Watching foreign-language shows is one of the most significant social shifts created by streaming platforms such as Netflix.
Years ago, we did not have the luxury of watching foreign language series. With the evolution of online streaming, especially Netflix, this has become possible and easy to access.
In this article, we will talk about French shows, where we’re going to take a walk in the Champs Élysées, Eat morning Croissant beside the Eiffel tower, sipping French wine under Paris skies.
Here is a list of unique French series to watch on Netflix:
1. Dix pour cent – Call My Agent – (2015)
Gener: Comedy, Drama
French serial about the lives and jobs of people working at a talent agency. As a group of movie-star agents in Paris, France, go about their lives and work, they need to figure out how to carry on with the agency after their fearless leader’s passing. This hour-long drama plays out much like a soap opera but with more realistic problems and concerns. They don’t do Olympic-size gymnastics to create drama or induce viewers to believe a plot.
Starring: Camille Cottin as Andrea Marte, Thibault de Montalembert as Mathias Barneville, Gregory Montel as Gabriel Sarda, and more … this series has a perfect storyline and great characters, it is sophisticated and funny that you’ll enjoy much.
2. Transferts – Transfers – (2017)
Gener: Sci-Fiction, Thriller
After a boating accident, a woodworker and family man, Florian, wakes up in the body of an officer who leads a task force against illegal body transfers.
Florian Bassot, an ordinary man, boating with his family, accidentally drowns. Five years later, thanks to scientific progress, his mind is transferred into the body of someone else. When transfers are banished by law, Florian will have to hide his identity and live as Sylvain Bernard, one of the highest-ranking officers of B.A.I.T., the anti-transfers task force. But Sylvain Bernard’s life is about to catch up with him.
Starring: Arieh Worthalter as Sylvain (Florian), Brune Renault as Beatrice, Steve Tientcheu as Gabriel, and more…, this series is thrilling, emotional, and fantastic, it won’t leave you disappointed.
3. Le Bazar de la Charité – The Bonfire of Destiny – (2019)
Gener: Drama, History
After a devastating fire in 1897 Paris, three women find their lives upended by betrayal, deception, and romantic turmoil. Inspired by actual events.
The Bazar de la Charité was an annual charity event organized by the French Catholic aristocracy in Paris from 1885 onwards. It is infamous for the fire at the 1897 bazaar that claimed 126 lives, many of them aristocratic women, the most eminent of whom was the Duchess of Alençon, née Duchess Sophie in Bavaria, sister of the famous Empress Sisi and onetime fiancée of King Ludwig II of Bavaria.
Starring: Audrey Fleurot as Adrienne de Lenverpre, Julie De Bona as Rose Riviere, Camille Lou as Alice de Jeansin, and more…, it’s a beautifully filmed, atmospheric period piece, the cast is fantastic.
4. Mytho – Mythomaniac – (2019)
Gener: Drama
Desperate to get her family’s attention, an overworked mother lies to them about her condition.
A six-episode dramatic miniseries, Mytho is a gripping and gritty story about an overlooked and overworked housewife who pretends to have cancer to get the attention of her family – but the lies soon unravel.
Starring: Marina Hands as Elvira, Mathieu Demy as Patrick, Jeremy Gillet as Sam, and many more … it’s an outstanding family drama, a Compelling story, excellent performance, children-actors are brilliant.
5. Family Business (2019)
Gener: Comedy
Learning that cannabis will be legalized, Joseph, a failed entrepreneur, decides to transform, with the help of his family and friends, the kosher butcher shop of his father and open the first marijuana coffee shop in France.
This lighthearted comedy follows a down-on-his-luck business person and his family as they rush to pivot the family butcher shop to a cannabis-growing operation when France votes to legalize marijuana. It’s a fun show and has gained some well-earned popularity – it’s been renewed for a third season.
Starring: Jonathan Cohen as Joseph Hazan, Gerard Darmon as Gerard Hazan, Julia Piaton as Aure Hazan, and more…, this is entertaining.
6. M’entends-tu? – Can You Hear Me? – (2018)
Gener: Comedy, Drama
‘M’entends-tu?’ is a dramatic comedy that plunges us into the extraordinary daily life of Ada, Fabiola, and Carolanne, three long-time friends from the midst of poverty.
M’entends-tu? is a raunchy comedy with drama that follows three female friends from a low-income neighborhood of Montreal getting through life and dating together.
