Emily in Paris

Dear fellow reader,

A must-see new series arrives - Emily in Paris!

In season one, Emily Cooper's boss Madeline prepares to transition from the Chicago-based pharmaceutical marketing firm, the Gilbert Group, to a French fashion firm, Savoir, when she discovers that she is pregnant. The Gilbert Group offers the job to Emily, and she accepts, leaving her boyfriend back in Chicago. Emily moves to Paris despite the fact that she does not speak French. She resides on the 5th floor of an old apartment building without an elevator but with a wonderful Parisian view. Emily changes her Instagram handle from @emilycooper to @emilyinparis and begins documenting her time in Paris. Emily starts her first day of work much to the chagrin of her new co-workers, who reveal that she was only hired because of a business deal. She introduces the French, who seem very reluctant about her and her American methods, to American social media strategies. Emily accidentally tries to enter the wrong apartment and meets her very attractive neighbor, Gabriel. As Emily becomes accustomed to life in Paris, she makes countless faux-pas and her colleagues nickname her "la plouc" or "the hick". Emily meets Mindy Chen, a nanny originally from Shanghai, and they become fast friends. After Emily and her boyfriend attempt to have cybersex and the connection fails, she plugs in her vibrator and accidentally short-circuits the block's power.

Despite struggling to fit in with French office culture, Emily convinces her boss, Sylvie, to invite her to a work party where she accidentally irritates Sylvie by conversing with Antoine Lambert, a client who turns out to be Sylvie's married lover. As punishment, she is put to work marketing Vaga-Jeune, a lubricant for menopausal women. Annoyed with the gendered nature of the French language, Emily writes a post about the product which goes viral, causing her to make further inroads at work. Emily's boyfriend tells her that she should return to Chicago as he struggles with a long-distance relationship, and he does not want to visit Paris despite it being a pre-planned trip. She refuses to return to Chicago and breaks off the relationship. She turns to Mindy for emotional support.

Emily is invited to the shoot for De l'Heure's latest commercial to take behind-the-scenes footage for social media, and is shocked to discover the commercial involves a model strutting nude down the Pont Alexandre III while suited men ogle at her. She argues with Antoine that the ad is sexist while he counters that it is sexy, leading Emily to suggest an online marketing campaign that asks the perfume's customers what they think. When the campaign goes viral, Antoine sends Emily La Perla lingerie as a thank you gift. Mindy offers a dinner party to help Emily meet new people, but the party instead turns into a rager. Despite meeting and hitting it off with a French man from the party, Emily ends up going back to Gabriel's restaurant for comfort after the man offends her.

While struggling to communicate at a flower shop, Emily is rescued by Camille, a friendly French stranger and gallery owner who proves to be a lucrative connection. When Emily discovers Sylvie and Antoine arguing at work, she tries to boost Sylvie's credibility at work by pretending that she came up with the idea to pair Antoine's perfumes with luxury hotels. After a miscommunication that renders her work dinner reservation at an exclusive, luxurious restaurant invalid, Emily convinces Gabriel to host them at his restaurant instead. As a gesture of thanks for his help, Emily kisses him, and he kisses her back. Leaving the restaurant, Emily bumps into Camille again, who reveals that Gabriel is her boyfriend.

With over 20,000 followers on her @emilyinparis Instagram account, Emily is invited to Durée Cosmetics’ Influencer Lunch, where her witty posts about the brand’s products attract the attention of Durée CMO Olivia Thompson. Emily, however, fails to convince Olivia to have Savoir represent their company again, with Sylvie cited as the reason. Camille invites Emily to a night out with her and Gabriel. When alone with Gabriel, Emily asks that he forget about their kiss the night before, to which he agrees. But later on, he admits that he, too, feels chemistry with her. Initially outraged at seeing Emily’s Instagram posts for Durée, Sylvie demands that she delete her account. But when a client becomes inspired by one of Emily’s posts, Sylvie begrudgingly allows Emily to keep her account and leverage her “influencer” status.

