An anthology of 18 short films, each set in a different Paris arrondissement by a different director: a love letter to the city's map in 18 short chapters.
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The film is made of 18 short love stories, each set in a different part of Paris. Start on the Left Bank with Gurinder Chadha's story: the riverside garden where young François meets Zarka, then the Grande Mosquée where he follows her, about 15 minutes away on foot. From the mosque, Le Rostand, the café facing the Luxembourg gardens where an old couple meet to sign their divorce, is about 20 minutes further.
The other stories are spread over the whole map, so take two or three days and one area per morning, using the metro in between. Across the river, the Marais print shop and the Marché des Enfants Rouges are about 10 minutes apart. Up north, Place des Abbesses and the bar door in Pigalle are a short walk from each other. To the east are Père Lachaise and Place des Fêtes; to the south, Les Olympiades and the bench in Parc Montsouris where the film ends.
The metro scene with Steve Buscemi is set at Tuileries station but was shot on a disused platform at Porte des Lilas. For a sit-down stop, the brasserie Le Square Trousseau looks exactly as in the film, and Before Sunset also passes by the same square.
18 places from the story: filming locations and other places linked to it.
In Bruno Podalydès's 'Montmartre' segment, a man parks his car on one of these steep streets and broods that every woman walking past seems to be taken, until one faints beside his car and he comes to her aid. The segment is set in the hilly lanes of the 18th rather than at a single landmark, and Place des Abbesses, with its Art Nouveau metro entrance, is the easiest place to start exploring them.
Access · Public space
In Wes Craven's 'Père-Lachaise' segment, an engaged couple (Emily Mortimer and Rufus Sewell) quarrel during a visit to the cemetery, and the ghost of Oscar Wilde, who is buried here, has some advice for the fiancé. Wilde's grave, now behind a glass screen, is in Division 89.
Access · Public space
In the 'Tour Eiffel' segment by Sylvain Chomet, the director of The Triplets of Belleville, a little boy tells how his parents, two mimes, met in prison and fell in love. It plays out at the foot of the tower, and the mime silhouetted against the ironwork is the shot people remember.
Access · Public space
In the Coen brothers' segment Steve Buscemi's hapless tourist, fresh from the Louvre, waits on the Tuileries platform, breaks the guidebook rule about eye contact and pays for it. The platform scenes were shot on the disused Porte des Lilas 'Cinéma' set dressed as Tuileries, so the real line 1 station under the Rue de Rivoli arcades is the story's setting.
Access · Entrance: public. Platform: metro ticket
Nobuhiro Suwa's segment has Juliette Binoche, a mother undone by grief, drawn at night onto this royal square where a cowboy (Willem Dafoe) rides in to let her see her lost son one last time. The circle of Louis XIV facades around the equestrian statue, and the basilica of Notre-Dame-des-Victoires a step away, look just as they do on screen.
Access · Public space
Olivier Assayas follows Maggie Gyllenhaal's American actress on a night-time errand for hashish through the streets of this quarter, a missed connection told in glances; Time Out lists Paris's oldest covered market, which gives the quarter its name, among the segment's locations. Today its lanes of food stalls are the neighbourhood's lunchtime heart.
Access · Open shop
Gus Van Sant's segment unfolds in this historic lithography workshop, where Gaspard Ulliel's young visitor pours his heart out to Elie, the apprentice, while Marianne Faithfull confers with the printer. The atelier, founded in 1896, still prints for artists behind its discreet Marais frontage.
Access · Exterior only; interior restricted
Gurinder Chadha's segment opens with François and his friends heckling girls on this riverside quay; when Zarka trips he helps her up and their conversation begins. The open-air sculpture garden along the Seine, with its little amphitheatres where Parisians dance on summer evenings, faces the Île Saint-Louis.
Access · Public space
François follows Zarka from the quay to the Great Mosque, waits at its gate and is welcomed by her grandfather, and the three walk off together. The 1926 mosque's green-tiled minaret, patio and Moorish tea room are open to visitors.
Access · Ticket required for the interior
In the 'Quartier Latin' segment Gena Rowlands and Ben Gazzara, long separated, meet on this café terrace facing the Luxembourg gardens to sign their divorce papers and trade barbs, with co-director Gérard Depardieu as the patron. The brasserie's terrace still looks straight at the garden gates.
Access · Open café
Richard LaGravenese's 'Pigalle' sends Bob Hoskins through the door of a hostess bar where Fanny Ardant is waiting, a role-play that turns out to be a long-married couple's way of starting over. The street, once the home of the Chat Noir cabaret, is now lined with music shops and a few neon bars.
