Nineteenth-century Americans regarded Paris as a libertine paradise: a smorgasbord of food and fashion, of night life and sex. Today, the pull toward France endures, though the precise nature of its appeal has shifted. On the second in a series of Critics at Large interview episodes, Alexandra Schwartz talks with the staff writer Lauren Collins about her work as The New Yorker’s woman on the ground in France and the long lineage of Francophilic Americans—from Edith Wharton to James Baldwin and, yes, even “Emily.” The two consider how French femininity has been marketed to American women and how modern influencers transmit an incomplete picture of Paris. “Yes, it’s romantic, and, yes, it’s picturesque, but it’s also a big, loud, dirty, profane, complicated city that evolves and changes like everywhere else,” Collins says. “There’s a lot of misbegotten essentializing that happens when Americans start talking about France.”

Read, watch, and listen with the critics:

“Ces restaurants qui gonflent l’addition des touristes américains,” by Mathieu Hennequin (Le Parisien)
“Can Emmanuel Macron Stem the Populist Tide?,” by Lauren Collins (The New Yorker)
“The Unlikely Rise of French Tacos,” by Lauren Collins (The New Yorker)
“Dearest Edith,” by Janet Flanner (The New Yorker)
“The Custom of the Country,” by Edith Wharton
“Go Tell It on the Mountain,” by James Baldwin
“Giovanni’s Room,” by James Baldwin
“The Discovery of What It Means to Be an American,” by James Baldwin (The New York Times)
“Emily in Paris” (2020–)
“Sex and the City” (1998–2004)
“French Women Don’t Get Fat,” by Mireille Guiliano
“Bringing Up Bébé,” by Pamela Druckerman

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Critics at Large is a weekly discussion from The New Yorker that explores the latest trends in books, television, film, and more. Join us every Thursday as we make unexpected connections between classic texts and pop culture.