I just want to walk around Paris with you: “Midnight in Paris” came to life

I waited on the church steps for the magical Peugeot, the time-travel portal that whisked writer Gil Pender into 1920s Paris to meet Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Stein and other literary icons in Woody Allen’s movie “Midnight in Paris.”

Snatches of jazz, clarinet and Cole Porter music floated through my head along with quotes from the movie: “You’re in love with a fantasy.” “I just want to walk around Paris with you.” “Paris is the most beautiful in the rain.”  

Neither the cold stone steps nor the lack of a magical car deterred my excitement at finally seeing all the “Midnight in Paris” filming sites. I’d wanted to see them for years, ever since the 2011 movie had been released. And when a two-day stopover in Paris became part of our travels, I investigated walking tours. No existing tours fit our time or budget, so I put together my own, using information from the movie, several websites with descriptions and addresses, and Google maps.

Our route took us all over central Paris, from Montmartre in the north to the Pantheon in the south and along the Seine River – a great way to get a feel for the city, even for those who haven’t seen the movie.

Here’s a synopsis. Hollywood screenwriter Gil Pender visits Paris with his fiancée, Inez, and her parents. Gil wants to be a “real” novel writer and fantasizes about jazz-age 1920s Paris when Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, T.S. Eliot, Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, and Henri Matisse lived, worked, and partied in lush apartments and cabarets. As a clock chimes midnight, Gil gets a ride in the magical Peugeot back to his fantasy-time where he meets his literary and artistic heroes… and the lovely Adriana who seems more suited to Gil than Inez, who dismisses him as “a complete romantic.”

The wonderful soundtrack features 1920s jazz, swing, and show tunes by Cole Porter (who Gil meets at a party) that immediately whisk you into Gil’s fantasy. 

“I can see myself just strolling along the Left Bank with a baguette under my arm headed to Café de Flore to scribble on my book,” he says.

Montmartre in the rain

We began our, er, really ‘my’ quest, in Montmartre. In the rain .

Gil and Adriana saunter all over Paris at night, including down a lamplit staircase beside the Basilica of Sacré Coeur de Montmartre. Accompanied by the contemplative song “Parlez-moi d’Amour,” they wonder whether Paris is more beautiful by day or by night. “Every street, every boulevard, is its own special art form,” says Gil.

Our experience was soggier and less romantic. Aiming our umbrellas so the wind didn’t turn them inside-out, we ascended the famous steps in front of the basilica. We briefly tried to find the exact staircase Gil and Adriana had descended, but the rain had become a deluge, so we took refuge inside the domed church, enjoying the spectacular mosaics that seemed to glow with life. The rain wasn’t any lighter when we emerged.

But still, the downpour didn’t dampen my Midnight in Paris enthusiasm.

Moulin Rouge

The Moulin Rouge exterior is shown briefly in the film’s opening montage.

Adriana has her own fantasy time period – La Belle Epoque Paris of the 1890s – so she and Gil enjoy the can-can dancers at the Moulin Rouge, where they meet artists Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas and Gauguin, who’d love to return to the Renaissance. Spoiler alert: Gil realizes no one is truly happy with their present.

“That’s what the present is. It’s a little unsatisfying because life’s a little unsatisfying.”  

We saw the famous exterior with the red windmill but we didn’t pay the exorbitant prices to see a show inside. However, I did try to emulate Gil, to leave myself open to epiphanies, rather than simply marvelling at seeing all these places from the movie.

Bricktop’s

In the movie, this street on the Left Bank stands in for Bricktop’s nightclub, which was on the Right Bank. (Note that I managed to get a real Peugeot in the shot!)

“Let’s do Bricktop’s!” Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald both say, whisking Gil off to another party. I had not known, until I researched the walking tour, that Bricktop was a person, not a place. American singer and dancer Ada Smith, of African-American and Irish heritage, had flaming red hair, so was nicknamed Bricktop. She ran several nightclubs in Paris, including two on Rue Pigalle.

Still toting umbrellas, we squelched our soggy shoes along Rue Jean-Baptiste Pigalle (its current name) near Montmartre, but time had erased any reference to Bricktop’s nightclubs.

(Allen used a place across the city, on the Left Bank, as a stand-in for Bricktop’s and we found it the next day. There was even a Peugeot parked outside. A modern Peugeot, of course. Too much to hope for a 1920s-era car.)

Gil believes that Paris is the most beautiful in the rain. But at the end of our soggy day, I had come to my own epiphany about the rain. Perhaps a summer sprinkle on a warm day is lovely but not a November deluge, like the all-day rain-a-thon we experienced. By the time we returned to our hotel, we felt as if we’d be sprayed with a fire hose. That’s not beautiful. It’s tolerable, because you’re in Paris, and just about everything’s better in Paris, but it’s not beautiful.  