Access · Exterior only
Tom Tykwer's segment: a phone call from Francine (Natalie Portman) sends blind Thomas racing back through their whole romance in a torrent of images along this street, from their first meeting to her drama-school rehearsals. The long, loud faubourg of kebab shops, Indian grocers and covered passages between the Porte Saint-Denis and Gare du Nord is the segment's true star.
Access · Public space
Isabel Coixet's 'Bastille' plays out at a table in this Belle Époque brasserie, where Sergio waits to leave his wife for a younger woman, and instead learns she is dying and, remembering the red trench coat of their first years together, falls in love with her again. Zinc bar, moulded ceilings and a terrace on the leafy square: the room is exactly as filmed.
Access · Restaurant: reservation recommended
Christopher Doyle's manic 'Porte de Choisy' sends a hair-product salesman into a Chinese beauty salon in the 13th's Asian quarter, on and around the raised concrete esplanade of Les Olympiades. The 1970s towers named after Olympic cities, the pagoda-roofed shopping centre and the Tang Frères grocers below are still the district's landmarks.
Access · Public space
Alexander Payne closes the film with Carol, a postal worker from Denver, sitting on a bench in this park and feeling, in her earnest schoolgirl French, joy and sadness at the same time: 'Paris, je t'aime.' The English-style park with its lake, lawns and waterfall is one of the city's most peaceful.
Access · Public space
Alfonso Cuarón's segment is one unbroken tracking shot of Nick Nolte and Ludivine Sagnier walking and bickering down Boulevard de Courcelles toward Villiers métro, until the twist reveals he is her father, on babysitting duty. Walk the same pavement past Parc Monceau's gilded railings and 19th-century mansions and the shot recreates itself.
Access · Public space
Oliver Schmitz's segment: Hassan lies stabbed on this square and asks Sophie, the paramedic tending him, for a coffee, having recognised the woman he once tried to charm in a parking garage. The broad 1970s esplanade, ringed by towers and busiest on market mornings, is the setting.
Access · Public space
Alexander Payne's closing segment follows Carol, a postal worker from Denver on her first trip to Paris, who tells her story in careful school French. One of her stops is this cemetery, full of writers' graves, where she mixes up Simone de Beauvoir's name and calls her 'Simone Bolivar'. The segment ends a short walk away, in Parc Montsouris.
Access · Free public cemetery. Opening hours change with the season: check before you go.
Opens Booking.com
The film is 18 short films, each set in a different part of Paris.
The walk groups four of them on the Left Bank and in the Marais; the others, like the Eiffel Tower mime, are in other days of the trip.
Yes.
It is in Division 89 of Père Lachaise Cemetery, now behind a glass screen.
The cemetery is free.
Yes.
The Grande Mosquée has a paid visit of the patio and gardens, and a tea room open to everyone.
No.
The Atelier Clot still works for artists and is closed to visitors: you can only see the front.
Tap a number to see the place and get directions in Maps.
Walk ~14 min
Nearest metro: Cité Universitaire (RER B)
14e arrondissement segment, finale
Metro to Bir-Hakeim (L6) · ~25 min
Tour Eiffel segment
Walk ~5 min
Paris, je t'aime on foot: from the Latin Quarter to the Marais
Four short films in one walk: the divorce on a café terrace, the meeting on the quay, the print shop and the night in the Marais.
The mosque has a tea room with mint tea: a good break halfway through the walk.
On a phone, Google Maps opens at most 5 places at a time.
open 08:00-00:00 (book ahead)
Nearest metro: Luxembourg (RER B)
Quartier Latin segment (6e)
Walk ~18 min
Quais de Seine segment (5e), the mosque
Walk ~11 min
Quais de Seine segment (5e), the quay
Walk ~14 min
Walk ~5 min
Le Marais segment (4e)
Walk ~11 min
Quartier des Enfants Rouges segment (3e)
Walk ~5 min
suggested place, not bookedcrêperie€€nearby
✓ Listed as gluten-free (OpenStreetMap)
Walk ~5 min
Walk ~5 min
Walk ~11 min
Pigalle segment (9e), the bar door
Metro to Strasbourg–Saint-Denis (L4/L8/L9) · ~14 min
Faubourg Saint-Denis segment (10e)
Walk ~5 min
Père Lachaise CemeteryLunch: Le Pure Café
Le Square Trousseau16:40 To the stationPère Lachaise CemeteryLe Square TrousseauEstimated return 17:30 · add yours in Trip preferences
Tickets in the travel card belowYour trip on the map
Open a day to see only its stops, in order.
Near the story
Hotels and meals estimate:about €1,410
Hotel3 nights × €310 · 1 room€930
Lunches and dinners2 people€480
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Near the story
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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.
Paris: all activities on GetYourGuide
The link opens the destination's catalogue, not a tour made for the story →
Production · film commissions · tourist boards · guides
We always say if it is:
Production · film commissions · tourist boards · guides
We always say if it is:
