Where Julie and Julia was Shot
Julie and Julia is a hybrid movie: one half is the story of a young Internet blogger in modern New York, while the other half tells the story of the cookery writer and TV personality Julia Child and is set in the Paris of the intermediate post-war years.
Most of the Paris scenes of Julie and Julia are interiors: for the simple reason, one may assume, that it is a lot more convenient – and a lot, lot cheaper – to create a period feeling in a studio than it is on location.
If the Paris of the movie nevertheless comes across as a sun-drenched, vibrant and colourful place, this is due not only to the luck the production team had with the weather but also to the astute use they made of their time in Paris. They were only given five days of shooting on site, but managed to cram in a fair number of scenes that were shot on location.
How did they do it? Well, with some careful thought and a few tricks. Some outside locations, for example, pop up in different parts of the movie – such as Streep’s flat on 10, Rue de Seine, just around the corner from the Pont des Arts and the Academie des Beaux Arts. (The flat is incredibly grand for a young-ish couple such as Julia and her husband who appears to be a junior diplomat at the US Embassy, but never mind.)
The scene where Julia does her grocery shopping (at the Mouffetard market in the 5th arrondissement) took three days to set up and a whole day to shoot, so that one had to earn its upkeep as well (another case of multiple use).
Other locations were apparently selected because they required little dressing up: Shakespeare’s and Co. (37 Rue de la Bucherie), for example, where Julia inquires about English-language books about French cuisine, the back of the Notre Dame Cathedral where Julia and her husband, played by Stanley Tucci, take a stroll, and the Art Nouveau bakery where Julia buys her croissants (called the Patisserie du Moulin de la Galette and located on 48, rue Caulaincourt, down the stairs and once around the corner from Avenue Junot in Montmartre.)
Julia and her friend (played by Simone Beck) coordinate their strategy for a potentially tricky meeting of the writing team during a walk on the tip of the Ile St Louis (on the Quai d’Orleans, with a cross-river view of the Quai aux Fleurs on the Ile de la Cite).
The team meeting is subsequently held on the terrace of the restaurant La Maison at the bottom of Rue Pave, one block away from Notre Dame Cathedral on the Left Bank.
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