So who watched season three of The Summer I Turned Pretty and was like, hold on, realistically, how is that possible? And I’m not talking about Denise calling Jeremiah a ten, though that is pretty hard to believe as well. I’m talking about how overly simplistic they made Belly’s spontaneous move to Paris work. As someone who loves Paris and would love to live there someday, it was so crazy that it actually upset me.
Starting strong with how she managed to have the perfect Parisian life, complete with a great group of friends, a large apartment, and a part-time job, as an international college student…who’s not even in school? Realistically speaking, you would need a visa, a financial plan, and probably divine intervention to make that work.
The show paints Belly’s Paris life like a Pinterest board. She’s somehow living in a spacious apartment, working a part-time job, and casually thriving in a foreign country, no questions asked. But moving abroad isn’t just booking a flight and being cute in cafés. You need legal status, income to survive, and enough French to do more than order a croissant.
Let’s talk about visas. Like, how did she legally stay in France? Student visas require enrollment, documentation, and usually proof of financial means. Fans have tried to fill in the gaps, theorizing that maybe she was a grad student or working under the table, but the show never bothers to explain.
And that part-time job? Where? Doing what? With what language skills? You don’t just land in Paris and get hired unless you have connections, fluent French, or both. Not to mention the Paris rental market is a full-time job on its own.
Look, I know it’s fiction. But when a show tries to reflect real coming-of-age experiences, skipping the gritty parts of moving abroad just feels lazy. Paris is beautiful, but it’s not that easy. At least pretend she had to fill out one visa form.