28 Movies That Will Make You Want to Move To France Immediately (And They Aren’t All Set in Paris)

Movies do something travel guides can’t do as well. They can transport you to France in the blink of an eye. Some of these films you’ve probably seen, others flew under the radar despite being critically acclaimed or winning major awards, and a few might surprise you because you won’t be able to believe you’ve only just discovered them.

On this list are movies that will make you want to move to France. You’ll find everything from Hitchcock thrillers on the Riviera to modern dramas in the Dordogne. There are romances, yes, because, after all, this is France. But also war stories, period dramas, and comedies.

Twenty-eight films total. Some will make you want to book a flight immediately; others will give you a deeper understanding of French history and culture than any documentary could. So pour yourself a glass of wine, settle in, and consider this your pre-trip film syllabus.

28 Movies That Will Make You Want to Move To France

Planning a trip to France? Skip the guidebooks for a minute and grab some popcorn instead.

To Catch a Thief (1955)

It’s an oldie but a goodie, and the French Riviera provides the glamorous backdrop as Cary Grant plays a reformed jewel thief trying to clear his name when a copycat strikes. Grace Kelly co-stars as an heiress who may or may not trust him.

Alfred Hitchcock shot the film entirely on location in and around Nice, Cannes, and Monaco. The car chase along the coastal roads, the rooftop scenes overlooking the Mediterranean, and the costume ball at the Carlton Hotel in Cannes make this one of the most visually stunning entries in Hitchcock’s filmography.

Jules and Jim (1962)

Paris and the French countryside in the years before and after World War I provide the setting for François Truffaut’s unconventional love triangle. Oskar Werner and Henri Serre play best friends who both fall for Jeanne Moreau’s free-spirited Catherine.

The film follows the trio through bohemian Paris cafés, a cottage in the countryside, and various European locations as their friendship stretches across decades and war. Truffaut’s use of freeze frames, voiceover narration, and archival footage created a template that influenced generations of filmmakers.

A Man and a Woman (1966)

Set on the Normandy coast between Paris and Deauville, this film stars Anouk Aimée and Jean-Louis Trintignant as two widowed parents who meet at their children’s boarding school. Their tentative romance unfolds through weekend trips between Paris and the seaside, with long stretches of highway and the stark beauty of winter beaches setting the mood.

Director Claude Lelouch shot the film on a shoestring budget in just four weeks, using leftover film stock. It became a surprise hit, won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and two Oscars, and basically launched the entire “romance in France” film genre that Hollywood keeps returning to.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)

I loved this film when I was a kid, and it was where I completely fell in love with Steve Martin. The French Riviera becomes a playground for con artists as Michael Caine and Steve Martin compete to swindle an American soap heiress played by Glenne Headly. Frank Oz directed this remake of the 1964 film Bedtime Story.

Beauvilliers-sur-Mer is fictional, but the film was shot in and around Nice, Villefranche-sur-Mer, Antibes, and Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. The casino scenes, yacht clubs, and grand hotels capture the wealth and excess of the Côte d’Azur in a way that makes you want to book a ticket immediately.

Henry and June (1990)

Philip Kaufman’s film recreates 1930s Paris when American writer Henry Miller, his wife June, and diarist Anaïs Nin formed a complicated triangle that scandalized even the bohemian Left Bank. Fred Ward plays Miller, Uma Thurman is June, and Maria de Medeiros portrays Nin.

The film captures literary Paris at its most decadent. Cafés in Montparnasse, cramped apartments in shabby hotels, and the gardens of Clichy provide the backdrop for affairs, arguments, and artistic creation. This was the first film to receive an NC-17 rating in the US, which probably tells you everything about the content.

French Kiss (1995)

Meg Ryan plays a woman terrified of flying who forces herself onto a plane to Paris after her fiancé calls from France to say he’s fallen for a French woman. Kevin Kline is the charming French thief she meets on the flight who helps her win her fiancé back, though the plot goes exactly where you expect.

The film moves from Paris to the south of France, shot on location in Cannes, the French countryside, and various Parisian landmarks. The scene in the Jardin du Palais-Royal is particularly lovely. Lawrence Kasdan directed, and Jean Reno appears as a French police inspector.

