Maybe sitcom ‘Paris Paris’ should be renamed ‘Hamilton Hamilton’
It's called Paris Paris" but perhaps the French language sitcom should be retitled Hamilton Hamilton."
The show shot scenes here in 2021 for its first season of 21 episodes, and returned over the last eight weeks to shoot scenes at nearly a dozen locations for its second season.
The program revolves around Philippe (Quebec actor Benoit Mauffette), who lives in Paris, Ont. While facing some personal troubles, he finds a tunnel in his basement that takes him to Paris, France. Once there, he creates a second idealized French way of life that takes him away from his duties as a husband to wife Jenny (Maxim Roy) and father. Naturally, the two lives start coming up against each other.
The second season sees a new passage open up in the tunnel and it now connects the two Paris communities with a third - Paris, Texas. Jenny finds her way to Texas for some adventures.
The show runs on the French language TV 5 Unis TV channel in Quebec, but began streaming in English on CBC Gem in October of 2022. When it premiered in Quebec in January 2022, Le Devoir critic Amelie Gaudreau called the program unusual, funny and smart work."
Paris Paris" began shooting scenes for its second season in Hamilton in the middle of March. It filmed scenes at the Eva Rothwell Resource Centre on Wentworth Street North.
Throughout April, it filmed at the New Vision United Church on Main Street West in downtown Hamilton, the Ancaster Mill restaurant, the Factory Media Centre on Victoria Avenue North, a home on Concession 5 West, near Millgrove, in Flamborough, a home on Westover Road, near Safari Road, in Flamborough and the Myers Apple Farm on Highway 52, near Copetown.
In May, it was back filming scenes at Vision United Church and the Factory Media Centre.
The program also shot on Grand River Street North in Paris, Ont., during the middle of April. In 2021, it filmed scenes in Paris, Ont and Niagara-on-the-Lake, The latter town stood in for Paris, France.
The show was created and written by the husband/wife team of Dominic Desjardins and Rayne Zukerman. Desjardins is also the director and Zukerman is a producer.
Zukerman said in a 2021 media interview the show was inspired by her family's experience as a francophone in Ontario. The show features their son, Balzac Zukerman-Desjardins, who plays Tom.
Mauffette was in the Quebec comedy Les Invisibles" and had a role as a rude French waiter in the 2020 comedy-drama French Exit" starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Lucas Hedges.
Roy played the mob mistress Michelle in the popular 2017 Citytv show Bad Blood" about the Rizzuto crime family of Montreal.
The program also stars Jeanne Guittet as Marianne, Pierre Simpson as Dr. Will and Karine Richard as Dr. Daisy.
Incidentally, Paris, Ont., was not named for Paris. France. It was named for large gypsum deposits that were found in the area in the 1790s. The deposits were used to make plaster of Paris. Paris, Ont, was incorporated as a village in 1850 and is now a community in Brant County.
Cameras were rolling in the area before the producers of Ruby and the Well" publicly confirmed its third season.
The family show about a young girl (Zoe Wiesenthal) and her two friends (Lina Sennia and Dylan Kingwell) who grant wishes from a wishing well, so their town of Emerald can prosper, saw cameras rolling in Brant County at the end of April and last week in Dundas. Shaftesbury Films announced the new season on May 2.
The show filmed at three homes on Victoria Street in Dundas on May 1 and 2
The program has filmed in the Hamilton area since 2021. The wishing well prop is filmed at a home on Mineral Springs Road in Ancaster. Ruby and the Well" runs on the Family Channel in Canada and BYUtv in the U.S.
Daniel Nolan is a freelance writer who writes about film for The Hamilton Spectator. He can be reached at dannolanwrites@gmail.com