Champagne Problems is, like the wine it’s named after, a cut above the usual fare. For what could be no more than a Christmas-themed clone of Emily in Paris, it’s also considerably more charming and entertaining than it needs to be.
The tale of stressed New York finance exec Sydney Price (Minka Kelly) who finds that there’s more to life than work and cash on a whistlestop tour of festive Paris and the châteaux of the Ardennes, it hits all the comfort-view targets with ease but also brings along some fun and good taste.
Part of this is the cast: Kelly has barely aged in the 20 years since her role in the mighty Friday Night Lights but she’s certainly become a much better actor; as her foil Henri, Tom Wozniczka was last seen in Slow Horses, while his patriarchal father is none other than Call My Agent’s go-to Frenchman, Thibault de Montalembert.
And if the cast is Champagne to the usual sparkling wine, the scenery is also very much superior to the usual small-Canadian-town-plus-ski-slope of the average Christmas outing. We’re in the real Paris and the genuine Champagne region, and both town and country are in their brightest Christmas finery – the French capital festooned with party lights and unusually good cheer amid the grandeur and grace, and the snow deep and crisp and even among the vines when we head out north-east to the home of the bubbles.
Here’s our guide to where you’ll be headed in Netflix’s newest Christmas hit.
Where is the bookshop in Champagne Problems?
The Parisian bookshop in Champagne Problems is where the romance kicks off. Alone in her hotel, Sydney decides to find a book to give to her sister, and is directed by the concierge to Les Etoiles. Translated as “The Stars”, this bookshop is full not only of books but of mysterious corners and magical messages, written on walls, drapes and even the stairs – and it also contains a charming young French man who is very taken with Sydney. Sadly, it doesn’t really exist: it was built inside an old factory, L’Usine Deguerry, in the east of the city. Disappointed visitors should try the classic Shakespeare & Company on rue de la Bûcherie, a meeting place for intellectual expats for over 70 years, or the top floor book department of Le Bon Marché on rue de Sèvres, where the glass ceiling gives some of that old-Paris atmosphere.
Where is the chateau in Champagne Problems?
Straight after her whirlwind tour of Paris, Sydney finds herself headed for the Champagne region to give her pitch for the future of the Cassell brand. With the others vying to buy the Champagne house, Sydney is a guest at the Château Cassell, surrounded by beautiful gardens and rolling fields of vines. For these scenes, we are indeed in the Champagne region around Epernay, in the Ardennes about 130km north-east of Paris, but for the château, there’s a little bit of trickery going on.
For the exterior, we see Château Comtesse Lafond, home to a Champagne house run by the great-great-grandson of the titular countess from the 19th century and, like many of the region’s castles, open to visitors. The interior, meanwhile, was filmed in Château de Challerange in Taissy, to the south-east of Epernay. This is the base of Champagne Virginie T, run by Virginie Taittinger whose father ran the classic Champagne house of the same name and whose grandmother founded another, Piper-Heidsieck. The château itself had fallen into ruin until Virginie returned in 2021 with her son, but it was built in the 1630s by a celebrated adviser to Louis XIV.
Paris
If it seems crazy there aren’t more Christmas romcoms based around the season’s favourite drink, Champagne Problems also shows that it’s well past time that Paris extended its romantic remit beyond springtime and into the deep midwinter.
Sydney arrives in Paris in the midst of the Christmas build-up, and the City of Light is really doing its very best to ensure she feels the festive spirit. Her car journey from the airport ticks off most of the obvious landmarks, passing the Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elysées, many of them lit up in full seasonal splendour, before she draws up at her hotel, the Regina Louvre on the Place des Pyramides. As a proper landmark, dating back to 1900 and sited right opposite the museum, it’s been featured onscreen numerous times, from La Femme Nikita to The Bourne Identity and RED 2.
After her visit to the fictional Les Etoiles bookshop, Sydney’s night in Paris with Henri begins. Their Christmas market is in fact a combination of two different ones: the Eiffel Tower version in the Champ de Mars for the stalls and the hot wine, and the one in the Jardin de Tuileries (convenient for her hotel) for the ferris wheel and the view of the skating rink.
After their bonding moment on the wheel, we see them walking across the Pont des Arts, with the cupola of the Institut de France behind them. This bridge, built only in the early 1980s, is the one famed until recently for being covered in love-token padlocks. As Sydney and Henri gaze into each other’s eyes, we also get a view of the rather more classically beautiful Pont Neuf, star of movies including Before Sunset, Midnight in Paris and, indeed, its very own Les Amants du Pont-Neuf.
Cutting to the next morning, we see Sydney running down the steps from the Sacré-Coeur, the 19th-century basilica that looks down the hill over the bohemian north of the city, as featured in French classics The 400 Blows and Amélie, as well as the climax of the recent John Wick 4. Finally, after she’s made her meeting by a whisker, we see her leaving Paris for the Champagne region by the Gare de L’Est, with its famous semi-circular window.
Champagne
For the countryside section of Champagne Problems, we are in the true heart of the Champagne region, in the town of Epernay and its surroundings. We begin with an aerial view of the great avenue de Champagne that leads into town, including the tower of the HQ of the Castellane house, before turning into “Château Cassel”, in fact the Château Comtesse Lafond.
For the “Festival of Light” sequences, filming took place at Epernay’s Les Habits de Lumière, a three-day winter celebration now into its 25th year. Using both the rehearsals and the event itself, we see the actors in the midst of what the director describes as “absolute chaos”, shooting scenes against the backdrop of lightshows, a vintage-car rally and a huge silent disco. Much of what we see is around Château Perrier, originally the home of the Champagne house of the same name and now the town’s museum, built in the 1850s in the style of the Palais de Luxembourg in Paris.
For scenes in the snow-covered vineyards the following day, we are in the fields between Rethel and Vouziers to the north-east, while the cellars were a combination of the two stand-ins for Château Cassell. Sadly, the bookshop at the end of the film is another set. For the closest thing, try L’Apostrophe on rue Saint-Thibault, which naturally has a healthy section on viticulture.
Champagne Problems is streaming on Netflix now