Ow-la-la! Chic French square where Lily Collins' character lives in TV series Emily In Paris bears its name from a medieval method of torture
File photo dated August 14, 2019 of Lily Collins shooting Emily in Paris TV show in Paris, France
In the hit TV series Emily In Paris, the square where the lead character lives is a picture-perfect setting for a young advertising executive’s romantic adventures in the chic heart of France’s capital.
But fans of the Netflix series may be surprised to learn that the location, the Place de l’Estrapade, bears a dark secret – it is named after a medieval method of torture once used on prisoners on the site.
The house where Emily – played by Lily Collins, 31 – lives is the Maison Moreau, named after a wealthy carpenter who built it in the 1770s just before the French Revolution.
And it was in the quaint 5th Arrondissement Latin Quarter square it dominates where thousands of prisoners were maimed and put to death in the years leading up to the country’s violent upheaval of 1789.
The estrapade torture became popular in the Renaissance, with a tall, gallows-style wooden structure where victims perched with a rope tied to their wrists, behind their back.
On a given signal – and once a decent crowd had built up – the prisoner was dropped and pulled up just before they hit the ground, dislocating the arms, causing internal injuries and an inevitable, agonising death.
‘Thankfully, Paris has become a much nicer place since then,’ said local resident Aurélie Badeaux.
The estrapade torture became popular in the Renaissance, with a tall, gallows-style wooden structure where victims perched with a rope tied to their wrists, behind their back