Hunting For Heartstopper Filming Locations In Paris

It’s been a long time since I’ve been to Paris. Not that I need too much of an excuse to go back, but the perfect opportunity finally came up.

I visited with a friend and we were on a mission: to find all the filming locations from Heartstopper!

First off, this trip was a disaster. I’ve written about it separately, because it might even be my ultimate travel disaster story (and you’ve read about Dusseldorf and Riga, right?). The irony was this should have been my easiest trip all year – and instead, it was a weekend embroiled in chaos, with cancelled trains, delayed flights, assault, illness, and very little food or sleep to tackle any of this.

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However, there were good things too: we got to explore areas that we hadn’t been before, I got some fantastic photos of the main sights, and… geek alert, we went hunting for Heartstopper filming locations!

Regular readers (and every one of my friends) may know that I have been obsessed with this show since it first came out in 2022. In season two, the gang go to Paris on a school trip, and I think those three episodes are some of my favourite TV show episodes ever. They’re wholesome, fun, and begin to tackle the darker themes of the show perfectly.

My friend and I had been talking about doing a Eurostar trip for years, and we both love Heartstopper. So when that season came out, we decided we had to go to Paris!

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Heartstopper filming locations in Paris

Now firstly, they visit virtually every landmark in the city in the show, so while I didn’t really need an excuse to go and take photos of them all with a much better camera than my previous visits, this made a pretty good one. Two birds with one stone!

But there are also lots of more specific locations, like the hotel they stay in and the restaurant, plus some brief scenes like the metro station and the riverside café.

Here’s everywhere we visited, and the order we visited them in, because we made a pretty good day out of this!

Hotel De Sevigne

Where is it in the show? This is the hotel they stay in during their time in Paris. There are lots of interior scenes which I have no idea if they’re in the hotel corridors and rooms, but we see it from the outside too, when they arrive and when they’re sitting on the balcony of the girls’ room.

In the morning, we got up mega early and took the metro to Charles de Gaulle Etoile. My friend had never actually seen the Arc de Triomphe on her first trip to Paris, so I decided this would be an essential add-on. Plus they do stop at the Arc de Triomphe in the show, even if it’s just a quick comic book sequence!

We then planned to walk down to the Eiffel Tower, which admittedly isn’t my favourite walk in Paris, however there’s an important Heartstopper location on the way – the hotel they stay in!

…Unfortunately it was all in scaffolding. It’s closed until mid-2025 for renovations, so even if the interior is in the show, it may well have changed a lot when it re-opens.

Anyway, it was fine. From there, it’s not far to our next stop: the Eiffel Tower.

Photos around the Eiffel Tower

Where is it in the show? The school group sit on the grass next to the Eiffel Tower to do a French worksheet before climbing the tower itself. They also catch a glimpse of the landmark from the coach as they drive along near the Trocadero.

Right, so firstly we didn’t go up the Eiffel Tower like they do in the show. We’ve both been up before, and we didn’t have time. What I did mean to do was find where they are sitting doing the French quiz (and Isaac asks Harry where his basic human empathy is, YES ISAAC!), but we had a lot of walking to do, and we were on limited time, so I settled simply for photos of the Eiffel Tower.

We started from the Trocadero, but the lighting wasn’t great from this spot to recreate their view from the road. It’s a pretty generic location anyway; not exactly specific to the show!

There was also some building work going on in front of the Trocadero, but I managed to get a few nice shots, which was another of my main aims of the trip, as last time I went to Paris I had zero photography skills!

Notre Dame

Where is it in the show? Nick and Charlie take a selfie from the bridge near Notre Dame, and Tao and Elle share a kiss.

From the Eiffel Tower, we hopped on a train to Notre Dame. By this point in the day, before 10am, we’d encountered two disasters (three if you include the scaffolding), but I’m saving them for another post. *bites tongue*

There are quite a few Heartstopper filming locations close to Notre Dame, so this is a good spot to spend some time.

When we visited, we were a week out from Notre Dame’s grand re-opening, though if we’d gone a week later we would never have been able to get in, and it would have been far busier. It did mean all the construction was still around though, so we couldn’t get up close. This just meant we could re-create Nick and Charlie’s cheesy selfie and move on.