Emily joins Sylvie and Julien on a visit to the atelier of haute couturier Pierre Cadault. Pierre is mortified by the gauche charm on Emily's handbag and calls her a "basic bitch" in French, which hinders her credibility in the firm. At Café de Flore, Emily meets Thomas, a French philosophy professor. They hit it off, and she invites him back to her apartment where they have sex. Emily and Thomas encounter Gabriel and Camille, and Camille invites them to join them at a tapas restaurant. Thomas and Gabriel do not get along. The next day, Gabriel tells Emily he thinks Thomas is a snob, and not worthy of her. Emily discovers Pierre has designed the costumes for Swan Lake so she invites Thomas to join her. However, he insults her by telling her Swan Lake is a ballet for tourists. Emily realizes that he is a snob, so she leaves him. She sees Pierre at the ballet so she walks into his private box to talk to him so he will remain with Savoir.

Camille invites Emily to lunch and asks if Savoir could take on her family's champagne vineyard as a client. Mindy's friend and five bridesmaids are in Paris for wedding dress shopping. Camille invites Emily to meet her family at their chateau. Gabriel surprises Emily by joining them for the weekend trip which makes Emily uncomfortable. Emily takes a tour of the winery and meets Camille's younger brother Timothée. Gabriel refuses Camille's mother's offer of a business loan. At a club where Mindy's girlfriends are partying, they force her on stage to sing the song she flubbed on Chinese Popstar. Back at the chateau, Camille and her mother are arguing, so Emily takes refuge by the pool where Timothée joins her. They drink champagne and eventually have sex. At breakfast, she learns that Timothée is not the brother Camille was referring to, instead, it was her younger, 17-year-old brother. Emily meets Théo, Camille's older and more age-appropriate brother. Emily finally gets an opportunity to pitch her idea to Camille's mother.

Sylvie is unimpressed with Emily's idea to market Camille's family's champagne. Emily meets Judith Robertson who is a member of the American Friends of the Louvre (AFL). She is aware of Emily's association with Pierre Cadault and asks if Pierre might be willing to donate a dress to be auctioned at AFL's fundraising benefit. Emily calls Mathieu Cadault to arrange a meeting to ask him about the dress donation. They agree to meet at an art opening at Camille's gallery. Sylvie and Luc also arrive at the opening to meet Camille. At the AFL auction, Grey Space, which consists of two avant-garde fashion designers, show up and bid for Pierre's dress. As Emily models the dress on stage, Grey Space shoots her with paint as a publicity stunt which shocks the audience. The next day, the stunt is featured in all the newspapers and online. Pierre is despondent and takes to his bed. Emily visits him to try and positively spin the incident, but to no avail. As she leaves Pierre's home, she runs into Mathieu who makes a pass at her.

Mathieu takes Emily on a boat cruise date on the Seine, then shows her the view of Paris from his apartment. Their date is interrupted by a frantic call from Pierre, who is threatening to cancel his fashion show. Mathieu informs Emily that Pierre is holed up in his atelier on the verge of a breakdown and won't show his new collection to anyone. Sylvie blames Emily for shaking Pierre's confidence and fires her. Emily's co-workers inform her that in France it can be a long, arduous process to fire an employee, so Emily can use this loophole to her advantage. Mathieu calls Emily on the next day about the situation who tells her that Pierre has requested to see her. Sylvie overhears this and goes with Emily to see Pierre. At the atelier, they see a dress from Pierre's new collection. In need of a venue to launch his fashion show, Pierre hijacks the outside of his former venue to show his new dress collection, which the audience loves and makes him the toast of Fashion Week. To celebrate, Emily hosts a dinner at Gabriel's restaurant for Mathieu and Pierre.

Mindy agrees to emcee and sings at a drag bar two nights a week, but when she tells her employers, they fire her, so she moves in with Emily.

To realize his dream of opening his own restaurant, Gabriel decides to move back to Normandy. Realizing that this may be Gabriel’s last night in Paris, Emily and Gabriel sleep together. However, right before Gabriel is due to leave, Antoine decides to invest in his restaurant idea, thus keeping Gabriel in Paris.

Season two returns, the heat turns up a notch.

