Over 650 film shoots take place in Paris each year, and some 4.000 different outside locations have been used by generations of directors. Film Trails have been created for lovers of Paris and the Cinema who want to visit the places where famous films were shot. Here are a few examples of famous films shot in Paris and where to see their shooting locations…

« La Vie en Rose » (aka La Môme, 2007), by Olivier Dayan (France)

This film tells the dramatic story of Edith Piaf, the famous French singer, from poverty to glory, from triumph to despair, from Paris faubourgs to New York…
In her early twenties, Edith Piaf spent her days singing in the streets of Paris. Olivier Dayan filmed Marion Cotillard in her role of Piaf (for which she was awarded an Oscar of Best Actress in 2008) singing for her supper while her friend Momone (Sylvie Testud) passes the hat. The upper streets of the Belleville of the 1930s were recreated in Montmartre for the film, on rue Androuet, a typical small Montmartre street just below rue Lepic. Another Montmartre setting is shown when Edith and Momone run up a flight of stairs on rue Drevet. These two places are very close to the Terrass Hôtel, unique four-star hotel in Montmartre, and to its restaurant, Le Diapason. Here are other filming locations of La Vie en Rose in Paris: Boulevard Lannes, where Edith Piaf lived the last 10 years of her life, L’Olympia, one of the most famous music hall of Paris, the Père Lachaise Cemetery, where Piaf is buried, and Place Edith Piaf, in Belleville, where she was born.

« The Devil Wears Prada » (2006), by David Frankel (USA)

As Miranda Priestly’s (Meryl Streep) assistant, Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) is sent to Paris to cover the fashion week in Paris for the magazine Runway. Among the numerous parisian settings depicted in the film, there is the Pont des Arts, the famous footbridge linking the Louvre to the Institut de France. First iron bridge of Paris, it was built in 1802. In the film, Andy rushes across the bridge from Saint Germain des Prés, on the Left Bank. Five minutes from the Seine River, in the heart of Saint Germain, are set three great hotels: Hôtel de Buci, Artus Hotel and Madison Hotel.
The Devil Wears Prada has also been shot in the Concorde area: Avenue Montaigne, where many haute couture shops lay (Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Dior, Prada…), Musée Galéria, which is the Fashion Museum of the city of Paris, or the Petit Palais, which is the Fine Arts Museum of the City of Paris, and which regularly helds events like haute couture fashion shows. The Hotel Bourgogne & Montana is located across the bridge from Place de la Concorde, on Place du Palais Bourbon, a very safe and central location.

 « Amélie » (aka Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain, 2001), by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (France)

Many scenes of Amélie have been filmed in the district of Montmartre, around the Terrass Hotel. In the film, Amélie (aka Audrey Tautou) works on rue Lepic, at the Café des Deux Moulins, where you can have a crème brulée. Amélie lives on rue des Trois Frères, above the Marché de la Butte greengrocer, in the Abbesses area of Montmartre. Nino, the passport photo collector, works in Pigalle, at the foot of the hill. Many other Montmartre locations have been used by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, himself an inhabitant of Montmartre. 

Among the films and TV series shot in Paris or inspired by Paris are also the Da Vinci Code, Ratatouille, Chéri, Everybody says I love You, Paris, je t’aime, Gainsbourg, vie héroïque, or Sex and the City. Find other Paris Film Trails on Paris City website.