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15 Movies That Will Inspire You to Visit Paris

To celebrate Bastille Day, here are 15 movies that make us love the City of Light even more than we already do.

By Laura Carroll

July 14, 2014

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Moulin Rouge
Luhrmann's glittering homage to the once-gritty Paris nightlife district is nothing short of a spectacle.
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Sabrina
Humble chauffeur's daughter Sabrina Fairchild (Audrey Hepburn) returns from French culinary school to a love triangle.

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Funny Face
Brazen bookstore clerk Jo (Hepburn) gets to do the things we all dream of, like quit her job and ride the horses in the Fontaine de l'Observatoire.
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Gigi
The film responsible for the dubious ditty Thank Heaven for Little Girls is also an award-winning ode to Paris.

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Alphaville
Jean-Luc Godard's acclaimed take on science fiction casts a thrilling shadow over the city of light.
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Belle de Jour
Bored housewife Séverine (Catherine Deneuve) decides to spend her afternoons as a prostitute in this risqué French classic.

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An American in Paris
"Paris is like love or art or faith. It can't be explained, only felt."
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Amélie
Few French films have made quite as big a splash as Amélie, a celluloid embodiment of Parisian whimsy. (Pro tip: When in Paris, head to Canal St. Martin to skip rocks like Miss Poulain.)

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The Dreamers
Bernardo Bertolucci's film, set during the 1968 Parisian riots, includes romance (of a sort), riots, and a run though the Louvre.
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Before Sunset
The second film in Richard Linklater's acclaimed three-part series (following Before Sunrise and prefacing Before Midnight) romanticizes Paris in all the right ways.

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Ratatouille
An adorable rat that can cook? In Paris? C'est parfait.
Paris, Je t'aime
This mash-up of love stories—some happy, some heartbreaking—is a moving representation of la vie Parisienne

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2 Days in Paris
Marion (Julie Delpy) and Jack (Adam Goldberg) prove that even in Paris, love ain't easy.
Midnight in Paris
Accidentally time-traveling to Paris in the 1920s—the time when expats like Getrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway called the City of Light home—helps Gil (Owen Wilson) find his way out of a hopeless engagement. Of course, Marion Cotillard and Léa Seydoux don't hurt either.

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Les Miserables
The streets of Hugo's Paris are a far cry from the city we know today, which—based on the plot of Les Miserables—is probably a good thing.