Le Marais (Le Ju cafe)

Where is it in the show? In the third Paris episode, there’s a scene where they are walking along a street with rainbow umbrellas, and see gay couples openly walking together. This gives Nick the courage to publicly hold hands with Charlie, which is a great moment.

So my plan was to head to Le Ju for a late breakfast. This is the café they walk past with all the rainbow umbrellas!

While we did end up walking past it, my friend caved before this point and got food elsewhere (I hesitate to tell you where). I found a bakery next door which was brilliant.

After food, we wandered through some of the streets of Le Marais, including past Le Ju, and I loved what we saw. This is definitely an area that, had we had more time, I would have spent longer in.

Still, a bonus of this little scavenger hunt is that it’s given me places to go back to!

Pont Neuf station

Where is it in the show? At the end of the second Paris episode, Nick and Charlie make an escape from the Louvre to go and meet Nick’s dad. They run down some stairs into a metro station and jump on a train (the sign inside the station, Ecole de Coeur, is fake – it translates to School of the Heart). The third episode begins with them walking out of the exit. Both of these stations are Pont Neuf!

From Le Marais, it’s only a short walk to Pont Neuf station, which is where Nick and Charlie run down into the metro station to go and meet Nick’s dad.

Ironically, they meet his dad about 30 seconds from here, so jumping on the metro is all for show – although they CAN get the metro from the Louvre to Pont Neuf, and it’s only a 10 minute walk back, which means it was doable for them to walk back to the coach and rant about his dad the whole way.

Maison Maison

Where is it in the show? This is the riverside café where they meet Nick’s dad very briefly.

This outdoor café where they meet Nick’s dad for coffee is quite a scenic spot – but unfortunately it was shut! I was hoping to grab a cup of tea (not coffee) before we moved on.

So bear in mind it opens at midday.

But hey, at least we found it and we didn’t need to go out of our way for it either.

There are also the steps down to the café which feature in the show.

Pont des Arts

Where is it in the show? The bridge appears in two different episodes – the first when they’re walking across being silly (even though the location is completely inaccurate), and again in the next episode when Tao opens up to Charlie about what he did, and in response Charlie leaves a padlock for Tao on the bridge as a mark of friendship.

Just along from the café is Pont des Arts, the bridge the gang cross in two different episodes. One of these makes zero sense because they’re meant to be in Montmartre! The second Paris episode is a lot more accurate, although they walk to the Louvre in the opposite direction. But it is at least near the Louvre!

You’re nowhere near Montmartre!

It’s also where Charlie leaves the padlock for Tao, which apparently was found IRL shortly after it came out, but it’s long gone by now as all the padlocks have been cleared.

We took a quick detour – see the next stop – but then walked across the bridge and back along the Seine towards Notre Dame to complete our loop.

A quick snap at the Louvre

Where is it in the show? Most of the second Paris episode is set in the Louvre. A lot happens in the Louvre, with romantic moments, a building mystery of what Darcy might be hiding, and a medical emergency leading to opening up about mental illness.

“You don’t have to have everything figured out. You can just feel.”

Because we were only a ten minute walk from the Louvre, we decided to make a detour from Pont des Arts – which worked because yes, it’s also featured in the show! Obviously we didn’t go in, but actually the interior shots were mostly filmed in Dulwich Picture Gallery in London.

I’m guessing the open area beneath the pyramid was filmed on site, as well as Tao and Elle’s scene overlooking the pyramid.

Anyway, we just took a couple of quick shots outside and moved on.

Shakespeare & Company

Where is it in the show? With a bookworm like Isaac in the show, it was very on-brand for the gang to visit Shakespeare & Company! There’s a fun sequence of Isaac walking from side to side in the shop, accumulating more books each time until he has way more than he’ll ever fit in his suitcase. Come on now, Isaac.

By now, it was almost time for Shakespeare & Company to open, so we headed back, crossed Pont des Arts, and walked back along the other side of the Seine.

And then we saw the queue at Shakespeare & Company. This book shop has become a huge hit on Instagram over the years, so I should have expected it to be busy, especially on a weekend, but the queue went all the way around the corner and down the road!

