Our favourite American in Paris is back for a fourth season, with all ten episodes now available to binge on Netflix. The City of Light is as much the star as the main character, Emily Cooper, and Francophile fans will be relieved to see the fashionista returning to all her favourite Parisian haunts, including her charming garret in Place de l’Estrapade in the 5th arrondissement and ultra-chic office in Place de Valois in the 1st arrondissement. This year, however, she’s going further afield too. “The scope of the show is bigger — the storyline doesn’t play out in Paris,” the Emily in Paris creator Darren Star says. “We’re in the French Alps, we’re in Italy — it’s a big story.” Episode six sees the cast descend on the high-end Haute-Savoie village of Megève; and episode nine and ten include a holiday to Rome. Here are the new spots to look out for, along with our favourites from the last four seasons.
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1. Rome, Italy
Season four features a new character: Rome, with the Eternal City acting as the backdrop to several episodes, including the penultimate Roman Holiday and finale All Roads Lead to Rome. Lily Collins gave us a little taste of what to expect on Instagram in April, posing in front of the Colosseum and the Roman marble mask (and ancient lie-detector) Bocca della Verità, which invites visitors to put their hands in its open mouth and — according to legend — will bite it off if they tell a lie.
Viewers can expect many Audrey Hepburn-esque moments on the back of Vespas along with a bunch of new Italian characters, including Rupert Everett’s Giorgio Barbieri, the gregarious owner of a Rome-based interior-design firm and long-time friend of Sylvie (the French actress Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu), as well as the quietly luxe Marcello Muratori (the Verona-born actor Eugenio Franceschini), who might just end up as Emily’s new love interest (ooh la la). The Italian countryside is also included as a location, so brace yourself for plenty of dolce vita wanderlust.
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2. Megève, Haute-Savoie, France
One of the most glamorous ski resorts in the French Alps, Megève is another new location for the fourth season. Located in the Alps of southeastern France, in the Mont Blanc massif about an hour’s drive from Geneva (or about five hours by train from Paris), this is an aristocratic ski town. Megève serves as the location of Camille’s family’s chalet — an obvious choice as Camille is clearly old money.
Season four was filmed during autumn and winter, and the show makes the most of the festive atmosphere. “It started snowing right when we got there to begin filming,” Star says. While on the slopes of Megève, Emily is dressed in a faux mink casaquin and sunglasses dating from 1956, designed by the French brand Pierre Marly. The outfit is a sartorial nod to Audrey Hepburn (each season has one), and here the inspiration is Hepburn’s winter look from her 1963 film Charade (which became the code name for the episode during filming). If you want to follow in Emily’s footsteps, book in for lunch at the Idéal 1850 restaurant (open December to March) at the Four Seasons Hotel Megève before an overnight stay at Les Chalets des Fermes de Marie.
3. Giverny, Normandy, France
“Giverny is where I fell in love with art. You understand why the impressionists painted the way they did,” Camille muses in the second episode of season four as she overlooks Monet’s lily pond. About an hour from Paris by train or car, in the northern French region of Normandy, Giverny is a must-visit for all art-lovers. Monet lived here from 1883 until his death in 1926, and visitors can roam his gardens, water lily pond, Japanese bridge, Grande Allee and country home (it’s advisable to buy tickets in advance). Look out too for Camille cleaning the lily leaves in this episode; it was a practice started by Monet to keep them looking pristine for his paintings, which are displayed in the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris. Travellers can also check out the Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny, which also has an elegant garden.
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• Best places to stay in Normandy
4. Place de l’Estrapade, 5th arrondissement
Some things never change: in the latest season Emily is still in her tiny garret on the sixth floor of a Haussmannian building in Place de l’Estrapade, in the heart of the historic Latin Quarter of Paris. With its central fountain, verdant trees and inviting benches, the square couldn’t look any more charming. Though Emily is disappointed by her paltry lodgings when she arrives back in season one, her bright and characterful one-bedroom apartment is a far cry from the one-room chambres de bonne (or maids’ rooms) where many students and struggling artists stay. To imagine the real thing, picture a single bed with the “kitchen” (a hot plate) and loo within touching distance.
The fourth season picks up with the dreamboat chef Gabriel at his new restaurant, L’Esprit de Gigi, which in real life is an Italian restaurant called Terra Nera, located on the northwest point of Place de l’Estrapade.
sceen-it.com/sceen/4459/Emily-in-Paris/Place-de-l-Estrapade
5. The Panthéon, 5th arrondissement
Just around the corner from Place de l’Estrapade is the grand Panthéon building. It started life as a neoclassical church built on the commission of King Louis XV, before becoming a secular monument to the “great men of the Republic” during the French Revolution, and is the resting place of luminaries including Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Victor Hugo. In November 2021 the American expatriate Josephine Baker became the first black woman — and only the sixth woman overall — to be honoured there. In Emily in Paris the 18th-century building provides the backdrop to the heroine breaking up with her boyfriend in Chicago in season one. It has continued to be Emily’s neighbourhood throughout the show, to the consternation of locals who complained about the disruption caused by the filming in spring of 2021.