Emily's head is still in the clouds after her affair with Gabriel and she is confused by mixed feelings about her friendship with his now ex-girlfriend Camille. Even worse, Emily has a week-end getaway planned for St Tropez with Mathieu, her new fashion director boyfriend. He overhears her conversation with Gabriel on the phone and is not pleased. Leaves her stranded on the train. Mindy and Camille join her in St Tropez.

Antoine starts a new partnership offer to save Gabriel's restaurant dreams which allows him to stay in Paris. The Champere ad account seems to go to Luc even though Emily still believes she brought the new business to Savior. Camille shows up to discuss the marketing campaign, though she, Sylvie and Emily go to lunch instead. Camille teams up with Emily for a night out at the drag bar they previously visited where Emily's new roommate Mindy performs a solo version of BTS's "Dynamite". When Emily breaks away for her romantic week-end in St Tropez, her boyfriend overhears her cell phone conversation with Gabriel talking about their having slept together which upsets him. As he leaves her on the train departing Paris, he gives Emily the tickets for a romantic weekend with Gabriel, who he says she should invite for the romantic weekend which they had originally planned for themselves.

Emily ends up in St Tropez to stay at the Four Seasons Hotel and quickly calls Camille and Mindy to join her. Emily meets a famous gay fashion journalist who claims to know M. Cadault, and he decides to offer to model some promotional marketing fashion shots with Emily's new luggage which features a life-size likeness of M. Cadault etched onto its metal surface finish. The Instagram effect upon seeing these marketing pictures upsets Cadault and Mathieu calls Emily to ask her to immediately remove the promotional fashion shots. Her girlfriends arrive and they go for a night out when Gabriel calls Emily on her mobile when she is with Camille. Camille refuses to take the call, and Emily says she will call him later. Camille then quickly hooks up with a new love interest at a poolside party at the hotel. Later in the evening Emily discovers that Sylvie has come to St Tropez and that she is married to Laurent, and the two exchange words. After a bad night, Camille calls Emily in the early morning hours to pick her up in a church. Camille tells Emily that her evening plans for a tryst went badly and that she still has feelings for Gabriel. After breakfast, Emily meets Laurent, who is also a restaurant manager at the Four Seasons Hotel as well as Sylvie's husband, and he tells Emily of Sylvie's younger jet set days on the Riviera. Emily and her friends go walking on the pier and find the famous journalist who tricked them earlier but is now on his yacht, and Emily gets him to invite them on board as his apology for lying about M. Cadault. The girls have a great time on the yacht relaxing on the yacht's lounge chairs.

Emily is taken to a Moroccan bath house by Camille to meet her friends for a nude steam bath. All the girls are nude except Emily who insists on keeping on a full length cotton robe for modesty. Later, Emily and Mindy make plans for Emily's birthday and they invite Camille and Gabriel to attend, where Emily hopes they will reconcile and return to their romance together. The planning takes all day and eventually the evening comes off, with Gabriel helping Emily with the dinner preparations. During the outdoor evening dinner party, everything seems to be going well when Camille says she must return to Emily's apartment for more champagne from Emily's fridge. When she gets the champagne, she discovers that Gabriel's favorite frying pan (with his engraved initials on it) is on Emily's stove, and she concludes that for a chef to make of gift on his favorite pan to a girl can only have the worst implications for Camille's future with Gabriel. She returns to the evening party and says she has a toast which everyone waits for with anticipation. Camille denounces Emily as a turncoat for having an affair with boyfriend, which Emily finds that she cannot deny.