Starring: Eve Landry as Carolanne, Florence Longpre as Ada, Melissa Bedard as Fabiola, and more…, this is one of Netflix’s hidden gems, acting is so sincere, so authentic and every actor in the series is living the story with all their heart.
7. Lupin (2021)
Gener: Action, Crime, Drama
Inspired by the adventures of Arsène Lupin, gentleman thief Assane Diop sets out to avenge his father for an injustice inflicted by a wealthy family.
It follows Omar Sy as Assane Diop, the only son of an immigrant from Senegal, who has pursued the life of a professional thief, inspired by the adventures of the French literary character Arsène Lupin. Lupin is a fictional gentleman thief and master of disguise, but a real literary character, created in the early 1900s by the French writer Maurice Leblanc.
Starring: Omar Sy as Assane, Ludivine Sagnier as Claire, Herve Pierre as Monsieur Hubert Pellegrini, and more…, Lupin has hit Number 1 on Netflix’s top 10 most-watched lists in France, Canada, Germany, Brazil, Italy, Spain, Argentina, and many other countries globally. It’s also risen to No. 3 in the United States, making it the first French-language show to crack the U.S. top 10.
8. La Forêt – The Forest – (2017)
Gener: Crime, Drama
Sixteen-year-old Jennifer disappears one night from her village in the Ardennes. Captain Gaspard Deker leads the investigation with local cop Virginie Musso, who knew the girl well. They are helped by Eve, a lonely and mysterious woman.
Described as a French Broadchurch, La Forêt is a crime drama about the disappearance of a teenage girl in a small, tight-knit Belgian town surrounded by the Ardennes forest. The six-episode miniseries is gripping from beginning to end, a must-watch for dark police dramas and small-town secrets fans.
Starring: Samuel Labarthe as Gaspard Decker, Suzanne Clement as Virginie Musso, Alexia Barlier as Eve Mendel, and more…, it’s a well-made satisfying, tense drama, and gorgeous scenery showing beautiful and profound aerial views of the town and its surrounding forest.
9. Au service de la France – A Very Secret Service – (2015)
Gener: Comedy
1960: the French intelligence service hires the 23-year-old André Merlaux. Handsome, well raised, intelligent but impressionable, Merlaux has much to learn to serve and defend the interests of France. Three officials must adequately train him to execute delicate and sometimes outlandish operations, as Merlaux discovers the intricacies of government and navigates diplomatic incidents.
Starring: Hugo Becker as Andre Merlaux, Wilfred Benaiche as Le Colonel Maurice Mercaillon, Christophe Kourotchkine as George Prejean dit Moise, and more…, this surprisingly gentle, yet addictive comedy about a fictional French spy agency at the cusp of the Cold War is a fun, bureaucratic period piece, with some genuine wit and laughs.
And, as a bonus for French learners, it was filmed partially in Morocco and included a backdrop of actual historical events. That means you get to hear a few non-France French accents and receive a quick overview of what was happening in French history around the Cold War.
9. The Circle – The Circle France – (2020)
Gener: Reality-TV
Status and strategy collide in this social media competition where online players flirt, befriend and catfish their way toward 100,000 euros.
The concept is simple – reality contestants are kept separate (but in the same building) and interact through a private social network where they present their best selves… or someone else entirely. And then they vote anonymously within The Circle (that’s the social network) for who gets to stay.
Starring: Alfred Gerber as Host, and many contestants, it’s funny and has unpredictable turns and great characters.
10. Le Chalet – The Chalet – (2017)
Gener: Drama, Mystery, Thriller.
A reunion of childhood friends at a remote chalet in the French Alps soon becomes a desperate struggle for survival as they get cut off from the rest of the world and a shocking dark secret from the past surfaces.
With more of a horror bent, Le Chalet’s one takes place in two timelines. One story takes place in 1997, where a family mysteriously disappears. The other is present and follows a young couple trapped with a small group of locals after a rockslide. Before long, secrets come to light, and things start to unravel.
Starring: Chloe Lambert as Muriel Personnaz, Philippe Dusseau as Philippe Personnaz, Blanche Veisberg as Christine Genesta, and more…, it’s excellent series with a perfect plot, you can describe it as a beautifully designed and assembled puzzle – every piece falls into place with clockwork precision.
