I mentioned last month about how our trip to Paris to celebrate Rachel’s birthday had been inspired by one of our favourite films, Amélie. An important sub-plot of that film revolves around Amélie stealing her father’s prize garden gnome, gives it to her airline crew friend, who then sends back anonymous photos of the gnome from landmarks around the globe. All this is a cryptic ruse to encourage her father to travel…
In the weeks before our trip, Rachel surprised even me with her film geekery and determination to seek out the key locations from the film. We chose our apartment on Rue Lepic specifically for its position in the heart of Montmartre, within walking distance of Sacré Coeur. But she went much, much further, checking out various unofficial ‘walking tours’ and chatrooms. I was shocked, but not a little impressed.
And so to enter into the spirit of things, I acquired (secretly) a gnome of our own to take to Paris. We revealed him to Rachel as the Eurostar train emerged from beneath the English Channel into France, and from then on he was a nearly constant companion as we explored Paris for the next three days.
We went to Gare de l’Est to get passport photos…
We managed to visit most of the main locations from the film, and I’ve created a Google map here. You’re welcome!
And here are some snaps of those locations and our gnome in Paris…
[…] film Amélie. We celebrated one of Rachel’s ‘significant’ birthdays with a trip to Paris, plotted around a pilgrimage many of the film’s iconic […]
[…] l’Hexagone through both the Tour de France and by taking them on holiday ourselves, including a fabulous trip to Paris in April. Our holiday in France this summer was terrific, and it was while visiting the remarkable […]
I liked the movie Amelie too. Especially the scene where she makes Nino go to the top of that hill when she’s returning his photo album.
She’s such a great character, you got to love her.
We went up the steps, even took blue chalk with us to draw some arrows! Thanks for reading…
[…] an utterly different experience from our journey around the Parisian sites from Amélie, but no less captivating. We were there for hours and could have stayed longer. Warner Brothers […]