Emily in Paris Hunk Paul Forman Shares His Guide to the City of Love

As the charming, devilishly handsome playboy and nepo-executive Nicolas de Léon, Paul Forman has spent the better part of his three seasons on Emily in Paris playing a convincing Frenchman. But you might be surprised to know that the 31-year-old actor is actually a Brit, having been raised in London, where he also attended drama school. That, however, makes it a bit easier for him to buy into the show’s starry-eyed vision of Paris. “Emily in Paris never pretended to be a documentary,” he told us earlier this month, “It’s a dream of an American girl who falls in love with a city and invites us on that journey with her.” Forman, like the title character of the Netflix smash-hit, has fallen in love with the city through tourist’s eyes, so he was game to take us on a virtual tour of his favorite Parisian haunts in this week’s installment of Share Location. Below, he unloads the contents of his personal camera roll, from his quest to find gluten-free pastries to a glamorous stay at the Peninsula hotel.

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CHAMPS-ÉLYSÉES

 

“I’m just so amazed every time I pass it, and this applies to so many places in Paris. It’s so elegant just to walk or drive around and get to see these breathtaking monuments. I feel like I’m mesmerized every time. I’m such a tourist. I don’t live in Paris, so it makes it so magical.”

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NEUILLY-SUR-SEINE

 

“This was two weeks ago in Paris. The snow was so heavy one night, and it was beautiful. It came out of nowhere. It wasn’t snowing anywhere else in Europe, and it makes the city even more magical. I really felt like I was back on set, like, Where are the lights? Where’s the camera crew? This was in Neuilly, which is a borough just on the outskirts of Paris, and I love spending time there. It’s close to everything, but very quiet, and it almost feels like a little village.”

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NOIR

 

“This is my favorite coffee in Paris. I’m a new-world coffee man, so I don’t like an espresso. I can’t do an espresso in America. I like a flat white with honey—very Australian. They are the ones who reinvented coffee and modernized it. The French like their traditional coffee, but this is the best coffee I’ve had in Paris. You should see the look on their faces when I ask, Oh, have you got any honey with that? A lot of people were like, What the heck? Get out of my cafe right now. It’s so important to me. I’m a different person without it.”

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FARMERS MARKET

 

“There’s a little Sunday market, and it’s a presentation. Look at the color of those tomatoes. It’s unbelievable. What I like about Paris is they’ve kept with their tradition of going to the market to buy your cheese—you don’t tend to go as much in a supermarket to buy your meat or your bread or whatever. You go to your boulangerie or your bakery for the bread, you go here for the fruits and vegetables. I used to cook way more, but it’s my new year’s resolution to get back to it.”

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HOMEMADE QUICHE LORRAINE

 

“This is a Quiche Lorraine that I baked the other day. It was delicious. I was really proud of myself, and it’s gluten-free as well, because I’m allergic to gluten.”

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COPAINS

 

“This is from an all gluten-free bakery called Copains. Now, this is a mission in France: to get gluten-free food. So I am very, very grateful to this chain. I try everything there. I tried a pistachio croissant. There was this fig tart. I’m obsessed. I could have it every single day.”

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 PRE-PHOTOSHOOT SELFIE

 

“This was me getting ready for the week of press junkets that I just did in France. I was tired. I needed a bit of a boost on my way to a shoot.”

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THE PENINSULA PARIS

 

“This is at the Peninsula, where I just stayed. It’s an incredible hotel. Very elegant and very Paris.”

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SNACKS AT THE PENINSULA PARIS

 

“He’s so cute. I really have a sweet tooth, as you can probably tell from my flat white with honey, so I devoured him. He was delicious and gluten-free.”

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EMILY IN PARIS PREMIERE

 

“This was last night, just before the press line. That’s Minnie Driver in front there, who I hadn’t actually gotten to meet on set, so this was the first time I met her, and she’s wonderful. It was great to have a fellow Brit with us. A wonderful night. It was really, really special.”

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BALMAIN PREMIERE LOOK

 

“This is Balmain. I’m so impressed with it. I felt like it was festive and it captured the spirit of Emily in Paris. It’s glitzy and glamor, and yeah, I felt great in it.”

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VINTAGE CARS

 

“I was walking this morning and I was like, I cannot not take a picture of this. There was an old car exhibition going on in the streets and it was stunning. I love retro cars. I think it’s so beautiful and it suits Paris so well because it’s a historical city full of art. I love that you just stumble upon these incredible things. You’ll be walking around and someone will be playing the violin, and then you’ll turn a street corner and there’ll be cars from the 1930s, and then you’ll turn another street corner and there’ll be people dancing and kissing.”

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