The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999)

Luc Besson directs Milla Jovovich as Joan in this epic that follows her from childhood through her military victories to her trial and execution. John Malkovich plays Charles VII, Dustin Hoffman appears as “The Conscience” who questions Joan’s visions, and Faye Dunaway rounds out the cast.

The film was shot in the Czech Republic and across multiple French regions, including the Loire Valley châteaux, Normandy, the Dordogne, and Aquitaine. Besson shot the battle scenes with brutal realism, showing the graphic violence of medieval warfare. 

The film explores whether Joan’s mission came from divine visions or psychological trauma after witnessing her sister’s murder during an English raid. Jovovich cut her hair short for the role and performed her own stunts.

Chocolat (2000)

Juliette Binoche and her daughter arrive in a conservative French village in 1959 and open a chocolaterie during Lent. The film was shot in Flavigny-sur-Ozerain in Burgundy and Beynac-et-Cazerac in the Dordogne.

Lasse Hallström’s film follows the battle between Binoche’s free-spirited chocolatier and Alfred Molina’s uptight mayor. Johnny Depp shows up as a river gypsy who complicates everything. The chocolate creations are gorgeous, the village locations are picture-perfect, and Dame Judi Dench steals scenes as a woman rediscovering pleasure late in life.

Quills (2000)

Geoffrey Rush plays the Marquis de Sade during his final years imprisoned at the Charenton asylum outside Paris. Kate Winslet is the laundress who smuggles his scandalous writings out to publishers, while Joaquin Phoenix plays the sympathetic priest trying to rehabilitate him.

Philip Kaufman shot the film largely at Pinewood Studios in England, but the story is pure French controversy. The Marquis writes increasingly disturbing material with whatever tools remain available to him, even after his quills, ink, and paper are confiscated.

Amélie (2001)

Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s whimsical portrait of a shy Parisian waitress became one of the most successful French films ever made. Audrey Tautou plays the title character who decides to fix the lives of those around her while struggling with her own isolation.

Montmartre is the real star here. The film was shot at actual locations around the 18th arrondissement, including the Café des 2 Moulins, where Amélie works, the Collignon grocery, and various streets around Sacré-Coeur. Jeunet saturated the colors to create a storybook version of Paris that feels both magical and lived-in.

The Count of Monte Cristo (2002)

This adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’s revenge classic follows Jim Caviezel as Edmond Dantès, betrayed by his best friend and imprisoned on the Château d’If off the coast of Marseille. Guy Pearce plays the treacherous Fernand Mondego, who steals Edmond’s life.

The film was shot in Ireland and Malta, not France, but the story is quintessentially French. From the Mediterranean port of Marseille to the aristocratic salons of Paris, this tale of honor, vengeance, and the price of obsession has captivated readers since 1844.

Before Sunset (2004)

Richard Linklater’s romantic sequel brings Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy back together nine years after their Vienna encounter in Before Sunrise. This time, they meet in Paris, where Delpy’s Céline still lives, and Hawke’s Jesse is on a book tour.

The entire film takes place during an afternoon walk through Paris. They start at Shakespeare and Company bookshop, wander through the Marais, take a boat on the Seine, stop at a café in the Latin Quarter, and end at Céline’s apartment in the 11th arrondissement. It’s 80 minutes of conversation shot in real time as they rediscover what they meant to each other.

A Very Long Engagement (2004)

Audrey Tautou reunites with director Jean-Pierre Jeunet for this World War I drama about a young woman searching for her fiancé who disappeared in the trenches. Jodie Foster, Marion Cotillard, and Dominique Pinon round out the cast.

The film moves between the horrific battlefields of northern France and the quieter landscapes of Brittany, where Tautou’s Mathilde refuses to believe her beloved is dead. The production design is extraordinary, from the muddy horror of no man’s land to the lighthouse where Mathilde waits for news.

Marie Antoinette (2006)

Sofia Coppola reimagined the life of France’s most famous queen as a teenager trapped in Versailles. Kirsten Dunst plays Marie Antoinette from her arrival from Austria at age fourteen through the events leading to the Revolution.

