Godard's New Wave milestone: a petty thief and an American student drift through a black-and-white Paris that still exists block by block.
Every place checked against public sources
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Michel is a small-time thief (Jean-Paul Belmondo), Patricia an American student (Jean Seberg). Start on the Champs-Élysées, where she sells the New York Herald Tribune with Michel at her side. Her newspaper's office at 21 Rue de Berri, where the director Godard makes a cameo, and the Dior windows on Avenue Montaigne are each a short walk away.
On the Left Bank, the Hôtel de Suède, where the long scene in Patricia's room was shot, is two minutes from the lane where Michel looks for a car to steal. Finish in Montparnasse: Le Select and Rue Campagne-Première, the street of the final scene, are about five minutes apart. One day is enough, with a metro ride between areas.
Le Mac-Mahon, the cinema where Patricia shakes off a detective, still shows classic films, so you can end the day in front of a screen. Midnight in Paris also stops at Shakespeare and Company, next to Michel's lane.
12 places from the story: filming locations and other places linked to it.
Showing 11 of 12
The famous sequence of Jean Seberg selling the New York Herald Tribune as Belmondo walks beside her, shot guerrilla-style along this stretch with a camera hidden in a postal cart.
Access · Public space
Not in the film, but a pilgrimage for cinephiles: Jean Seberg, who plays Patricia, is buried here.
Access · Public space
The final scene, with Belmondo collapsing in the middle of this narrow street. The angle is instantly recognizable from the ground.
Access · Public space. People live here: keep your voice down and don't ring the bells.
Patricia shakes off the detective tailing her by ducking into this single-screen cinema, then showing Otto Preminger's Whirlpool, and slipping out through the toilets. A stone's throw from the Arc de Triomphe, the Mac-Mahon still runs classic-film programmes behind an updated frontage.
Access · Ticket required for the interior
In the film's night-time stretch Michel hunts along Boulevard du Montparnasse for the friend who owes him money, and this 1923 café-bar is one of the stops. Le Select, with its red awning and wicker chairs, is the least changed of the great Montparnasse cafés.
Access · Open café
Patricia works at the Paris office of the New York Herald Tribune, the paper she hawks on the Champs-Élysées, and it is outside these doors that Godard himself, in his cameo as a passer-by, recognises Michel from the front page and points him out to the police. A brass plaque recalls the newspaper's years here from 1930 to 1978.
Access · Exterior only
Michel prowls this lane opposite Notre-Dame looking for a car to steal, and the bookshop in the background, then called Le Mistral, is today's Shakespeare and Company. Step inside for the creaking upstairs library, then follow Michel's route along Rue Galande and Rue Dante.
Access · Open shop: from 10:00 Monday to Saturday, from 12:00 on Sunday; no photos inside
The real Hôtel de Suède, where Godard shot the film's famous 25-minute bedroom scene in Patricia's room 12, with Michel and Patricia smoking, teasing and quoting Faulkner. Gutted in the 1990s, it is now the Hôtel Les Rives de Notre-Dame, and the Pont Saint-Michel beside it is the film's first Paris shot.
Access · Exterior; interior by reservation
Patricia gazes at the dresses in Dior's windows while Michel shows off his trick for phoning from a booth without paying. The couture house is still here, rebuilt in 2022 into a vast flagship with a gallery and a garden.
Access · Open shop
Fresh off the road from Marseille, Michel orders a breakfast he cannot pay for at the Royal Saint-Germain café on this corner, facing the old church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The café is long gone (a fashion boutique occupies the corner), but the square, the church and the Deux Magots opposite make it worth the detour.
Access · Open shop
The film opens in Marseille: Michel Poiccard (Jean-Paul Belmondo), a small-time crook, steals a car by the Old Port and sets off for Paris, a trip that ends with him shooting a policeman on the road.
Access · Public quays, open at all times.
Michel Poiccard (Jean-Paul Belmondo), wanted by the police, comes to this avenue off the Champs-Élysées to a travel agency, trying to collect the money a friend owes him. Later, with two detectives on his heels, he shakes them off by running down the stairs of George V métro station.
Access · Public streets, open at all times. The travel agency is gone.
Opens Booking.com
Yes.
The Hôtel de Suède is now the Hôtel Les Rives de Notre-Dame.
It was rebuilt inside in the 1990s, so the room of the film no longer exists, but the view of the Seine is the same.
Yes.
Rue Campagne-Première is a public street in Montparnasse.
People live there: keep your voice down and don't ring the bells.
Yes.
Le Mac-Mahon still shows classic films behind a newer front.
You need a ticket to go in: check the programme.
In Montparnasse Cemetery, a short walk from Rue Campagne-Première.
It is not in the film, but many fans stop there.
Tap a number to see the place and get directions in Maps.
Walk ~11 min
Walk ~5 min
Final scene
Walk ~5 min
Breathless on the Right Bank: from Dior to the Mac-Mahon
Five places of the film around the Champs-Élysées, from the Dior windows to the cinema where Patricia loses the detective.
The Mac-Mahon still shows classic films: check the programme and end the walk in the dark of a screening.
On a phone, Google Maps opens at most 5 places at a time.
Nearest metro: Alma–Marceau (L9)
Window-shopping on Avenue Montaigne
Walk ~6 min
The travel agency and the escape down the métro stairs
Walk ~8 min
Belmondo walk sequence
Walk ~6 min
Godard's cameo
Walk ~6 min
Walk ~6 min
Patricia escapes the police
Walk ~5 min
open 07:00-02:00 (book ahead)
Nearest metro: Vavin (L4)
Night on Boulevard du Montparnasse
Walk ~9 min
Walk ~12 min
Michel's breakfast (café no longer exists)
Walk ~14 min
The hotel-room scene
Walk ~5 min
After Michel's escape from the police, the first shot of Paris is Notre-Dame seen from Pont Saint-Michel.
Walk ~5 min
Shakespeare and Company (Rue de la Bûcherie)16:40 To the stationShakespeare and Company (Rue de la Bûcherie)Estimated return 17:30 · add yours in Trip preferences
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Open a day to see only its stops, in order.
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Hotels and meals estimate:about €1,380
Vieux-Port (Marseille): too far for the trip in Paris. Its page says how to get there.
Hotel3 nights × €310 · 1 room€930
Lunches and dinners2 people€450
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3 nights · 2 people
Hotels along the story's route.
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By train you emit 78% less CO₂: ~25 kg per person (round trip) instead of ~112 by plane.
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Restaurants and activities near the story's places.
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Production · film commissions · tourist boards · guides
We always say if it is:
Production · film commissions · tourist boards · guides
We always say if it is:
