Of every film ever shot in Paris, Amélie is the one that behaves most like a walking tour. Jean-Pierre Jeunet shot almost all of it inside a few Montmartre streets, and the locations sit close enough together that you can do the whole thing on foot in a morning, coffee stops included.
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Better still, most of them are still working businesses. You can sit in Amélie’s café, buy fruit from Collignon’s grocer, and skim a stone in the same canal, which is a rare thing in film tourism. Here is the route, in walking order.
Before You Go: The Route in One Line
Start at Blanche or Abbesses métro, work north and uphill through Montmartre, finish at Sacré-Cœur, then take the métro across to Canal Saint-Martin for the last stop. Allow three to four hours at a proper pace, or a full day if you stop to eat properly and actually look at Montmartre rather than marching through it.
Wear real shoes. Montmartre is a hill, the streets are cobbled, and the film makes it look considerably flatter than it is.
The Amélie Walking Route
1. Café des Deux Moulins
- Address: 15 rue Lepic, 75018 Paris. Nearest métro: Blanche.
- The scene: the café where Amélie waitresses, and the spiritual home of the entire film.
- Today: open since 1911 and still very much a functioning brasserie. It has leaned into the association, and the crème brûlée is on the menu for obvious reasons. Named for the two nearby windmills, the Moulin Rouge and the Moulin de la Galette.
- Our tip: go for breakfast on a weekday. At lunch on a Saturday it is wall-to-wall people photographing their crème brûlée, which rather defeats the mood of a film about noticing small things quietly.
2. Maison Collignon
- Address: 56 rue des Trois Frères, 75018 Paris.
- The scene: the greengrocer, and the running battle between Collignon and poor Lucien.
- Today: the shop was actually called Chez Ali. After the film it put up a Maison Collignon sign in tribute and has kept it ever since. It is still a working grocer selling actual fruit and vegetables, plus a small rack of Amélie postcards.
- Our tip: buy something. It is a family shop, not an attraction, and a few euros is the polite price of the photograph.
3. Lamarck-Caulaincourt Métro Station
- Address: rue Caulaincourt at rue Lamarck, 75018 Paris.
- The scene: the station where Amélie guides the blind man through the street in one unbroken rush of description, which is the best two minutes in the film.
- Today: unchanged, and the twin staircases up from the platforms are as steep and photogenic as they look. It is a working station on Line 12, so it costs a métro ticket to see properly.
4. Sacré-Cœur and the Carousel
- Address: 35 rue du Chevalier de la Barre, 75018 Paris. The carousel and steps are at square Louise-Michel below the basilica.
- The scene: the treasure-hunt sequence up the steps, and the carousel at the bottom of the hill.
- Today: the busiest stop by far. The basilica is free to enter and the view over Paris from the steps is the one everybody knows. The carousel is still turning.
- Our tip: come early. By midday the steps are packed and the pickpocketing and bracelet-scam operation around the base of the hill is persistent. Keep your bag closed and keep walking.
5. Canal Saint-Martin
- Address: Quai de Valmy and Quai de Jemmapes, 75010 Paris. Nearest métro: République or Jacques Bonsergent.
- The scene: Amélie skimming stones across the water, the film’s shorthand for her whole interior life.
- Today: the canal is a 15-minute métro ride from Montmartre and completely different in character: iron footbridges, plane trees, and on a warm evening half of east Paris sitting on the quayside with a bottle of something. It has become one of the best areas in the city to eat and drink.
- Our tip: finish here rather than starting here, and stay for dinner. It is the natural end of the walk and the nicest part of the day.
What Is Not Real
Two things worth knowing before you go looking.
First, the Montmartre in the film is not quite the Montmartre that exists. Jeunet famously had graffiti digitally removed, skies deepened and colours pushed into that green-and-gold palette. The real streets are grubbier, busier and considerably more touristed. That is not a disappointment, it is just worth expecting.
Second, the photo booth Nino haunts was a set piece rather than a fixed public landmark you can reliably find. The Gare de l’Est sequences are real, but do not build your day around finding that specific booth.
Amélie Filming Locations: Your Questions Answered
Can you visit the café from Amélie?
Yes. Café des Deux Moulins at 15 rue Lepic in the 18th is open and serving. It is a real neighbourhood brasserie, so order something rather than just photographing the interior.
Is the Maison Collignon grocery still there?
Yes, at 56 rue des Trois Frères. It was originally Chez Ali and adopted the film’s name after release. It still trades as a greengrocer.
How long does the Amélie walk take?
Three to four hours for the Montmartre locations plus Canal Saint-Martin, at a comfortable pace with stops. It is one of the few film itineraries anywhere that genuinely works as a single walk.
Where exactly was Amélie filmed?
Overwhelmingly in Montmartre in the 18th arrondissement, with Canal Saint-Martin in the 10th and some sequences at Gare de l’Est. The film is a love letter to a very small piece of Paris.
What is the best time of day to do it?
Start at 9am. You get the café before it fills, Sacré-Cœur before the crowds, and you arrive at Canal Saint-Martin in time for a long lunch or an early evening drink.
Where to Stay
Staying in the 18th around Abbesses puts you inside the film, and Montmartre at night once the day-trippers have gone is genuinely lovely. The 10th and 11th around Canal Saint-Martin are livelier, younger and better for eating and drinking, and they are two métro stops away. Le Marais, the historic centre of queer Paris, is a little further out but the obvious base if nightlife matters more to you than proximity.
Planning the rest of the trip? Our Paris guide covers the bars, the Marais and where to eat. If you like this format, we have done the same for Ocean’s Twelve in Amsterdam and Ferris Bueller in Chicago.
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