Since the Gold Rush days, Sacramento has been sopping up French culture like Normandy butter on a warm Parisian croissant.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The connection began in 1848 with the migration of some 30,000 pioneers from France (mostly to San Francisco), which continued into the 1850s. Some found Sacramento to be their new home. The tech boom of the late \u201890s brought a second wave of French to the areas north of Sacramento with an influx of engineers and brains who used Folsom as a hub for computer chip process design.<\/p>\n
\u00c9tienne G\u00e9rard emigrated to Folsom from France to work for Intel on Linux systems. In 2000, he teamed up with B\u00e9atrice Hildebrand to establish Alliance Fran\u00e7aise de Sacramento<\/a>, the area\u2019s link to French culture, history and language. G\u00e9rard has since become a board member. Hildebrand served as executive director until 2016.<\/p>\n Sacramento was a perfect place for the group, G\u00e9rard said.<\/p>\n \u201cSacramentans are very curious,\u201d he noted. \u201cThe city has an appetite for French culture.\u201d<\/p>\n French history, language and culture come to Sactown<\/p>\n G\u00e9rard and current Executive Director Fr\u00e9d\u00e9rique Lamort run classes and events from the CLARA building at 24th and N streets.<\/p>\n In what looks like an old red brick and tile-roofed French schoolhouse, they are seated in the organization\u2019s library where the French Tricolore and an American flag soar behind them. G\u00e9rard sports a crisp French blue linen shirt; Lamort exudes Parisian savoir faire with stylish sterling silver hair and Herm\u00e8s scarf. The duo looks like they\u2019ve stepped off a yacht in Cannes.<\/p>\n \u201cSeptember 2000 was our first session,\u201d Lamort explained, noting that each Alliance Fran\u00e7aise operates as a franchise under an international foundation. The organization\u2019s overarching goal \u2014 with its strong ties to the French Consulate and Ministry of Foreign Affairs \u2014 is to promote all things French.<\/p>\n Today, the local organization has over 300 members and 250 students from everywhere from Davis to Auburn to Midtown, Lamort said.<\/p>\n With strong Francophile interest northeast of the city, Lamort tasked G\u00e9rard with extending the organization\u2019s events to the Folsom area, where the organization holds events like ap\u00e9ro aperitif socials and p\u00e9tanque picnics where players enjoy snacks and converse in French while throwing chrome balls as close as possible to a target cochonnet.<\/p>\n The group had a recent p\u00e9tanque picnic on a May Saturday at a sports complex near Mather Field, where Carol Nyman was spotted tossing a ball.<\/p>\n \u201cDeux points,\u201d she shouted. She\u2019s a member and retired social worker who \u201cloves all things French.\u201d<\/p>\n Nyman started taking classes at Alliance Fran\u00e7aise a decade ago and loves the fun of learning another culture, she said. The organization steeps its students and members in culture, which was in plain view at today\u2019s picnic.<\/p>\n In between nibbles of home-baked madeleine cookies and sips of a blood-red Bourgogne, six players gathered round tossing a shiny chrome ball on the sand court. The purpose of the sport isn\u2019t just winning, the players explain; it\u2019s about the convivialit\u00e9 it fosters between them.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an eye opener to learn about different cultures, geography and history,\u201d said Manuel Camacho, who is in the Thursday Alliance Fran\u00e7aise night language class working toward intermediate level. Camacho, a polyglot, also speaks Italian and Spanish, while English is his second language.<\/p>\n Student Joe Flynn, originally from Connecticut and an athletics fundraiser, takes French lessons every Thursday night. His wife is Swiss and his father-in-law speaks French, so Joe is doing his part to bond more closely with his in-laws. Alliance Fran\u00e7aise was a natural fit.<\/p>\n \u201cI got started when I went to Paris the first time,\u201d Flynn said, holding his \u201cPr\u00eat \u00e0 Parler\u201d textbook after his two-hour, 10-week language class.<\/p>\n \u201cI just love the Parisian lifestyle, sitting there on the sidewalk, chairs facing the street, everyone\u2019s smoking cigarettes.\u201d<\/p>\n He says people in France have avoided the American path of work-hustle and are more interested in enjoying life. His class recently had an evening classroom potluck spread that included fresh baked baguettes, wine, cheese, p\u00e2t\u00e9, duck legs and dessert. As would be done in France, there were no paper plates; instead, the classroom table was appointed with silverware, candles and china.<\/p>\n Alliance Fran\u00e7aise collaborates with local universities, including Sacramento State\u2019s French program<\/a>, for cultural and educational exchange and often connects students to the Alliance for cultural immersion.<\/p>\n A year-long membership<\/a> currently ranges from $35 for seniors to $85 for families and includes all activities. Tuition for language courses currently costs $330 for a 10-week intensive course. Classes are limited to 12 students but are typically smaller.