Article
Emily in Paris has changed the way Americans look at the French
After a third season that garnered nearly 200 million hours of viewing during its first week on Netflix, the success of the series Emily in Paris has given rise to a number of remarks and mockery, mainly in France, where it has been accused of convey a clichéd and caricatured image of Paris.
These remarks, often justified, have led some to ask the following question: CanEmily in Paris influence Americans in their vision of the French capital and more globally of France and the French?
The travel blog Bonjour New York and IFOP have just presented the results of a study conducted on a panel of more than 1,000 Americans on this very question. And the least we can say is that pop culture clearly influences our vision of the world. The rating of the French has never been as high as it has been in recent years, especially among those who have seen the series.
73% of Americans surveyed say they have a good opinion of France and the French. This is twice as much as in 2007 (39%)
Problem: the vast majority of fans of Emily Cooper’s adventures think that the series gives a rather realistic image of Paris.
Paris even surpasses New York!
This good opinion of France and Paris in particular is confirmed when they are asked to choose between New York and Paris as a city where they would like to stay or even live:
- 75% would like to come to Paris for a short stay compared to 70% for New York
- 44% would like to live a full year in Paris versus 41% for New York
- But the two cities are tied at 29% for living there permanently.
Another interesting statistic is that twice as many Americans surveyed who had seen Emily in Paris (54% versus 25%) said they would like to move to France if they could afford it!
A biased vision
Unfortunately, this vision of a colorful, clean France, without pollution or public transport (remember that Emily Cooper never takes the metro) is also very clearly highlighted in this study.
- 67% of Americans surveyed agree that Paris is a clean city
- 35% think that there are no or almost no rats on the streets or in buildings
- 30% even think that there are no homeless people on the streets
It is with this biased vision of reality that the overwhelming majority of them answer that for them, Emily in Paris gives an image of Paris close to reality.
83% of Americans surveyed believe that the image of Paris portrayed in Emily in Paris is close to reality.
A figure which will certainly make react the Parisians confronted each with a more “realistic” vision of Paris.
Reading this new study, we could be reassured that international tourism will soar in the coming years in Paris and more generally in France. Even though our country remains the top tourist destination in the world with 89 million international tourist arrivals in 2017, well before the Covid-19 crisis. Could the Emily in Paris series be a positive catalyst for a surge in American tourists? In 2019, these already accounted for 10,100,000 overnight stays in France.
Avoiding the Paris syndrome
But we should not forget a disease that affects only a few dozen tourists each year, but whose name already sounds like a warning: the Paris syndrome.
This syndrome is caused by the disappointment to which a tourist (most often Asian) is confronted when he does not find the images of Epinal conveyed by the films or the series during his trip to Paris. “It results in panic attacks, very strong anxieties up to the impression of dying“, according to some psychotherapists.
In order to avoid our international tourists suffering disappointment and gradually abandoning our country, we must take them to the most beautiful places, without hiding the truth of everyday lifeand why not introduce them to other places they have discovered thanks to the movies, series, music, comics, literature or video games.. but this is a mission for Fantrippers 🙂
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Fanspots Stories Paris [French Edition]
Fanspots Stories ParisFanspots are legendary images from films, series, music, comics or novels.
These are often anonymous places these are that have become world-famous thanks to pop culture, to the point where they are now inseparable from the works they were used to set.
Amélie, James Bond, Mission Impossible, La Grande Vadrouille, Les Tontons flingueurs, Bref, Call my Agent, Sex & The City, Blake & Mortimer, Spider-Man, Notre-Dame de Paris… Discover the history of the cult locations of the greatest pop culture masterpieces in the City of Light!
Paris filmed, Paris sung, Paris drawn, Paris told… For artists, the City of Light is an extraordinary field of expression and an inexhaustible source of inspiration. Each new work is an outstretched hand to seduce new people, thanks to the dreamers of yesterday and today. Famous or anonymous places then become cult. These are the secrets of a hundred of them revealed in this third volume of the Fanspots Stories collection.
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The coffee ofAmélie, the location of the Corniaud, the bridge of Inception, the seat of the Spectre in James Bond, the restaurant of Ratatouille, the church of Les Tontons Flingueurs, the bar of Bref., the agency in Call my Agent, the restaurant in Emily in Paris, the refuge of Lupin, the Parisian residence of the heroines of Gossip Girl, the firm of In therapy, the works of the Louvre featured in the clip Apeshit by Jay Z & Beyoncé, the Parc Montsouris of Jacques Higelin, the metro station of Poinçonneur des Lilas by Serge Gainsbourg, the café in Paris Le Flore by Etienne Daho, the apartment ofAdèle Blanc-Sec, the lair of Olrik in Blake & Mortimer, the apartment of Arsene Lupin, the home of the Count of Monte Cristo, the address of The Malaussian Family, the police station of Maigret, the Fiat Lux agency of Nestor Burma, the bar of A Moveable Feast, the tavern of Three musketeers…
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By Anthony Thibault
From the "Casimir generation", Anthony has kept (in addition to a passion for Goldorak) a taste for inventive images, experimentation and curiosity. Passionate about travel and pop culture, he co-founded Fantrippers with Nicolas Albert to share his passion with as many people as possible.