Many Americans dream of moving to the city after seeing "Emily in Paris."
Several female American expats told Insider that the reality of living in Paris isn't so good.
It can be difficult to rent an apartment, make friends in France, and date.
"Emily in Paris" has caused many Americans to fantasize about moving to Paris, pushing an old image of the city as the most romantic place on Earth. Emily, a hopelessly naive Chicagoan, wins over the rude but charming Parisians at her office and in her personal life in the plot.
The show is meant to be a lighthearted romantic comedy that pokes fun atclichés that everyone has experienced at one time or another.
Even though life isn't a rom-com, many young American women who've moved to Paris have discovered that it's much more complicated than they think.
Rats are seen at night in real life. Kiana Tiese is a New Yorker who has been living in Paris for the past year. Tiese shows her followers how real life is in the City of Light compared to Emily's escapades.
Being an expatriate is about growing as a person. Tiese says Emily doesn't get into French culture. People in the US are expected to adapt to them. It is different once you are an expatriate.
French corporate culture is depicted in a negative way. There's backstabbing and resistance to change, but also a healthy work-life balance, as Emily is told it's "illegal" to work on Saturdays and Sundays.
Cara Anne Chapman says there is some truth to that. She says she finds working here better than in the US. There are more rules for workers. It's not possible for me to have two shifts that are less than 12 hours apart.
Tiese claims that the competition between Emily's colleagues at Savoir has some basis in reality.
Tiese, who works at a department store, says that working with French people can be challenging because of their mentality. They are more focused on themselves and working on their projects.
The show gets wrong about Parisians' relationship to social media, according to a 30-year-old marketing executive from Alabama. Emily teaches her French colleagues how to use the social media platform. The reality on the ground is not the same.
I would ask myself if she thought we were stupid. Langley made a statement. Europe can be a long way behind the US in technology. The use of social media in the show is a misrepresentation. She makes it easy to get followers and post a bad picture.
The show ignores dealing with the French bureaucracy and an unfriendly rental market for Americans.
A woman from Atlanta moved to Paris with her husband in the middle of the coronaviruses outbreak. It was a nightmare to get a visa. There is an online list of documents, but when you get there, they ask you for different versions of the paperwork. Some people are mean.
The visa officer was hostile. "They wanted to know why I was in France, since I didn't speak French," he said. The person had a different attitude when my husband arrived.
Amy moved to Paris after leaving a successful career in Chicago. She realized she had been dedicating her life to making someone else's dream come true when the Pandemic struck.
Emily's flat isn't indicative of the reality of apartment hunting in Paris. When she arrived in the city to study photography, she wanted to treat herself and get an apartment overlooking the Eiffel Tower.
Most landlords don't want to rent to Americans. She says that they are known for having more resources. Another American expatriate said the same thing. She turned to an agency that was reliable and friendly. When she visited one of the agency's apartments, it was different from the pictures she'd seen, but she decided to take it, as her rental was about to end.
The apartment was very frightening. Construction work began in the building after the washer, dryer, and air conditioner didn't work after Kehrig moved in.
The agency wrongly classified her apartment as a secondary residence and charged her over the rent control limit. She was told that the apartment wasn't her primary residence because she wasn't a French citizen.
Many people moving here don't know anything. Nobody will rent to them. They find these apartments and pay a lot, but they don't know they're being ripped off.
The man decided to take legal action and leave. She says that she always jokes about that. This episode of Emily in Paris was not shown.
One of the show's French characters is a black man. It's odd that there is only one black guy in Paris.
In Paris, racism is not as bad as it is in the US. She says she has been asked how long she has been a nanny.
In France, this is rarely talked about. The people are in denial. You hear a lot of jokes about other races.
The show's settings focus on posh parts of the capital like Place des Vosges and the romantic bateaux rather than lesser known areas with more residents of color.
Tiese says that you don't see that kind of place in the show. Maybe they should shoot in Strasbourg-Saint Denis? It has its own charm, unlike the Eiffel Tower.
Parisians are less fashion-minded than Americans would think from watching the show.
I found out how normal people are. A product manager who moved to Paris in May says that nobody walks around in designer clothes.
Life-changing encounters are part of the appeal of the French capital. In the first episode of the show, Emily met her eventual best friend, a Chinese expatriate, while walking in a park. She made friends in Paris by the end of the first season. It can be much more difficult to socialize in Paris.
A teacher from California who lives in Paris says that the part she found unrealistic was how quickly she befriended French friends. It usually takes a lot of effort.
The language barrier, the fact that locals had already spent decades building groups of friends, and just plain old busyness were some of the obstacles that the women mentioned in the interview.
Many expatriates leave after a few years, making it hard to build long- lasting friendships. Tiese says that meeting people quickly might be temporary.
Real-life dating in Paris is more difficult than Emily would think. Tiese says that sometimes a guy won't take you seriously when they know you're American. It will be easy, that's what they think.
In the show, Parisians are depicted as always on the lookout for a new unfaithful partner. There was a time when a Frenchman approached her while walking his dog in her neighborhood. He made everything look like magic. It felt like a scene from Emily in Paris. She found out her beau had multiple girlfriends, didn't live in the neighborhood, and had a child in the US.
People here have wandering eyes. The show gets right through Emily's neighbor cheating on his girlfriend. It's like a secret society where many people are cheating and everyone is aware of it, but it's all hidden.
Sierra Ripoche, a teacher from Georgia, says that many women come here with the belief that they will have all the things Emily experiences. It is one of the loneliest cities for expatriates.
In the second season of the show, Alfie, Emily's love interest, questions Paris' reputation as the City of Love, calling it a facade.
He told Emily that it was all about how you decide to look at it.
You want a fairy tale when you are an expatriate. When you're single, you come here because it's such a romantic city and you hope you'll find someone.
The show exaggerates the part of Paris that is not Paris. People stop in the middle of the street to kiss or walk along the river.
Emily's coworkers may think she's crazy. It can be used to keep the dream of Paris alive despite the difficult day-to-day reality of living in a foreign country.
Tiese says that the show mocks them a little. We can accept it. We're deserving of it.
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