<\/p>\n A taste for French cinema<\/p>\n \u201cWhen my son Cl\u00e9ment was in kindergarten, he wrote a poem about me,\u201d C\u00e9cile Downs, founding director of the Sacramento French Film Festival<\/a>, said.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018Everything is so big. Everything is so small,\u2019 he wrote about me,\u201d she said. Downs had just stepped into the Tower Caf\u00e9 that sunny May afternoon, looking like she wandered in from a field in Provence, her signature French peasant scarf draped over blonde and grey curls. She is indeed petite.<\/p>\n Make no mistake about Downs\u2019 stature, though: She\u2019s a cultural dynamo. The Sacramento French Film festival is now celebrating its 25th season, making it the second-largest French film festival on the West Coast, trailing only Los Angeles. This year, the three-day event kicks off June 26\u201328<\/a> at the historic Tower Theatre. (Follow the website for ticket updates.)<\/p>\n Downs said that reaching this milestone was no easy feat. In the beginning, the idea ran into strong headwinds. She says she owes the success to the team of volunteers who pitch in to do everything from fundraising to ticket sales and ushering.<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t have the support of the city or the consulate,\u201d she recalled. \u201cWe had to just start it on our own.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the lack of backing, Downs pushed forward and discovered a genuine local appetite for French cinema. She attributes the festival\u2019s ultimate longevity to Sacramento\u2019s \u201ceagerness for something different.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSacramento was a natural place for a French film festival,\u201d Downs said. \u201cWe found that people here will take anything you offer culturally.\u201d<\/p>\n Sacramento shares France\u2019s farm-to-fork tradition<\/p>\n The appetite for French culture doesn\u2019t end with classrooms and movies. Restaurants in the area are feeding that appetite with delicious French food. Sacramento\u2019s farm-to-fork movement overlaps France\u2019s regional \u201cdu terroir\u201d approach to eating.<\/p>\n \u201cDu terroir means \u2018from the earth of that place,\u2019\u201d G\u00e9rard explained. It\u2019s the difference between a Lodi old vine zinfandel\u2019s fruit-and-leather and the flintiness of a Napa sauvignon blanc. \u201cEach climate and soil gives a soul and spirit to the food it produces,\u201d G\u00e9rard said.<\/p>\n G\u00e9rard, Lamort and Downs gave a few suggestions for a list of French-inspired restaurants to check out in the area. It took more than just croissants and pain au chocolat to make this cut!<\/p>\n Midtown classic French Brasserie Du Monde<\/a> could as easily be perched along the Champs \u00c9lys\u00e9e with its classic, white-orbed bistro lighting and simple hearty foods like b\u0153uf bourguignon and melty croque-monsieur sandwiches layered with ham, gruy\u00e8re and b\u00e9chamel.<\/p>\n Similar brasserie style can be found at Plan B<\/a> with its ribeye au poivre and moules mariniere plates. The restaurant serves daily special tartelettes, puff pastry stuffed with a rotating list of ingredients from fennel and leek to tomato or cheese.<\/p>\n Across the river, West Sac looks more like the Left Bank at Franquette<\/a>, where locals lean over quartzite-topped bars, savor varietal French wines, enjoy mushroom galettes and pull apart buttery, still-warm walnut croissants served by a Paris-trained husband and wife team.<\/p>\n Half an hour north, Catherine\u2019s Cr\u00eaperie<\/a> is a cozy mom-and-pop Parisian-style cr\u00eape shop operated by French native Catherine Bonnefoy in the train depot in Historic Folsom. Alliance Fran\u00e7aise holds its Folsom ap\u00e9ro socials there.<\/p>\n O Caf\u00e9<\/a> is a family-owned French bakery and bistro in Fair Oaks Village serving made-from-scratch French pastries, buckwheat galettes, quiches and artisan espresso drinks in a cozy Parisian-themed atmosphere.\u00a0Meanwhile, Estelle Bakery<\/a> offers laminated pastries, macarons, choux, quiche and fruit tartines from locations in Davis, Downtown Sacramento and Arden-Arcade.<\/p>\n James Smith\u00a0is a member of the Abridged Community Reporters program. A retired nurse investigator for the state of California, James studies French and bikes along the American River Parkway in his free time. He lives in Midtown with his husband of 26 years.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Lamort-1024x576.jpg.webp\")
Alliance Fran\u00e7aise Executive Director Fr\u00e9d\u00e9rique Dumort, left, and founding board member \u00c9tienne G\u00e9rard at Alliance Francaise\u2019s library in the CLARA building on May 6, 2026. (James Smith)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Petanque-1024x576.jpg.webp\")
Alliance Fran\u00e7aise Sacramento students and members enjoy an afternoon of p\u00e9tanque and French snacks in Rancho Cordova on May 16, 2026. (James Smith)<\/p>\n![\"Students](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/AF-DINNER-1024x576.jpg.webp\")
Alliance Fran\u00e7aise students raise a glass at a potluck class session on May 20, 2026. (James Smith)<\/p>\n