You can’t go back to 1950s Paris (sigh) but you can visually transport yourself there through watching the glorious first two episodes of the second season of The Marvelous Mrs Maisel — and most of those locations can still be visited in the modern day (give or take some vintage set decoration).
When Midge and Abe arrive, in search of Rose, their taxi pulls up at 18 Rue du Mail, which is exactly the address in real-life Paris, in the second arrondissement. Just south from here, down on Place des Petits Pères is the corner Bar du Moulin, which Abe eventually makes his own, chatting philosophy in a swirl of smoke.
That first night, the trio meets for dinner at the classic bistrot Chez Paul (13, Rue de Charonne 75011).
Midge then walks up the cobbled Rue de Lappe …
… past a busking group you might know from modern-day Paris (especially around the streets of the Marais): the New Rag Trio featuring one of the city’s most colourful characters and joyous souls, the dancer Madeleine.
Midge eventually finds herself at Madame Arthur (75 bis, Rue des Martyrs 75018), Paris’s first drag cabaret, which recently reopened its glossy red doors.
Next we find her growing moody amidst all the kissing couples on the Pont des Arts …
… before making an anguished phone call to her estranged husband, then walking despondently through the melancholy arcades of the Palais-Royal.
In episode two, Rose and Abe stay on in Paris, and fall back in glorious love, which is celebrated in a lovely vignette: they browse the bouquinistes, shop for a picnic (at Place Dauphine, transformed into a bucolic market so wonderful you wish it was like this for real), and dance the evening away by the Seine, beneath an illuminated Notre-Dame.
It’s in a dream apartment looking across to Place Dauphine that Rose must accept her real life is in New York.
Her final au revoir to her beloved Paris, the place where she came into her own and where she most feels the woman she wants to be, is at the Musée Rodin. It’s a beautiful send-off, as well as tribute, to a city that speak to the souls of so many of us.