Versailles had never before allowed a narrative film to shoot in the palace itself, but Coppola convinced them. The result is breathtaking. The Hall of Mirrors, the private apartments, the gardens, all shot in their actual locations.

Coppola added a modern soundtrack, with songs by New Order, The Cure, and The Strokes accompanying 18th-century scenes, creating something that feels both period accurate and emotionally contemporary.

A Good Year (2006)

Russell Crowe plays a ruthless London banker who inherits his uncle’s vineyard in Provence and discovers there’s more to life than hostile takeovers. Marion Cotillard is the local café owner who shows him what he’s been missing.

Ridley Scott shot the film in the Luberon region of Provence, using the village of Gordes and an actual vineyard estate. The cinematography captures why everyone falls in love with southern France. Rolling lavender fields, stone houses with shutters, and sunlight that makes everything golden. Albert Finney appears in flashbacks as the uncle who once tried to teach Crowe’s character about wine and life.

2 Days in Paris (2007)

Julie Delpy directs and stars alongside Adam Goldberg in this romantic comedy about a French-American couple visiting Delpy’s parents in Paris. The relationship begins to crack under the pressure of cultural differences, jealous ex-boyfriends, and family eccentricity.

Delpy shot the film guerrilla-style around Paris, using her parents’ actual apartment and recruiting them to play themselves. The film captures a more realistic, less polished Paris than most romantic comedies. Arguments on the métro, cramped apartments, political debates in cafés, and the chaos of actually living in the city rather than visiting it.

Mr. Bean’s Holiday (2007)

Rowan Atkinson’s rubber-faced character wins a trip to Cannes, and chaos follows. The physical comedy plays out across France as Bean accidentally separates a Russian filmmaker’s son from his father and must get the boy to Cannes for a reunion.

The film was shot on location from Paris through the French countryside to the Côte d’Azur. Bean causes disasters at Le Train Bleu restaurant, hitchhikes through rural France, disrupts a village market, and eventually crashes the Cannes Film Festival. It’s broad slapstick, but the French locations look gorgeous even as Bean destroys them.

Coco Before Chanel (2009)

Audrey Tautou plays Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel during the years before she became a fashion icon. The film follows her from her childhood in an orphanage through her time as a cabaret singer and her relationship with wealthy playboy Étienne Balsan, played by Benoît Poelvoorde.

Director Anne Fontaine shot in Paris and at various châteaux in the French countryside. The film shows Chanel’s early life in Paris cabarets, her time at Balsan’s château, where she began designing hats, and her first boutique in Deauville. Tautou captures Chanel’s determination to escape poverty and create something entirely new in fashion.

Julie & Julia (2009)

Nora Ephron’s film intercuts between Julia Child learning to cook in 1950s Paris and Julie Powell blogging about cooking all 524 recipes from Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking in 2002 New York. Meryl Streep and Amy Adams star in the parallel stories.

The Paris sequences were shot partly in the city itself, particularly around the Latin Quarter and along the Seine. Streep’s scenes at Le Cordon Bleu and exploring markets capture the joy Child found in French food culture. Stanley Tucci plays her devoted husband, Paul, and their relationship is the emotional heart of the film.

Midnight in Paris (2011)

Woody Allen sends Owen Wilson back in time every night at midnight to meet the artists and writers of 1920s Paris. Marion Cotillard, Adrien Brody, Kathy Bates, and Corey Stoll populate the past, while Rachel McAdams plays Wilson’s dismissive fiancée in the present.

Allen shot at locations all over Paris. The Rodin Museum gardens, the steps of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont church, the Versailles gardens, Giverny, and countless streets and cafés provide the backdrop for this love letter to the city. It won Allen his fourth Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

The Three Musketeers (2011)

Paul W.S. Anderson’s version of the Dumas adventure stars Logan Lerman as d’Artagnan, joining forces with Athos, Porthos, and Aramis to protect France from Cardinal Richelieu’s schemes. Christoph Waltz chews scenery as the villainous Richelieu, and Milla Jovovich plays Milady de Winter.