Substitute scenes

We happened upon many places that form part of the opening montage of Paris scenes, including the Ferris wheel in the Tuileries Garden and the obelisk in Place de la Concorde, as well as substitutes for film scenes, such as the laundromat and carousels.

Our second day dawned sunny and bright – a welcome relief from Paris in the rain. By then, I had realized we didn’t have time to include every film site, so I made the executive decision to skip places that were too far from a reasonable walking route. However we did find substitutes for two film scenes:

• Laundromat. The exact laundromat used in the film was too far to walk to, but we saw plenty of others, including one we had used during our 2003 Paris visit, right across the street from the hotel where we’d stayed.
• Carousel. Allen used the Museum of Fairground Art, also too far away, to film the carousel party scenes. However, we happened upon two carousels in Montmartre.

Gertrude Stein’s house

We began our sunny day at Gertrude Stein’s – the Left Bank apartment building that was her real Paris home from 1903 to 1938, along with her life partner, Alice B. Toklas, and her brother, Leo Stein. In the movie, Hemingway takes Gil to meet Stein and ask her for advice about his novel.

We read the historical plaque on the building. I peered through the door glass into the elegant lobby with an inner garden courtyard. Stein was a writer, poet, playwright, and advocate for women’s rights, as well as a friend and mentor to writers, painters and other intellectuals.

One reason I love “Midnight in Paris” is because I first saw it in the theatre with my Dad – probably the only time just the two of us went to a movie together. As a saxophone player, Dad loved the film’s music. And he laughed aloud when Alice B. Toklas answers the door and Hemingway says “Alice! How the hell are you?!” Dad was delighted that Stein’s partner had been given at least passing recognition. At that time, I didn’t know who Toklas was, or Djuna Barnes or Man Ray or Luis Bunuel. But Dad chuckled as they all made appearances, and I realized I had a lot to learn that Dad already knew.

Every time I watch the movie, I pick up more passing mentions of famous people: fashion designer Coco Chanel; artists Modigliani, Braque, Miro; bullfighter Belmonte; writers T.S. Eliot and James Joyce.

I wished Dad was still alive so I could share my experiences of this walking tour.

Restaurant Polidor

Allen filmed exterior and interior scenes at the Restaurant Polidor, one of the oldest bistros in Paris.

I practically squirmed with excitement, like a three-year-old, when we spied the Restaurant Polidor, where Fitzgerald introduces Gil to Hemingway. The exterior is just like in the film, although the camera angles had given me a different sense of how the place is situated. The Polidor is actually on a corner, but in the movie it looks like it’s in a row of shops mid-block, especially when Gil goes back and it’s turned into a laundromat.

When we found the Polidor, it wasn’t open yet for lunch or we’d have eaten there. Again, I shaded my eyes to peer through the door and windows back to the 1920s.

“If you’re a writer, declare yourself the best writer,” says Hemingway, sitting with his back to the dark wainscoting. He had lived nearby and mentions the bistro in his writing.

Peugeot pick-up spot

The most magical place! The Pantheon is clearly visible but is not seen in the movie.

Next came the most exciting film site of all – the church steps where Gil rests just before the clock strikes midnight and the 1920 Peugeot Landaulet transports him back in time.

We hung around for a while, noting differences between the film and reality. Coach lights on posts had been added all along the streets to cast a warm glow for the film, and the planter boxes had been removed.

The church steps are a side entrance to St. Etienne du Mont church, which faces the Pantheon. The shot of the Peugeot driving off with Gil should really show the Pantheon, but it doesn’t; tight camera angles and darkness erase the distinctive dome.

I watched many cars rumble up the street but none was a magical Peugeot bearing famous writers offering me champagne.

Bouquinistes

Gil wanders along the Seine River, past the rows of green book stalls, called bouquinistes, that give the waterway its nickname “the river between two bookshelves.” I love these little stalls that are just like in the movie. The idea that a city could support so many of them is wonderful. The books, current and antique, appeared to be all in French (as Gil finds when he buys an old journal), so that means the market would be mostly francophones, not the throngs of tourists.

However, there are plenty of bouquinistes plying the tourist trade, selling Paris fridge magnets, Chat Noir posters, and good drawings and paintings. I bought three nice 5×7 black-and-white prints with scenes of Paris (Sacre Coeur, the Eiffel Tower, and Notre Dame) for one euro each.  