Emily returns Gabriel's gift of his chef's frying pan and goes to the office to give her presentation about Champere to Camille, who is still upset about Emily sleeping with Gabriel. Camille insists that the presentation must be in French, and Emily's lacking ability to speak conversational French required Luc to take over. Emily meets a Kiev visitor to Paris at her conversational French class. Mindy gets invited to sing with a duo of street musicians which she jumps at. Emily is then assigned to take a new account to promote leeks for a leek farmers as being the new potato for the French kitchen. She bumps into Gabriel on the way home who tells her that he has a terrific recipe for leeks, which he then proves to her with sample meal which he prepares on the spot in his restaurant. Emily goes shopping with her new friend from Kiev who ends up being a shoplifter, and Emily immediately distances herself away from any further doing with her. Gabriel wants to talk to Camille and finds her at an art gallery opening, and tells her wants to patch things up. Luc invites Emily to see Jules and Jim to help improve her French, and Emily does not quite connect with the Ménage à trois. Emily tries to write a letter in French to Camille to reconcile their differences using a machine translator which works poorly. The leek farmers ad campaign goes into a new direction of targeting the dietary health drinks market in America. Camille writes back to Emily at the ad company and Sylvie intercepts the letter and translates it to Emily with Camille writing: "I don't understand why you did what you did. Just like I don't understand a word of your silly letter. Leave me alone you illiterate sociopath." At her next French language class, Emily switches to a new place to sit and introduces herself to a young bank executive visiting Paris from London.

Emily tries to practice speaking en Français with a bored classmate while juggling Gabriel's restaurant debut, a Chopard soirée and a seething Camille. Tempers flare on the opening night of Chez Lavaux. Emily feels Alfie has misjudged her style and joie de vivre. Sylvie catches the eye of a photographer. Emily finally establishes a rapport with Alfie, but a borrowed jacket makes thing beaucoup awkward. Sylvie bristles over Savior's new American client. After a suspiciously decadent dinner with Alfie, Emily heads to Camille's family chateau, where more than just the tops of Champére bottles pop off. Madeline from Chicago digs deeper into Savoir's accounts, putting Sylvie on edge. Mindy's bubbling romance suffers a blow when her secret comes out. Emily finds her loyalties torn when a fashion show at Versailles sets the stage for a showdown that could determine Savoir's future - and her own.

Season three returns with more excitement beneath the belt.

Emily dreams of standing at the Eiffel Tower discussing her dilemma regarding a decision on who she wants to work for with both Madeline and Sylvie. When she wakes up from this dream it turns out she's working for both of them, Emily feels as though she is unable to quit as it would entail telling a very pregnant Madeline that she would prefer to work for Sylvie. Madeline learns the truth from Luc, and later that evening she interrupts a business dinner at the Eiffel Tower where Sylvie's new company is making a pitch to a prospective client, which is one of Emily's contacts. Madeline's water breaks and she is taken to the hospital in an ambulance. Sylvie fires Emily who arrives late to the farewell party she planned for Alfie. After seeing her hesitation on where their relationship stands, Alfie says goodbye and gets in a cab, leaving Emily alone.

Madeline gives birth to a baby boy named Jack, and Emily tries to prove her loyalty. They have a meeting with one of Savoir's clients, but Sylvie arrives as well. Madeline tells them they can't take Savoir's clients due to a non-compete clause in their contracts, putting Sylvie's new company in jeopardy as that means their only remaining client would be Pierre Cadault. Emily finds out Alfie is now working for Antoine as his new CFO, but chose not to tell her. Emily and Luc convince Madeline to rehire Sylvie as Savoir's president. Sylvie refuses only to immediately discover she has no clients, as Pierre Cadault has sold his company to the luxury conglomerate JVMA, which handles their own marketing in-house. Later, JVMA contacts Sylvie offering her a position with the company, which includes allowing her to bring along her staff, but she declines after discussing it with Luc and Julien. It's Solstice Night in Paris, and Emily takes Mindy's microphone and sings to Alfie in an effort to show him how much she cares about him, leading to a reconciliation between the two.

Sylvie is threatened with eviction by her landlord as she has been using her apartment as an office. With Luc's help she speaks with the building manager of the Savoir building to force Madeline and Emily to leave. Mindy feels nervous about performing in a club, and discovers having sex with Benoit helps. Camille and Gabriel have been encountering issues since she moved in, and with Alfie's help, they share a romantic dinner at the restaurant. After the elevator and heat in the Savoir building are sabotaged, Madeline tells Emily the Gilbert Group has approved they leave the building and work at her hotel. The following day, Emily discovers Madeline plans to return to Chicago and has bought a plane ticket for her as well. Emily tells Madeline she wishes to stay in Paris and resigns from her position. The episode ends with Sylvie and her team returning back to their old building and establishing a new company named Grateau, and Emily walking out of Madeline's hotel after saying goodbye.