This version adds airships and steampunk elements to 17th-century Paris. It’s ridiculous, historically nonsensical, and somehow fun. The film was shot in Germany at Wurzburg and Babelsberg, but the spirit is pure swashbuckling France.

A Little Chaos (2014)

Kate Winslet plays a landscape designer hired to create a garden at Versailles during the construction of Louis XIV’s palace. Alan Rickman directs and plays the King, while Matthias Schoenaerts is André Le Nôtre, the famous landscape architect overseeing the gardens.

The film explores the creation of the outdoor ballroom grove at Versailles, though most of the filming actually happened at Hampton Court Palace in England. Stanley Tucci appears as the King’s brother, Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, providing comic relief and historical context.

The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014)

Helen Mirren and Om Puri face off as rival restaurateurs in a small village in the south of France. An Indian family opens a restaurant directly across the street from Mirren’s Michelin-starred establishment, and culinary warfare ensues.

Lasse Hallström shot in Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val in southwestern France and in Paris. The film follows Hassan, played by Manish Dayal, as he learns French cooking while maintaining his Indian culinary roots. It’s about food as cultural identity, immigration, ambition, and eventually, mutual respect. Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg produced.

Paris Can Wait (2016)

Diane Lane plays the neglected wife of a Hollywood producer who takes a car trip from Cannes to Paris with her husband’s charming business partner, played by Arnaud Viard. What should be a quick drive turns into a multi-day food tour through the French countryside.

Director Eleanor Coppola was 80 when she made her narrative feature debut, and the film reflects a more mature appreciation of pleasure. They stop at markets, vineyards, restaurants, and historical sites between Cannes and Paris. The food is gorgeous, the scenery is beautiful, and Lane’s character slowly rediscovers what she wants from life.

French Exit (2020)

Michelle Pfeiffer plays a widowed Manhattan socialite who runs out of money and relocates to Paris with her adult son, played by Lucas Hedges. She brings her cat, who may or may not contain the reincarnated soul of her dead husband.

The film was shot in Paris and Montreal, with scenes set around the Luxembourg Gardens and various Parisian apartments. Pfeiffer is magnificent as a woman facing the collapse of her entire world with nothing but wine, sarcasm, and questionable parenting skills. Valerie Mahaffey appears as a widowed medium who holds séances in the Paris apartment.

The French Dispatch (2021)

Wes Anderson’s love letter to journalism and France unfolds through three stories published in the final issue of a fictional American magazine based in the French town of Ennui-sur-Blasé. The ensemble cast includes Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Timothée Chalamet, Léa Seydoux, Jeffrey Wright, Benicio del Toro, and about twenty other recognizable faces.

Anderson shot in Angoulême, standing in for his fictional French town. I was lucky enough to be in the city when they were shooting, as I only live 20 minutes away. The film captures his version of mid-century France through meticulous production design, pastel color palettes, and geometric framing. It’s more about the idea of France filtered through New Yorker-style journalism than actual France, but it’s visually stunning.

The Taste of Things (2023)

Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel play a celebrated chef and his personal cook in 1885 France, their professional relationship deepening into something more. Director Tran Anh Hung adapted the novel The Passionate Epicure for this meditation on food, love, and art.

The film was shot in the Dordogne region, and the food preparation scenes were filmed in real time. Binoche and Magimel actually learned to cook the elaborate 19th-century dishes that appear on screen. Pierre Gagnaire, a Michelin-starred chef, designed the recipes. This is food as sensory poetry, shot with the kind of attention usually reserved for museum paintings.

Napoleon (2023)

Ridley Scott’s epic follows Napoleon Bonaparte from his rise through the French Revolution to his final exile. Joaquin Phoenix plays Napoleon, and Vanessa Kirby is Empress Joséphine in a relationship that’s equal parts passion and manipulation.

Scott shot across multiple countries, but key French locations include scenes of revolutionary Paris, various battle locations, and Joséphine’s château. The film covers Napoleon’s military campaigns, his self-coronation as Emperor, his disastrous Russian invasion, and his final defeat at Waterloo. Phoenix plays Napoleon as brilliant, petty, paranoid, and surprisingly vulnerable.