Ever wondered where Emily in Paris was filmed? Or the location of Amélie’s café? Find these and more on our starry tour of the French capital
The French capital has long been a star filming location for film and TV, from shows like Emily in Paris (pictured top) to Amélie and The Da Vinci Code. Expedia’s Unpack ’24 report found that over half of vacationers have researched a destination after seeing it on screen—so book your next break and explore the locations of much-loved movies and series, all set to a Parisian backdrop.
The improbably perfect Parisian life of the 20-something marketing assistant is centered around Place de l’Estrapade in the Latin Quarter. The Rue de Fossés Saint-Jacques, which runs through the square, is home to Emily’s apartment, her bakery-of-choice La Boulangerie Moderne, and Gabriel’s restaurant, which was set in Terra Nera—in real life, an Italian bistro. The glitzy Savoir agency is in Place de Valois, near Bistrot Valois, where the staff head for a vin blanc or three after a hard day’s marketing champagne sprays and luxury watches.
Then there are the gardens of the Palais Royal, where Emily lunches with new pal Mindy. Other locations include Palais Garnier, the opera house famous for The Phantom of the Opera and the extravagant Pont Alexandre III (also seen in Midnight in Paris). To easily visit multiple Emily in Paris locations, book a walking tour.
Private tour of Emily in Paris filming locations
This glorious piece of Parisian cinema was filmed in Montmartre, 18th arrondissement, a visitor hotspot famed for the Sacré Coeur (itself a star in Amélie) and a rich art history—as well as being home to two windmills and an inner-city vineyard. Among the most notable streets are the winding, picturesque Rue de l’Abreuvoir, and Rue Lepic, home to Vincent Van Gogh and the Café des 2 Moulins, where Audrey Tautou’s Amélie worked. An essential pilgrimage point for fans, the tabac counter is gone, but all else remains familiar—there’s even a crème brûlée, the dessert beloved of Amélie, named after her on the menu.
Around the corner is Maison Collignon, the grocery store below Amélie’s apartment, which has held on to the signage from the movie and sells souvenirs alongside the pêches and pommes de terre. Outside Montmartre, the Canal Saint-Martin, a tree-lined waterway and the focal point of an increasingly hip neighborhood, is where Amélie often partook in a spot of stone skipping.
Many a scene from Call My Agent!, the global Netflix smash about the beleaguered agents at a talent agency, was filmed on Rue de Rivoli, a hop and skip from the Louvre and running alongside the Jardin des Tuileries. The agency is situated around the corner at 149 Rue Saint-Honoré. Many of Paris’s finest eateries feature in scenes where the agents wine and dine their actor clients, or star in dramas of their own. Famous brasserie Le Grand Colbert (2 Rue Vivienne) features in the classic scene where Mathias collides with his wife and secretary (and mistress) while dining with his estranged secret daughter and her mother. Awkward.
An affordable option with a staggering view is the Les Îlots de Chaillot (at the dance theater of the same name), where Mathias gets dumped by his celebrity clients. Eat brunch while marveling over the Eiffel Tower, in surroundings you’d expect a higher price tag for.
A cultural guide to Paris
Nine years after their (very) whirlwind Viennese romance, Before Sunrise, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy have their second 12-hour get-together in Paris. The go-to location is the famous Shakespeare & Company Bookshop, a local institution on the banks of the Seine opposite Notre-Dame. This isn’t the store’s only cinematic rodeo—it also featured in Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris and Nora Ephron’s Julie & Julia.
In Before Sunset, there is a whole lot of flâneuring by the lovebirds along Rue Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre, home of one of the oldest churches in Paris, and a boat trip along Quai de la Tournelle. The other must-do location is Le Pure Café (14 Rue Jean-Macé), where they stop for a café au lait and a cheeky Gauloise. Typically Parisian, it’s also excellent for non-French fodder (poke bowls and butter chicken are signature dishes) should you tire of croque monsieurs—were such a thing possible.
Hugo, Martin Scorsese’s family-friendly adventure about a boy living in Montparnasse station in the 1930s, featured scenes with Hugo (Asa Butterfield) and Isabelle (Chloë Grace Moretz) in the stunning reading room of Bibliothèque de Sainte-Geneviève (10 Place du Panthéon); while Ben Kingsley filmed at the Théâtre de l’Athénée-Louis-Jouvet (7 Rue Boudreau).
Die-hards will also want to visit the Musée d’Orsay (formerly Gare d’Orsay) to admire the clock, which was the inspiration for the clock Hugo looks after in the movie.
Robert Langdon, The Da Vinci Code‘s “professor of symbology” had impeccable taste in hotels—staying at the grandiose Ritz Paris while attempting to crack the Da Vinci mystery. If it remains resolutely off budget as a place to lay your head after a day of set-jetting, then experience the French capital’s swishest hotel with the famous grand brunch on Sundays, or a Serendipity cocktail in Bar Hemingway.
Of course, the movie also famously features the Louvre, the Palais Royal, and the Saint-Sulpice Church, the third largest in Paris—though only the exterior because the city’s archdiocese refused permission for filming inside.
Lara Kilner is a lifestyle journalist who has contributed to The Times, The Telegraph, and more. She has traveled extensively through five continents, but her most memorable trip was the one on which she met her Malaysian husband.