After becoming unemployed, Emily starts vlogging around Paris, needing to stay busy. Meanwhile she is hired temporarily as a waitress at Gabriel's restaurant, but after she accidentally causes a client to have an allergic reaction due to her limited (but improved) French, she is fired by Gabriel making her realize this is not the right situation for her. Sylvie is told by Luc and Julien they used Emily's ideas for a customer, making her uncomfortable. However, after speaking with Camille's mother, she feels encouraged to seek out and re-hire Emily. Camille feels guilty for not respecting her pact with Emily, and an artist called Sofia at the art gallery shows romantic interest in her.

Emily is dealing with her work visa application as she fears being deported, and does her best to promote Grateau. Alfie gets a new apartment and has a housewarming party, where Emily sees Camille kissing Sofia on the rooftop. Nicholas from JVMA and Mindy see each other and they turn out to be old boarding school mates, making Benoit jealous as Nicholas is clearly interested in Mindy. Emily shares with Mindy what she saw on the rooftop, but Mindy suggests she should not get involved, as she was previously blamed for the breakup between Camille and Gabriel. Mindy is about to perform with Benoit for the first time when she receives flowers from Nicholas, causing Benoit to break up with her. Emily appears on La Liste, along with Gabriel, which upsets Sylvie.

Emily travels with Gabriel and Alfie to Antoine's bastide in Bonnieux, Provence to seal a deal. Alfie and Emily are both invited by Gabriel to a restaurant he wants to visit, but Alfie is made to cancel last minute by Antoine. Emily feels uncomfortable after the meal when the waiter believes them to be a "lovely" couple. Laurent, Sylvie's husband, arrives, upsetting Erik, who leaves for Paris. That same night, Sylvie and Laurent are attacked by bees, and escape by stripping and jumping in a pool, where they end up having sex. Emily finds out from Alfie there was a mistake which ruined most of Antoine's perfume "juice". Emily suggests the good batch be released as a limited edition, to maximize profits, which Antoine eventually agrees to after initially hesitating. Camille continues her affair with Sofia, who invites Camille back to Greece with her. Camille declines, claiming she still loves Gabriel. Sophia tells her it's possible to love more than one person. After the event is done, Alfie asks Emily for the receipt for the lunch to expense it, but she remembers the staff's written message complimenting her and Gabriel as a couple, so she lies and says she doesn't have it. Emily and Alfie leave for Paris in the limited edition McLaren that Antoine bought.

Mindy is invited by Nicholas to watch "How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days" at a park, and she invites Emily and Gabriel since Alfie is in London and Camille is in Greece with Sophie. Nicholas is having struggles working with Pierre Cadault as they both have different ideas, and Emily's offers Grateau's help as Pierre is also feeling uncomfortable with JVMA. Emily and Gabriel leave the movie as a friend of Nicholas starts hitting on them. They enter a balloon exposition where they continue to have fun while taking pictures. At the end of the night Gabriel shares with Emily how his relationship with Camille is falling apart. Mindy and Nicholas admit they both like each other and share a kiss. Nicholas calls Emily and shares with Grateau that he plans to fire Pierre and replacing him with Grégory Elliott Duprée, whom Pierre despises, and hopes they relay the news to Pierre. Emily tries last minute to stop Pierre from joining them for lunch, but as he is crossing the street, he is hit by a motorbike taxi.

Pierre recovers in the hospital after his accident, while Grateau is unable to give him the news of his firing. Nicholas plans to announce Gregory Dupree as the new face of Pierre Cadault during a new store opening, even though Emily asks him to wait for Pierre to get out of hospital out of respect. Sylvie meets with Nicholas's father, Louis, Sylvie's former boss, and asks him to delay the announcement. It is implied that Louis abused his power when Sylvie worked for him. Nicholas gets upset about the meeting and claims he won't change his mind. Emily gets a call from Gabriel saying he needs a friend, and he tells her how he thinks Camille will break up with him after seeing some pictures of her partying with other guys in Greece. He confesses he still loves Emily, making the cab ride awkward. Sylvie and Emily break the news about JVMA replacing Pierre to him. Emily has an idea: make people believe Pierre has died, just to have him appear at the event and tell everyone he will continue his work without JVMA, which embarrasses the Deleon family. The next day Emily finds Gabriel happy, as he tells her that Camille is back from Greece and everything is fine between them.

