'More Romantic, Elegant, Deep': Why Americans Love Real Girlfriends in Paris

Hiding ranch dressing in your purse, worrying about carbs in soup, wondering if you'll ever find a French lover who loves Netflix and Relax: Here are just a few of the new old world challenges the protagonists face in the first episode of Real Girlfriends in Paris, a reality TV show that debuts September 6 on Hayu and Bravo. /p>

As one might surmise from the title of the show, the program follows six American women in their twenties and thirties as they search for meaning, change and, above all, love. As different as the backgrounds of Anya Firestone, Emily Gorelik, Margaux Lignel, Kacey Margo, Adja Touré and Victoria Zito (respectively: tourist guide, design management student, aspiring entrepreneur, English teacher, Cornell graduate and creator of mode), they have in common their passion and their monolithic vision of Paris. As the trailer's voice-over points out, these short stories from Paris are adrift in "the most beautiful city in the world...a fairy tale", that is to say an enchanted, heavily Disneyified and filtered vision of France, featuring women performing the Parisienne to perfection: drinking wine around the clock, wearing trench coats and berets, eating pancakes, discussing sex out loud . A choice of shots so familiar and vivid that the local press immediately dubbed it "the reality TV version of Emily in Paris", with French Elle declaring it "directly inspired" by Darren Star's comedy-drama. What do the two have in common? Both shows are seen, by the French media, as a "guilty pleasure" that "we love to hate" - for their glorious vagueness (Paris limited to a handful of bridges and mimes, emaciated women smoking in turtlenecks, without talk about an entire alcoholic population).

One ​​thing is certain: Les Vraies Copines à Paris, in production for its third season, closely follows the well-trodden path of a old fantasy, brought up to date for the Instagram era by Star. Emily's locations in Paris are listed on Google Maps and marked on city guides. They have become sought-after selfie spots for tourists and locals alike - "I feel like a tourist in my own city," confessed Alicia, 18, a fan of the show who grew up in Paris. The outfits featured on the show and documented on numerous Instagram accounts are experiencing booming sales. Not to mention the peak of American tourism in France this summer – a coïincidence?

Real Girlfriends in Paris and Emily in Paris shine a light on a longstanding Francophilia in film and entertainment American – from An American in Paris to Moulin Rouge, Se...