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6. Place de Valois, 1st arrondissement
The swanky Savoir office is stationed on Place de Valois in the 1st arrondissement, by the Louvre. The square is named after King Louis Philippe I, the last monarch of the French during the 19th-century restoration. He was born in the neighbouring Palais Royal. Today the square houses the high-end Grand Hôtel du Palais Royal and Le Bistrot Valois, where Emily dines with her colleagues in season one.
sceen-it.com/sceen/4499/Emily-in-Paris/Place-de-Valois
7. Palais Royal, 1st arrondissement
Palais Royal is where Emily first meets her bestie, Mindy Chen, then working au pair. Ah, how far she has come — in season four she competes in Eurovision! This elegant park is in the heart of the city, near the Louvre but tucked away from the tourist circuit. It is popular with locals thanks to its manicured gardens featuring ornamental fountains and outdoor seating. The Cour d’Honneur features striped pillars installed by the artist Daniel Buren that in recent years have become a favourite posing location for influencers — quelle surprise.
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8. Palais Garnier, 9th arrondissement
Season four takes Emily to a masquerade ball at Galerie-Musée Baccarat, but her visit to the sumptuous Palais Garnier in season one is hard to beat. The opera house, built by the architect Charles Garnier at the behest of President Napoleon III, is almost monstrously imposing on the outside but undeniably beautiful on the inside. Highlights include the fairytale marble central staircase and Marc Chagall’s dreamy mural on the ceiling of the grand auditorium. Going to a show here is an unforgettable experience, even if the tickets don’t come cheap. The venue also offers self-guided and guided tours, giving patrons get a chance to learn about the legend of the Phantom of the Opera.
9. Pont Alexandre III, Pont des Arts, Pont Neuf and the banks of the Seine
Emily is a keen jogger, and throughout the show we have seen her pounding the pavements of the quays that line the River Seine, a popular spot with local sporty types. The river that bisects the city and its picturesque bridges feature in many episodes. In the first season Emily faces off with her French colleagues as they film an advertisement featuring nude models on the gilded Pont Alexandre III. In season two she walks dreamily across Pont Neuf — the oldest bridge in Paris, inaugurated by King Henry IV — and her friend Mindy busks on the decked Pont des Arts that links the Louvre to the French Institute. And in season four we see a newly single Emily checking out not the sites here, but the men.
10. L’Atelier des Lumières, 11th arrondissement
Emily tends to stick to the grandeur of central Paris rather than its more offbeat outer arrondissements. However, in season one her friends Gabriel and Camille take her to an exhibition at the Atelier des Lumières, a popular art gallery in the hip 11th arrondissement. The innovative exhibition space, located in a former foundry, brings an engaging roster of exhibitions that use immersive sound and projections to give visitors a new perspective on the work of artists. In 2024 the venue is hosting a Van Gogh installation and The Orientalists, an exhibition featuring pieces by Delacroix, Gérôme and Ingres, among others.
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atelier-lumieres.com/en
11. Père Lachaise cemetery, 20th arrondissement
In season two we saw Emily integrate further into French life with a visit to Père Lachaise cemetery. This large and prestigious resting place and park is part of the alternative tourist circuit, thanks to its elegant tree-lined paths and the tombs of famed Paris inhabitants — Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison are buried here, as is Edith Piaf, who was born in this traditionally working-class district in the east of Paris. Emily walks among the gravestones with her eccentric colleague Luc, who uses this site full of memento mori to advise her with the typically French sentiment to “not waste time with guilt”.
12. Palace of Versailles
For the finale of season two we were treated to an extravagant fashion show held in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, attended by Emily and her boss, Sylvie, played artfully by Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu. The eye-wateringly opulent château, established by King Louis XIV, is one of the most visited tourist attractions in France and the quintessence of ancien regime excess. Highlights include the aforementioned Hall of Mirrors and the dazzling ornamental parterre in the gardens, as well as the elegant landscaped groves. It’s a treat for history-lovers, not only for all the royal debauchery that went down here (King Louis XV had a staircase direct to the room of his chief mistress, Madame de Pompadour, for example), but also for 20th-century military history, notably the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.
13. The south of France: St Tropez and Villefranche-sur-Mer
Also in season two our protagonist escapes with her friends to St Tropez, one of the most glitzy locations in the south of France. We see her in front of the bold red awning of the restaurant Sénéquier and devouring oysters by the beach. But some French Twitter users were quick to point out that the postcard of “St Tropez” featured in fact displayed a photo of the more relaxed Villefranche-sur-Mer, located about 60 miles east along the Mediterranean.
14. Provence
Season three was all about Provence, with Emily speeding along quaint roads in a sporty McLaren against a backdrop of lavender fields stretching towards the green hills. In this season we’re spoiled with views of Bonnieux, one of the historic villages in Provence, at the top of the Luberon hills, overlooking the valley below. The serenity of the village offsets the glitz and glamour of Emily’s Parisian lifestyle — but the McLaren suggests that the fast pace of the capital isn’t easily forgotten.
15. Château de Montpoupon
Another gorgeous location from season three is Château de Montpoupon, in the heart of Touraine, in western France. The château was destroyed during the Hundred Years’ War and rebuilt during the Renaissance. The turreted fortress now houses a museum of hunting — find out all about it with a visit to the museum and stables.
leschateauxdelaloire.org/en/members/chateau-de-montpoupon/
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Additional reporting by Sasha Nugara
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