Alfie comes back from London and Emily is dismayed when he tells her he didn't mention their relationship to his family. Grateau's new client is a company related to romance, and they suggest finding a couple to get engaged in a public way and getting paid. Julien tells Sylvie he is annoyed by Emily constantly interfering when he is making pitches to clients, but Sylvie dismisses his claims. It's her wedding anniversary and Laurent is away; however, he surprises Sylvie by showing up for their date at the opera, which Sylvie believed he had forgotten about. Gabriel offers himself when he finds out Grateau is looking for a couple as he plans to propose to Camille after she arrived from Greece, and asked Antoine to have a raise and more help in the restaurant which he gets with Alfie's help. Camille and Gabriel get engaged while being together on a date and he shares the news with Emily, who proposes a new idea using hot air balloons after saying a proposal comes from the heart and should be spontaneous. Nicholas prepares a party for Mindy and she asks Emily to come and make amends with him. Emily approaches Nicholas wanting to leave the past behind but he refuses and tells Mindy Emily was about to leave. As she leaves with Alfie, he confesses he didn't tell his family about her since in previous occasions he has introduced girlfriends it hasn't turned out well. They feel ready to make their relationship public to everyone and decide to participate in the hot air balloons campaign.

Gabriel renamed his restaurant after his grandmother Gigi, who arrives to help him and has a clear dislike for Camille. Emily wants Gabriel to have a Michelin Star in the restaurant, and Luc contacts his ex Marianne, a food critic and takes her so she can taste the food and provide the star. Alfie tells Mindy about Nicholas kicking Emily out from the party and she speaks to Nicholas on how she needs him to make sacrifices for her as well if they want a future together. Sylvie is told by Laurent he wants to open a club in Paris, with the help of one investor, Louis Deleon, Nicholas's father making her uncomfortable as she is not on good terms with him. Julien gets upset when Emily gets involved in a campaign idea he worked on for a client, making him tell at her and walk away expressing his discomfort to Sylvie again and how he has received other job offers. She apologizes for not doing something before and tells she will do something as she doesn't want him to be uncomfortable. However, he is seen sending an email to someone anonymous expressing he has considered the job offer. Mindy is waiting for Nicholas's as they planned to go together to Gabriel's and Camille's engagement party planned by her parents, yet Benoit arrives and tells her he submitted a song he wrote for her into the Eurovision Song Contest and was accepted. Nicholas and Mindy arrive on helicopter to the party interrupting Camille's father who was giving a speech. Luc tells Emily that Gabriel will receive the Michelin Star, and in his excitement, he tells Camille they should get married right there. Gabriel says his vows but Camille interrupts him saying she knows Gabriel loves Emily and the only reason they are not together is because of the pact she made with Emily and yet she broke it because she didn't want to lose him. She walks away crying and Alfie breaks with Emily telling her he suspected there was something between them and that he is no second choice. Emily and Gabriel confess their feelings to each other, yet Gabriel tells her the reason Camille got back from Greece is because she is pregnant.

It leaves us wondering what will happen now between Emily and Gabriel. I cannot wait to see something finally happen!

I went to Paris once back in 2017. It's a very alluring and magnificent place of wonder. I most definitely experienced Paris by visiting art galleries, museums and cuisines i.e., escargots, cuisses de grenouilles. I made sure I didn't miss the surroundings and tried to see everything.

I cannot wait to go again. I really miss it. I am practicing and relearning my French to use when I return to Paris. It's also a beautiful place to meet handsome young men. I once met a handsome young man, half English and French, James. He was definitely a great lover in bed. ;) So, I would definitely say, I have experienced France the right way.

If you loved watching Sex in the City and Younger, you would enjoy watching Emily in Paris. Until next season... ciao!