Disappointing film sites

The next four film sites were a real bust:

• After breaking up with Inez, Gil has a beer in a café along Quai de la Tournelle, facing the Seine. But we could not find it, despite wandering along the quai and peering around corners.
• Ditto for the first party that Gil attends, where he meets the Fitzgeralds and hears Cole Porter play “Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall in Love).” We walked the entire length of Quai de Bourbon on Ile-St-Louis but could not find the spot. We did, however, come upon dozens of police in riot gear and a row of paddy wagons, waiting for protest marchers in the distance. With no desire to get caught up in violence, we turned down a side street, away from the action.
• Gil sits on a bench in Parc Jean XXIII behind Notre Dame while a woman translates the journal (which turns out to be Adriana’s) he bought at a bouquiniste. The park is closed because it’s full of Notre Dame reconstruction equipment, used for rebuilding the iconic church after the April 2019 fire. So, we sat on a bench nearby and I pretended to read to Bill from my journal instead. “For whatever inexplicable reason the heart has, I am drawn by Gil, er Bill.”
• When we first visited the famous English-language bookstore Shakespeare & Company in 2003, we simply wandered in and poked around the overstuffed shelves, just like Gil. We met owner George Whitman (who has since died; his daughter, Sylvia Beach, now runs it). I couldn’t wait to revisit this treasure where Hemingway, Stein, Joyce and others had found books. We were, however, shocked at how jam-packed crowded it was! A long line of people waited to get into the bookstore; another line waited to enter the coffee shop next door; and the entire square in front was mobbed with people taking photos. Even if we’d waited to get in, it would have been unenjoyably crowded. I’m so happy we saw it 21 years ago, before it became so touristy.

Horses-and-carriage pickup spot

Restaurant Paul looked exactly as it did in the movie, minus the horses and carriage.

From Restaurant Paul, in Place Dauphine, Gil and Adriana are transported from the 1920s via horses and carriage to the 1890s. This triangular plaza was a calm oasis, a quiet reprieve in the middle of crowded Paris. Like the nearby old men, we sat on a green bench in the plaza centre, watching people play boules and kids ride scooters. Families and couples sat outside cafés sipping Beaujolais Nouveau, which had been released that week. While Restaurant Paul looked the same as in the movie, no horses clip-clopped us back to the 1890s.

Pont Neuf

On the riverbank just below Pont Neuf – the oldest still-standing bridge in Paris, dating from the early 1600s – I re-enacted the scene where Zelda Fitzgerald tries to jump into the Seine, convinced Scott doesn’t love her anymore. I stood at the water’s edge and peered into the fast-moving river. 

Maxim’s

Maxim’s looked even better than when Gil and Adriana arrive there. The exterior was decorated sumptuously for Christmas with garlands, lights and boxed shrubs that weren’t there in the movie. It wasn’t open yet for dinner, so we peeked in the windows. I took photos of the preserved Art Nouveau interior by holding my phone right against the glass. Oh la la! Palm trees, privacy screens and rich décor in deep warm colours. The menu, posted outside, wasn’t outrageously expensive (by Paris standards). We’d just have to have reservations and much better outfits to dine there. Next time!

Pont Alexandre III

The elaborate, ornate bridge with gold-bedecked lampposts and statues was our last “Midnight in Paris” sight on a long, long day of walking. We headed for the distant bridge, but as soon as we got a good view, with the Eiffel Tower sparkling in the background, we stopped and took a photo rather than trudge all the way. Was it cheating?! We felt justified after a 27,000-step day.

As Gil and Gabrielle chat on the bridge in the movie’s last scene, it begins to rain.

“Paris is the most beautiful in the rain,” Gabrielle affirms.

Epiphanies

Like Gil, our eyes were opened to some sad truths: we didn’t enjoy the crowds, garbage, lots of homeless people, men peeing in the street, and high costs of Paris. Or the rain. Gil concludes that going back in time isn’t the answer, that he must accept that the present and life in general are a little unsatisfying.

“If I ever want to write something worthwhile, I have to get rid of my illusions and that I’d be happier in the past is probably one of them,” Gil realizes near the end.

“That’s the problem with writers,” replies Adriana. “You are so full of words.”

The walking tour had given me another epiphany – that my romantic ideals about Paris had been fed by this movie. Like Gil, I must face reality.

But the reality is that you can love something that isn’t perfect. I still love Paris, despite its imperfections. It’s somewhat like being married for 37 years: I love Bill despite his (few) foibles, and I hope he forgives my flaws too. As I’ve forgiven the movie’s flaws. (Paris is the most beautiful in the rain? I think not!)

“This is the end of our tour,” I said as we stood watching the Eiffel Tower glitter behind the Pont Alexandre III. “You may tip your guide appropriately.”

Bill assured me he’d enjoyed our Midnight in Paris walking tour, that I hadn’t just dragged him along on my odyssey. He tipped me with a hug and a kiss.

We visited Paris in November 2023. Find out where we are right now by visiting our ‘Where’s Kathryn?’ page.