church and Sanchez. In 2011, to celebrate Maxime’s 40th anniversary at his record label Polydor, the owners of the house accepted a free paint job to return it to the original blue. On June 21, 2011, Maxime himself applied the final brush stroke on the house. The next day, the French Consul hung a plaque over the garage explaining the historical significance of the house.
Ironically, Maxime had been scheduled to hold a concert at the Herbst theater on June 24, but the concert was cancelled due to work permit and visa complications. Nevertheless, he showed up as a tourist to cut the ribbon for the plaque unveiling, accompanied by Phil and Psylvia Gurk (Tessler) who are both namechecked in the song.
The actual "Maison Bleue," squeezed between two other Victorians, bears little resemblance to the mental image of sitting alone on a hillside that many French people conjured in their fantasies, but memory and imagination have tricks to play. By 2024, this off-market former hippie commune in Dolores Heights measured more than 3,000 square feet with 5 bedrooms, 3+ baths, and carried an estimated value of nearly 4 million dollars.
Phil Polizzato wrote a book in 2008 titled “Hunga Dunga: Confessions of an Unapalogetic Hippie,” published by Dog Ear press and later in French as “C’est une maison bleue” (Les Arènes 2017). “Hunga Dunga” is a nonsensical reference to a skit in the 1930 Marx Brothers movie “Animal Crackers” where Groucho dictates a letter to his lawyer at the ficticious firm of Hungadunga, Hungadunga, Hungadunga, and McCormick. The name has also been adopted by a brewery in Moscow, Idaho. Luc Alexandre contracted AIDS in 1983 and died 10 years later at the Bichat Hospital in Paris. Maxime's sister Cat left San Francisco for Morocco where she remained 7 years, changed her name to Aziza (a popular Arab name throughout the region meaning "beloved, precious, mighty"), got married, had children and performed in a musical group called Babel. She later returned to France.
As for Maxime, as of 2024 he was going strong at 75 with a full schedule of concerts and his song has withstood the test of time. The original 1972 version below is accompanied in the video by photos of San Francisco taken by French tourists.
Maxime Le Forestier Songs:
San Francisco (below)
Né Quelque Part (Born Somewhere)
Passer ma route (Going My Way)
C'est une maison bleue,
Adossée à la colline.
On y vient à pied, on ne frappe pas.
Ceux qui vivent là, ont jeté la clé.
On se retrouve ensemble,
Après des années de route.
Et l'on vient s'asseoir, autour du repas,
Tout le monde est là, à cinq heures du soir.
Quand San Francisco s'embrume,
Quand San Francisco s'allume,
San Francisco, où êtes vous ?
Lizard et Luc, Psylvia, attendez-moi !
Nageant dans le brouillard,
Enlacés, roulant dans l'herbe,
On écoutera Tom à la guitare,
Phil à la quena, jusqu'à la nuit noire.
Un autre arrivera
Pour nous dire des nouvelles
D'un qui reviendra dans un an ou deux;
Puisqu'il est heureux, on s'endormira.
Quand San Francisco se lève,
Quand San Francisco se lève,
San Francisco ! où êtes vous ?
Lizard et Luc, Psylvia, attendez-moi !
C'est une maison bleue,
Accrochée à ma mémoire.
On y vient à pied, on ne frappe pas.
Ceux qui vivent là, ont jeté la clef.
Peuplée de cheveux longs,
De grands lits et de musique,
Peuplée de lumière, et peuplée de fous,
Elle sera dernière à rester debout.
Si San Francisco s'effondre,
Si San Francisco s'effondre,
San Francisco ! Où êtes vous ?
Lizard et Luc, Psylvia, attendez-moi !
It's a blue house,
Backed up against the hillside.
We come there on foot, we don't knock,
People who live there threw away the key.
We meet together,
After years on the road.
And we come there to sit, around a meal,
Everyone is there, at five in the evening.
When San Francisco gets foggy,
When San Francisco lights up,
San Francisco, where have you gone?
Lizard and Luc, Psylvia, wait for me!
Swimming in the fog,
Embracing, rolling on the grass,
We'll hear Tom on the guitar,
Phil on the quena, until darkest night.
Another will arrive,
To tell us news
About someone who'll return in a year or two,
Since he is happy, we will fall asleep.
When San Francisco awakens,
When San Francisco awakens,
San Francisco! Where are you?
Lizard and Luc, Psylvia, wait for me!
It's a blue house,
Fixed in my memory.
We come there on foot, we don't knock,
People who live there threw away the key.
Populated by long-hairs,
Large beds and music.
Invaded with light, crowded with lunatics,
It will be the last to remain standing.
If San Francisco collapses,
If San Francisco collapses,
San Francisco! Where are you?
Lizard and Luc, Psylvia, wait for me!
“Phil à la quena:” the quena is a traditional wooden flute from the central Andes.