Paris Cheapskate Tour: "Amélie" Film Locations

I adore the film Amélie, which catapulted Audrey Tautou to international fame and gave millions of people the urge to come swoon in Paris. If you're also a fan of the movie, why not take yourself on a charming little walking tour of Montmartre and check out all the locations where the movie was filmed? Here is a step-by-step guided tour you can follow.


1) Begin at the Lamarck/Caulaincourt Métro station (Line 12). This is the spot in the movie where Amélie drops off the old man after describing the neighborhood to him, and there's an aerial shot of him filling up with a glowing happiness.

2) Head up the stairs, cross the street and pass the tiny park/square to your right. The next street to your left is rue St. Vincent, which has a beautiful Yves Montand song named for it (one of my favorites!) and in Amélie is the site of the blue bottle tumbling down the street at the very beginning of the film. 

3) Continue up another set of stairs. Head up around rue Girardon (don't miss the Sacré Coeur towering to your left!) and walk down that street until you find rue Lepic. (At this corner you'll find the Moulin de la Galette, which inspired paintings by Van Gogh, Monet, and most famously, Renoir.) Hang a right on rue Lepic and wind it all the way down (it curves left a bit and then you'll take a right when it convenes with rue des Abbesses to continue on rue Lepic) to end up at Café des Deux Moulins (15 rue Lepic), the café where Amélie and her friends work in the film, site of many romantic shenanigans! Have a coffee or glass of wine and watch people go by, like a proper Parisian.

4) After you exit the café, head back up rue Lepic from where you came and take a right on rue des Abbesses. Continue there until you get to Passage des Abbesses, a little tiny street on the left, and wander through the passage, up the stairs, and when you reach the top at rue des Trois Frères, you'll see the Maison Collignon (56 Rue des Trois Freres), the grocery store where Amélie digs her fingers into the beans and sticks up for her friend (also supposed to be the building where she lives, above the grocery).

5) Take rue des Trois Frères all the way east (direction away from Maison Collignon) and it curves downward until it meets with rue Tardieu. Take a left there and before you know it you'll be at the steps of the Sacré Coeur, where Amélie leads Nino on a wild chase up the stairs to the sightseeing binoculars, then waves at him from the bottom near the carousel!

And here are a few more locations to check out while you're in Paris if you're really into the movie:
- Métro Station Abbesses
- Gare de l'Est
- Place Video, 37 Blvd de Clichy (smut shop where Nino works)
- Canal Saint-Martin (where Amélie skips rocks)
- Notre Dame (where Amélie's mother dies)
- La Verre à Pied, 118 Rue Mouffetard (where Amélie returns the box to Bretodo)
- Pont des Arts (where Amelie fills up with glowing happiness after giving the box to Bretodo)