I was lucky enough to live in Paris and to experience a lot of beautiful aspects of the city and French culture. However, after watching Emily in Paris on Netflix, there was a lot of inaccuracy that I wanted to address.
WARNING: spoiler alerts ahead, and all of the information in this article is based on my own opinions and experiences.
Here is a list of all of the aspects of the show that were accurate, and some that were completely inaccurate.
- French People are Nice
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French people are some of the nicest people I have ever met. However, with Emily’s experience, she didn’t feel that way at first. In France, if you speak French, the people will be so friendly and talkative. However, if you approach a French person and assume they speak English (and do that thing where you speak really slowly and loud as an attempt for them to understand you) they will be offended.
- The Likelihood of Running Into People You Know is Rare
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Yes, Paris really is a “big small town” when you’ve lived there for a little while, because you start to know where everything is and you know how to navigate the metro. However, running into people you know, unless you live in the same arrondissement as them, is pretty rare.
- Paris is Usually Very Busy
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Paris is incredibly busy most times of the year. During many scenes in the show, the Pont Alexandre III and Le Panthéon were empty. The only time of day when the streets of Paris are empty is typically before 7 a.m. before everyone wakes up.
- Some of the Locations the Crew Filmed in Didn’t Make Sense
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The evening when Emily and Mindy spent the evening in Montmartre, which is a very popular neighborhood in the 18th, where artists typically live. They had a lovely dinner at La Maison Rose and then proceeded to Les Deux Plateaux (the black and white pillars) which is in the inner courtyard of Le Palais Royal. This is an awesome scene; however, Mindy and Emily end back in Montmartre near La Maison Rose where she thinks of the inspiration for the Mattress ad campaign. This doesn’t really make any sense, because it would be a 30 minute metro ride from Montmartre to Le Palais Royal. After going to the Palais Royal, they both went back to Montmartre.
- In France, They Use International Time (Or Military Time)
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In France, everyone uses international time, or military time, as we call it in the United States. In the French language, you can use American time, but you would say, “It is 6 o’clock after noon.”
- In France, There is No Acculturation, Just Assimilation
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In France, you don’t typically celebrate your own culture, you celebrate French culture. You also don’t try to change French culture if you aren’t French.
- People Smoke in France
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Yes, it is very common for French people to smoke. However, French people aren’t in-your-face about it like it was portrayed in the show.
- It is Very Common to Workout in the Luxembourg Gardens
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Since Paris is a very large metropolitan area, it is very common for people to go for runs or simply workout in the Luxembourg Gardens like Emily did.
- You Cannot Just Get a Job and Fly to France the Next Day
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In order to get a job in France, you need to have your employer sponsor a work visa, and you need a long stay visa that enables you to stay in France for one year. From my own experience, obtaining a visa is a strenuous and stressful process. In the show, it portrayed Emily leaving for France within a week of finding out her boss was pregnant and unable to go. For me to obtain a student visa, the entire process took roughly five months.
- Yes, French Bureaucracy is Real in Terms of Being Fired
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I have never experienced working a job in France, but I have friends in France who have explained to me the system of French labor laws. In France, when you get a job, you sign a contract, and it becomes very hard to fire or terminate that individual. In the show, when Sylvie fired Emily, that was very accurate.
Overall, the show had a great story line, but I could not get over the inaccurate dipictions of French people and Paris. I know the show is fiction, but I didn’t appriciate the dipiction of a culture I know and love.