In solidarity with Paris, San Francisco’s city hall has been lit with the colors of the French flag since terror attacks took place in seven locations around the City of Light on Friday, November 13. The two cities share a bohemian past peopled by Beat writers as well as a cafe culture supportive of artists and intellectuals. Poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, inspired by the left bank’s Shakespeare and Company bookstore founded City Lights when he settled in San Francisco’s North Beach after studying at the Sorbonne, and the famed Judgement of Paris, in 1976, put the Bay Area’s northern wine region on the global map when Cabernets and Chardonnays won rave reviews from French tasters. In a show of support for victims of the recent attacks in Paris, San Francisco’s city hall glowed in red, white, and blue, and, by Tuesday, November 17, the colors were properly rearranged to reflect the pattern of le tricolore, the French flag used by citizens of the republic since 1830.

By Elizabeth Varnell

Pictured: San Francisco city hall lit up with the color pattern of the French flag.
Photo by Jason Fernschuss