A Travel Guide to a Delightful ‘Midnight in Paris’
Delightful, charming, whimsical. Many adjectives have been used to rave about Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, widely considered to be the director’s best film in many years. While the movie has an excellent cast of Hollywood and Gallic actors, the real star of Midnight in Paris is the City of Lights itself. Allen didn’t hide that fact, calling his film a love letter to Paris and portraying the city in a highly romanticized light that will appeal to anyone who has wanted to visit the French capital.
With the release of the film on DVD/Blu-Ray this week, let’s take a trip across the Atlantic as we visit all the wonderful places featured in the movie.
Note: Spoilers ahead! If you haven’t seen the movie, you might want to avoid reading the blurbs and simply enjoy the pictures.
1. Claude Monet’s Garden
After a 3-minute montage of some of Paris’ most scenic landmarks, the film opens in Claude Monet’s Garden as struggling writer Gil (Owen Wilson) and his fiancee Inez (Rachel McAdams) discuss the allure and romanticism of living in the City of Lights. This garden is actually located about 60 miles west of Paris in Giverny, Normandy. This picturesque village was the estate of French impressionist painter Claude Monet.
Visitors can wander through Monet’s luxurious flower garden as well as his water garden which features the famed Japanese bridge and inspired many of his paintings. While you are there, be sure to visit Monet’s house which has been restored thanks to donations from around the world.
A. Le Grand Véfour
After spending the morning in Claude Monet’s Garden, Gil and Inez return to Paris to have lunch with her curmudgeonly parents at Le Grand Véfour, an upscale restaurant situated in the arcades of the Palais Royal on 17 Rue du Beaujolais. The establishment, which opened in 1784, has served many heavyweights of French culture over the last two centuries including Victor Hugo, Jean Cocteau and Jean-Paul Sartre. This is also where the unbearable pseudo-intellectual Paul (Michael Sheen) and his wife first show up, to Gil’s most profound annoyance.
B. Musée Rodin
Paul’s pedantic nature is no more apparent than when the two couples visit the Musée Rodin. There, he pompously decides to contradict the museum’s guide (a cameo by French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy) with inaccurate facts about the life of French sculptor Auguste Rodin. Opened in 1919, the museum is a tourist favorite due to its ease of access and affordable entrance fee. Most of Rodin’s sculpture are on display there, including The Thinker, The Kiss and The Gates of Hell. Make sure to drop by this wonderful location.
C. Hotel Le Meurice
Gil and Inez are next seen at a wine tasting, where Paul once again shows up. This takes place on the rooftop terrace of the Belle Etoile suite at the Hotel Le Meurice, which provides a 360 degree view of Paris. This 1771 five-star luxury hotel overlooks the Tuileries Garden and hosted such luminaries as Salvador Dali, Rudyard Kipling, Elizabeth Taylor and Theodore Roosevelt. At over $8,000 per night, the Belle Etoile suite probably is one of the least affordable hotel room in the world so you will probably want to look at the pictures above rather than empty your 401K account.
D. St. Etienne du Mont
After the stuffy wine tasting, Paul and his wife Carol invite Inez and Gil to go dancing. Gil can’t decline fast enough but is taken aback that Inez accepts. He decides to walk back to his hotel room but soon finds himself lost in the maze that are the streets of Paris. Tired and a bit drunk, he sits down on the steps of the church St Etienne du Mont, rue de la Montagne Geneviève (near the Pantheon) and as the bell strikes midnight, an antique 1920 Peugeot Landaulet pulls up, the mysterious passengers urging him to get on board.
We never see anything more than the steps of the church in the movie but the structure originated all the way back in 1492 and contains the shrine of St. Geneviève, the patron saint of Paris. The church also houses the tombs of French writers Blaise Pascal and Jean Racine.
E. Le Polidor
As Gil is whisked away to a bar after another, he slowly realizes that he has been transported back to 1920′s Paris. At the end of the night, he is stunned to get the opportunity to meet Ernest Hemingway (Corey Stoll) in the restaurant Le Polidor, 41 rue Monsieur le Prince near the Jardin du Luxembourg. Indeed, the famed writer did frequent this establishment along with James Joyce, Antonin Artaud, Jack Kerouac and Jane Day. Feel free to stop by and have a bite of the relatively affordable food which has made Le Polidor one of the most popular restaurant for students at the nearby Sorbonne.
F. Marché aux Puces de Saint-Ouen
While our protagonist continues to have wild time-traveling adventures over the next few nights, he must also contend with living in the present during the day. Hence, he tags along with his fiancee and mother-in-law to the flea market, the Marché aux Puces de Saint-Ouen in the Northern periphery of Paris, where he meets Gabrielle (Lea Seydoux) while browsing for a Cole Porter record.
Les Puces is the busiest flea market in the world, welcoming over 150,000 visitors every weekend. This is open only Saturday, Sunday and Monday so make sure to time your visit properly.
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46 Comments
Lived in France 14 years, been to oh about 3 of these places. (hangs head in regret). Next time I go back, I’ll definitely be touristy.
Man, now I want to go to Paris.
Ahah you should! How can one go through life without seeing Paris?
Whoa. Now I’ve decided I need to go to Paris.
The location of Marion’s home, by chance?
