The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Filming Locations in Paris Region

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon is a Franco‑American spin‑off of the iconic series The Walking Dead. The story follows Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus), the fearless crossbow‑wielding survivor, who suddenly and mysteriously washes up on the French coast, determined to find a way back home. Along the way, he crosses paths with Isabelle (Clémence Poésy), a nun with a troubled past, and Laurent, a young orphan with a unique destiny. In autumn 2022, production teams filmed throughout the Paris Region, transforming its iconic monuments, urban parks, historic abbeys and former military forts into the backdrop of a devastated Paris, haunted by walkers.

Daryl Dixon arrives in a Paris transformed beyond recognition. Its streets are silent, its landmarks damaged, its inhabitants gone. Yet the city endures and with it, some of its most iconic settings, standing strong amid the ruins.

After leaving Bonnie, Isabelle wanders through the streets of Paris, still dazed from the party. She lingers on the Pont de Bir-Hakeim, cigarette in hand, unaware that what she is seeing in the street is no longer entirely human. The nightmare is right there, before her eyes—yet she does not recognize it.

Listed as a Historic Monument, the Pont de Bir‑Hakeim spans the Seine between the 15th and 16th arrondissements. Cars and pedestrians pass below, while an elevated metro line runs above. This distinctive two‑level bridge has made it one of the most photographed and filmed locations in Paris. But Isabelle does not stay.

Both the Pont de Bir‑Hakeim and Place Saint‑Georges are highly sought‑after Paris filming locations. Fans of Emily in Paris will instantly recognize them.

In episode 3, Daryl, Isabelle, Laurent and Sylvie move through Paris with a clear objective: to reach the Demi‑Monde, a clandestine club hidden deep within the Catacombs, where Isabelle hopes to find information about a ship that could take Daryl back to the United States. It is a journey across Paris, navigating between walkers and ruins.

It is through a hidden access point on the Petite Ceinture in Paris’s 15th arrondissement that Fallou, the leader of a community of Parisian survivors, finally guides the group toward the Catacombs. This former circular railway line, which encircles Paris for 32.5 kilometers inside the ring road, once carried freight and passengers before closing in 1934. Abandoned for decades, it has since become a green ecological corridor, where wild vegetation and hundreds of animal species have reclaimed the space. Parts of it are now open to the public for urban walks. Dare to explore it?

In season 2, Daryl Dixon enters the Louvre. The largest museum in the world stretches out before him devastated, silent, overtaken by vegetation. I. M. Pei’s glass pyramid lies shattered, and yet somewhere inside the galleries, the Mona Lisa still hangs in her frame, untouched.

The Louvre lies at the very heart of the season 2 storyline. Marion Genet, a former museum employee turned despot of post‑apocalyptic France, has turned its galleries into her headquarters, adorning the walls with Mona Lisa and Liberty Leading the People by Delacroix. In a flashback in episode 3, she pauses in front of The Flood Scene by Anne‑Louis Girodet, a neoclassical painting depicting a man on the edge of an abyss, torn between saving his father or his wife and children. More than a mere backdrop, the artworks of the Louvre illuminate the story, as the fiction, in turn, brings painting back to life.

Daryl Dixon does not stop at the gates of Paris. The entire Paris Region serves as a vast playground for the production, offering a wide range of striking locations beyond the capital.

In episodes 3 and 4 of season 1, the group looks out over Paris from above, with a derelict Eiffel Tower looming in the background. Later, Laurent ventures alone to the foot of the structure, surrounded by walkers. Although these scenes are meant to take place on the Champ de Mars, they were actually filmed at the Domaine national de Saint‑Cloud, in the Hauts‑de‑Seine, just outside Paris. To recreate the base of the Eiffel Tower, the production teams built a 60‑metre‑high scaffolding structure in front of a vast green screen, installed over twelve days of preparation, followed by three days of filming. Saint‑Cloud offered the space and flexibility required to accommodate a technical setup of this scale.

Covering 460 hectares, the Domaine national de Saint‑Cloud is an exceptional park, listed as a Historic Monument. Designed by Le Nôtre and once a residence of the kings of France, it is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful gardens in Europe and a striking natural backdrop for cinema and television productions.

A major seat of power in the series, the Fort de Cormeilles‑en‑Parisis, in the Val‑d’Oise, hosted the production teams for several days, with Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride on site. This 19th‑century artillery fort, one of the largest military forts in the Paris Region, has been managed since 1998 by the Friends of Fort de Cormeilles association. Its underground galleries and stone buildings are long‑standing-favorites of film and TV productions.

In episode 3 of season 1, the heroes enter the city of Angers by horse‑drawn carriage, crossing a bridge that marks the gateway to the town. In reality, the scene was filmed in the medieval town of Moret‑sur‑Loing, in southern Seine‑et‑Marne. Painter Alfred Sisley set up his easel during the last twenty years of his life in this 12th‑century fortified town, encircled by ramparts and crossed by the Loing River. He immortalized this bridge in paintings now displayed at the Musée d’Orsay. Film producers, meanwhile, continue to return here regularly.