You’re also not allowed to take photos inside, so we settled for a couple of outdoor shots and left. It’s a shame as this had actually been on my list to visit for years, but I didn’t fancy queuing for ages just to be packed into a bookshop, as seems to be the way with Internet-famous bookshops these days (see also: Venice and Porto).

Heartstopper in Montmartre

The first Paris episode of Heartstopper is set completely in Montmartre, apart from the bridge scene above which makes absolutely no sense.

We had actually been up to Montmartre the night before, which was just as well, as it was heaving on a Sunday afternoon. It had been our plan to do all of this on the day we arrived, but unfortunately we arrived six hours later than we were meant to! So this was a pretty whistlestop tour in the end, instead of what should have been a leisurely wander.

Sacre Coeur

We’d hoped to recreate the scene of Charlie and Tara having a heart-to-heart on the steps up to the Sacre Coeur, but every inch of it was packed so we had to settle for a really awkward selfie instead! Several, in fact, with varying degrees of legs and people behind us.

No, none of them are worth posting.

There’s also the above segment of Tao and Elle walking to the Musee de Montmartre (next stop).

Musee de Montmartre

One of my favourite scenes of the episode is when Tao and Elle reconnect at the Montmartre Museum. While we didn’t go in to recreate the Wes Anderson-esque visuals or Tao’s silly tourist photos in the courtyard, we made sure to get a pic from the outside.

Dalida Statue

It’s very on-brand for Tara and Darcy to get a silly photo with the Dalida statue and her golden boobs, so of course we had to do the same!

L’escalier Bistro

In the evening, the school group heads out for dinner at L’escalier Bistro, which isn’t even masked in the show and has the full real name on display. The interior I think is filmed elsewhere though, so you can’t go in to re-imagine the scene where Imogen has a dramatic and satisfying break-up with Ben.

This was a little out of the way compared to all the other locations in Montmartre, but it took us along some really pretty streets and past a quirky book store. You could also grab lunch or dinner here, which was our intention, but naturally we didn’t have time.

Place Emile Goudeau

And finally, we decided to walk back down via Place Emile Goudeau, rather than attempt the packed stairs at Sacre Coeur again.

This is where the group starts off in Montmartre, with the teachers telling everyone to meet back here in a few hours, before panning to a close-up of them.

“I need a drink. An alcoholic drink.”
“I don’t think we can drink alcohol.”
“I need a croissant then.”

I have to admit we got to the square and wondered if we’d even got the right place. I needed a reference photo, because I didn’t quite re-create it properly.

If I’d had more time, I would have lined this up better!

It would make sense to do Montmartre the other way around, starting here and ending at the Sacre Coeur, but we weren’t sure if we’d have time for everything so this was at the bottom of the list. However it’s a much nicer walk around here than battling the crowds and annoying “sales” men on the steps and paths up to the Sacre Coeur.

With more time, I would have ended our time in Montmartre with food at a “bouillon”, a casual and cheap traditional restaurant in Paris. There’s one next to Pigalle station, which is quite close to Place Emile Goudeau. Otherwise for something slightly less cheap but not uber fancy, we passed La Taverne de Montmartre which looked lovely.

Where we stayed in Paris

Travelling by Eurostar into Gare du Nord station, and planning half our trip around Montmartre, we stayed in Hotel Altona, which is a relatively basic hotel but really good for the price. It’s literally half way between Gare du Nord and Montmartre, around a 10 minute walk from both, so it was a perfect location.

I haven’t always had the best experiences with hotels in Paris, as budget ones can be a bit dodge, but this one was great – I’d stay there again!

Book Hotel Altona here!

Overall, our hunt for Heartstopper filming locations was, for the most part, a resounding success! It’s just a shame the rest of the trip wasn’t. I’ve written more about the sorry saga in a separate post.

In the meantime, I hope you’ve enjoyed my tour of Paris via Heartstopper!

Read more posts with filming locations:
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⭐ A Road Trip To The North Shore Of Oahu, Hawaii
⭐ Everything You Need To Know About The Harry Potter Train In Scotland
⭐ Road Tripping Northern Ireland In One Day

And some more France posts:
⭐ On Paris, And Why Everyone Either Loves It Or Hates It
⭐ A Photo Tour Of Colmar, France’s Fairytale Town
⭐ Nice Is, Indeed, Nice: The Gateway To The French Riviera