And with a heroine who obviously speaks a little better French, even if false friends are still there in season 2.

The first season of the series, which follows with a lot of humor the adventures of Emily Cooper (Lily Collins) - a young marketing director from Chicago advising a French firm that markets luxury products -, had unleashed passions.

Critics, especially French, were annoyed by the representation of Parisians as suspicious, haughty, lazy or flirtatious and of a heroine who knows neither metro nor French bureaucracy, lives in an improbably spacious maid's room and has a guard. equally improbable dress.

But the success was meteoric: the most popular comedy series on Netflix in 2020 (with 58 million households worldwide viewing it within 28 days of its release in the midst of a pandemic) and an avalanche of tweets from foreigners, especially Americans, dreaming of living in the French capital.

"She is living her life"

In the midst of the beautiful shots of the Seine and its riverboats, of the all-illuminated Eiffel Tower, of the Place des Vosges or of the lively terraces, but also of Saint-Tropez on the occasion of a getaway, the The plot becomes more complicated for the heroine who has fallen in love with her neighbor Gabriel (Lucas Bravo), a dream chef who turns out to be the boyfriend of her new girlfriend Camille (Camille Razat).

In season 2, the "postcard" vision has not disappeared, far from it, according to its screenwriter and executive producer Darren Star, creator of the famous series "Sex and The City".

"The way we look at Paris is always quite glamorous, this is intentional," he smiles during an interview via Zoom with AFP.

Actress Lily Collins during a photoshoot on June 8, 2019 in Los Angeles VALERIE MACON AFP / Archives

"But in season 2, Emily lives her life and understands French manners better. She is no longer so surprised when the differences arise (...) there is less culture shock," he assures us.

"People will be able to interpret it as a reaction to the critics but in fact it is the natural evolution of her character, like any person who assimilates more and more the (new) environment in which she lives", specifies the screenwriter.

“A successful series lasts at least five seasons and a character cannot have all of their experiences in one,” he added.

"It was important for us that my character is immersed in the culture and the French language", explains to AFP the actress Lily Collins, specifying that the heroine "begins to go to French lessons and is a little more at ease "with the language of Molière.

“She tries, but as someone who has learned French for years, (I can say that) it doesn't happen overnight,” laughs Darren Star.

An Englishman in Paris

If at first she was a bit like an elephant in a porcelain store, her French colleagues "accept her as she is", according to Lily Collins, daughter of musician Phil Collins.

And if in season 1, we found sentences of the type "the whole city looks like + Ratatouille +" or "I feel like Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge +", Darren Star, as if to counterbalance this idealized vision of Paris, introduces the character of Alfie, a Briton who follows - reluctantly - French lessons in the same class as Emily.

"We present this city as romantic in books, movies, on Instagram, but the reality is cigarette smoke, shit on the sidewalks, tourist traps (...) traffic jams everywhere and restaurants outside. price ", he replies to Emily who assures him that Paris is" the city of love ".

© 2021 AFP