PARIS There is a constant buzz on the Parisian filming locations of the popular TV series.
Emily in Paris tourists want to eat at a restaurant featured in the series and take a selfie in front of the main character’s home in the fifth arrondissement of Paris. Some are dressed in brightly colored berets and minidresses in the style of the TV series.
– This fan journey of ours has been absolutely wonderful! We have watched all three seasons and are very much looking forward to the next one, the Spanish one Give it says.
She is in Paris for the first time with her daughter Darian with and says that the travel destination was chosen specifically inspired by the Emily in Paris TV series.
– We celebrated my daughter’s birthday and ate, of course [sarjan miespäähenkilön] Gabriel’s in the restaurant. It was an unforgettable evening, Anna smiles.
“Paris is presented as an amusement park where only the super rich live”
The series produced by the streaming service Netflix is filmed Emily Cooperromantic adventures of an American woman in postcard-like beautiful Paris.
Over-eager Emily poses in fashion creations and suffers from cultural differences and the cross pressure of rude French colleagues.
Emily in Paris is fiction, but its locations are real. However, they have been photographed without tourist traffic jams and piles of dog poop.
The series has especially annoyed the French, who think it reduces Paris to a bundle of clichés and outdated stereotypes. For example, the deputy mayor of Paris David Bellard described the series as reactionary.
– The series depicts a city that never changes. Paris is presented in it as an amusement park where only the super rich live in uniformly classical buildings.
– The surface of that Instagram Paris has been smoothed out to be boring and flawless, Bellard stated in an interview with the newspaper Libération (you go to another service) shortly after the third season of the series was released.
The series was created by the person known for the Single Life series Darren Starr. The first season was released in 2020 and it made it to the most watched list of streaming services in Finland, Spain and the United States, among others. The third season was released last December.
“The real Paris is not as perfect, every place smells like piss”
The Emily in Paris tourists who arrived in Paris, on the other hand, seem to appreciate the exaggerated romance of the series. Many say the TV series brought a welcome escape from reality during the holiday of war news and high electricity bills.
Friends sitting in front of Emily’s home Sun and Jasmin say that they are fans of the camp spirit of the series: impractical and colorful outfits and men who are more handsome than the other.
– Everything in the series is so incredibly wonderful! Unfortunately, the real Paris is not as perfect: the subway doesn’t work and everywhere smells like piss, laughs Su from Hong Kong.
– Paris was a city we were already familiar with, but if you’ve only watched Netflix, the city’s everyday life and certain shabbiness can come as a bit of a shock, the German Jasmin adds.
Tourist congestion and rising prices annoy some of the city dwellers
The tourist traffic jams caused by the series have increased the prices of hotels and services, which also annoys some of the townspeople. For example, the bakery featured in the series is so popular these days that the real residents of the block can’t fit inside.
The Hamam of the Paris mosque, which appeared in the first production season of the series, has on the other hand doubled the price of its sauna sessions to curb the number of people.
However, many entrepreneurs are also satisfied. Running an interior design store located on the corners of the Panthéon Beatrice Serpil says that foreign tourists saved the whole business.
– Earlier, this street was quite quiet and the coronavirus pandemic made it worse. The TV series has brought people to the block and suddenly the business is doing well, Serpil smiles.
Internet searches for apartments in Paris have increased tenfold
The TV series has made many foreigners even dream of moving to Paris.
According to French real estate agents, online searches for apartments in Paris increased tenfold in the week immediately following the release of the third season. The Americans and the British have been particularly interested.
The lift brought by the TV series is more visible in short-term rentals, but the US buyers are also enthusiastic.
– The dollar’s exchange rate has strengthened since the summer, which has boosted trade. However, these buyers are only interested in luxury apartments in the most desirable blocks, and the phenomenon therefore does not reflect the situation of the entire Paris housing market, says a Parisian real estate agent Julien Garnier.
According to Garnier, however, most of the enthusiasm generated by the TV series remains at the level of daydreaming.
“Foreigners fantasize about moving to Paris, but internet searches done on the Emily drug are unlikely to materialize into action,” says Garnier.
However, there is no quick end to the Emily and Paris addiction, as the series is already in its fourth season.