What about Monet’s garden, where Emily goes to find Camille and they both end up acting like bad tourists by falling into the pond?
This was quite a challenge because we changed the season of our series. Normally, the place is known for its flowers and gardens which are very beautiful, but we were there too early. If you look carefully, when Emily and Camille fight in the rowboats, the wisteria on the bridge is fake—I had to create a whole environment. With the help of the gardeners, we were able to make believe. It looks very beautiful but it didn’t look like that when we were filming. We made it look the way that it does in spring and summer, and you can’t tell the difference.
When you walk along the Seine, you see all of these wonderful houseboats—how did you choose the one for Luc to live in?
Well, we walked along the Seine just like you! And we found the one that we liked the most. We were a bit scared—the night before shooting, there was some burglar that wanted to intrude and they burned the side of the boat. It didn’t show much for our shoot, but the day after we filmed they came back and really burned up the boat. I don’t know why they did that—I don’t know what you call it, vandalisme!
Speaking of Luc, can you talk about the restaurant he takes Sylvie to to ask her for a raise?
Yes, that is on Places de Vosges. That’s a real place called L’Ambroisie, and nobody else had filmed there before which I liked. They have this nice wall of mirrors, that’s a nice detail of the restaurant. We didn’t get to eat there that night, it’s not the kind of place you can go everyday. The food is very good, is all I can say. Darren [Starr] is very keen on places like that, and he really loves food. You will see nice restaurants that they have tried in the show.