Aahah stalker
For some reason I have never been able to get into Woody Allen. I’m not sure why. But this post really makes me want to check out Midnight in Paris. Terrific post Castor!
Not a huge Allen fan myself, but this movie was terrific.
Yep, not particularly fond of Allen’s previous work (even his classics) but this was a very pleasant surprise.
You can’t help but fall in love with Paris and this movie. Having been there myself twice, I know how enchanting it can be just to walk the streets of the city. I’d love to go back and check out all these interesting places.
With a post like this you should be working for the marketing team for Midnight in Paris and Paris’ tourism agency! Having only been there once I now want to watch the film followed by a guided Midnight in Paris tour.
Ahaha the film and the city don’t need me to market themselves
This is a great post looking at the pictures you found for the filming locations. Nicely done! (I’d only add, if I may, the warning of plot spoiler in the beginning for those that still haven’t seen the film!).
This took some time and research! Very nice work, Castor!
Thanks T! I also added the spoiler warning.
Castor. You are a genius. I absolutely love this piece.
Your love for the city and for the film comes shining through!! Excellent!!
Thanks for sharing
Thanks for the very kind words Scott
I appreciate you dropping by, sir.
I like this travel guide meme! It’s like a making-of post combined with history and tourism. Beautiful stills you got for all of this too. Great post!
Yea I love to do those and these are really quite popular even to non-movie aficionados because of the travel element. Thanks!
Midnight really did make me want to travel to the City of Light after vowing years ago never to set foot in “paese francese“– I’m hardwired to dislike the French by virtue of my ethnic heritage (Italian and British)– but Allen convinced me. It made me ache for Europe in general more than Paris specifically, but Allen really has written a beautiful love note to the city in this film, which proved to be my tipping point.
Hope you get to visit Paris someday. It truly is a remarkable city although maybe, a bit too crowded for my taste.
Oh, my wife and I plan on it within our next two trips to Europe– it’s either France next time and Prague the next time after that, or vice versa. But that’s a year and a half or so away. Gives me something to look forward too though!
I think I should mark this post whenever I go to to Paris (someday, you never know)
Awww I’m sure you will get see the city someday
Thanks for dropping by Andina!
Great post and well done for tracking down all the pictures!
I really loved this film, the only film I’ve seen twice at the cinema this year, in fact! Paris is a beautiful city and I have fond memories from my visits there.
Saw it twice too! Thanks for dropping by Claire
Great post, Castor. While I didn’t like Midnight in Paris nearly as much as everyone else, I loved all of the great views of Paris. It almost made me feel like I was back visiting again.
Yea all the sights in the movie are reason enough to see it ahah.
Great, comprehensive post, Castor, but also the sort of post that makes me want to put my head on my cubicle desk and cry because I’m not sitting on those steps outside that church waiting hopefully for midnight instead. Sigh.
Maybe someday, you will be able to recreate that scene in Paris
Been to Paris a few times (with hopes of going back someday) and like the first commenter said, been to like three of those spots – tops!
Yea that’s always the case. I’m sure most of us haven’t even paid all that much attention to all the great stuff that can be found around where we live
Yeah we have jokes about that in NY. Like I have never been to the Statue of Liberty.
Excellent post. The only thing missing is the wonderful guitar soundtrack.
I recommend listening to this while reading it:
Totally AWESOME idea! I love it
Congrats on yet again making it onto Page 2 on /Film.
Thanks Joel
Wow! So cool. A bit nerdy, but I always though it would be fun to do a tour like this. On my own of course, not with one of those cheesy tours like I took with Schindler’s List in Krakow or Sound of Music in Salzburg.
Definitely have to go on your own, not with those guided tours. Paris is a delight to visit on your own
Another awesome collection of images and a worthy travel guide, Castor. Next time I’m going out of the country (whenever the hell that is), I’ll be asking you to put one of these together for me.
Thanks Dylan, very kind of you
This is superb. I only watched Midnight In Paris for the first time recently and really enjoyed it. Paris is a city I have yet to visit…although have traveled through…and this collection of places-to-see really inspires me to put that right.
And you live only a few hours away and it’s so accessible transportation-wise. Hope you get to visit someday soon Dan
Delightful article and truly amazing pictures! It makes this film even more pelasurable to watch now. It sometimes seems like Paris is enough for a filmmaker to enchant the viewer into the created world, and although I respect Woody Allen’s work, I won’t lie- he made it easier for himself shooting his picture in such a beautiful surrounding. Very well done! Thanks for my holiday inspiration
Thanks Amelie! That was my excuse for checking out Midnight in Paris on opening weekend
I thought, well if the movie is mediocre, at least there is going to be nice sights of the city. Of course, Midnight in Paris was excellent so that was a win-win!
I have been in love with Paris all my adult life! I go there often, and if I do not go, I miss it terribly!! I loved the movie, the Travel Guide was delightful, I have been to many of those spots featured in the movie, and am now anxious to see the ones I haven’t seen yet! Paris is magical, just walking through the beautiful streets makes me smile!
Thanks vannuccia. Indeed, one of the best things about Paris is that there is virtually an unlimited amount of awesome sights and spots. You could truly spend a lifetime there and not see nearly everything worth seeing.
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