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| Where Was Paolo Filmed? All 2026 HBO Max Series Shooting Locations Revealed. |
Paolo was filmed on location in France, with Épernay in the Grand Est region providing the main physical backdrop for the seven-part 2026 series. Principal photography ran from 3 March 2025 through August 2025, with the production using real streets, residential properties, civic buildings and private estates rather than relying heavily on studio environments. That approach gives the series a particularly lived-in feel, especially as Paolo moves between his ordinary working life and the much more polished world surrounding mayoral candidate Téophane Tolbiac.
It is worth keeping one thing in mind before planning a Paolo-inspired trip. Not every precise filming address was made public during production, partly because keeping locations private helps crews work without unwanted interruptions. So while several individual settings and types of properties have been identified, that does not mean every house, estate or campaign location has an accessible public address. In other words, your holiday does not need to become an amateur treasure hunt through every driveway in Champagne.
The main filming base was Épernay, the historic commune in France's Grand Est region where the production established much of Paolo's everyday world. The town provides the foundation for the story, particularly during the opening stages when Paolo is still living a relatively modest life as a piano mover and preparing for his wedding to Winnie. Its streets, public spaces and older architecture give the series the provincial atmosphere required by the story without making the town feel like a deliberately constructed television set.
The older residential quarters of Épernay were used for Paolo and Winnie's domestic world. Their shared home was filmed inside an ageing stone townhouse, with the property's narrow staircases, worn wooden flooring and compact rooms helping create the sense of a couple living within a fairly confined routine. The setting works particularly well because it is not presented as an extravagant cinematic home. Instead, it feels like a genuine lived-in property, making Paolo's later fascination with wealth and status noticeably more pronounced.
The stone townhouse used as Paolo and Winnie's flat is one of the more important individual residential settings in the series. The production used the property's existing architectural character rather than disguising it with an elaborate set.
Small rooms and tight passageways become part of the visual storytelling, reinforcing how different Paolo's private life is from the grander social world he begins trying to enter. It also gives viewers a useful glimpse of the sort of historic residential architecture found around Épernay, although the exact private address was not publicly identified during filming.
The historic streets and narrow cobbled lanes of Épernay also feature prominently. These locations were used for street-level sequences following Paolo through his daily routine, including scenes connected to his work moving pianos.
The winding streets provide a natural contrast to the polished political spaces that appear later, while the town's older urban fabric helps establish the close-knit provincial setting. It is the sort of place where a character can plausibly run into someone from his past — which, in Paolo's case, turns out to be rather more consequential than a quick hello over coffee.
The local public squares of Épernay form another part of the production's street-level backdrop. Rather than using them simply as decorative scenery, the series incorporates these communal spaces into Paolo's changing relationship with the town. They help establish the everyday environment he knows before his attention shifts towards Téophane's political circle. The contrast becomes increasingly important as Paolo begins moving from ordinary public spaces into more exclusive surroundings.
One of the most recognisable civic settings is Épernay Town Hall, or Hôtel de Ville, which was used for parts of the political storyline surrounding Téophane Tolbiac's mayoral campaign.
The building's formal architecture, gates and municipal interiors provide a suitably imposing setting for campaign activity and public political appearances. It also creates a visual divide between Paolo's position as a behind-the-scenes worker and Téophane's much more visible role as a candidate seeking influence in the town.
The interior corridors and formal areas of the Hôtel de Ville were particularly useful for scenes involving campaign operations and public appearances. Their institutional character gives the political storyline a sense of permanence, even while Paolo is still effectively an outsider looking in.
The location also does something quietly clever for the story: a municipal building is technically a public institution, yet the series uses its architecture to underline who appears to have authority and who is left standing at the edge of the room.
The vacant commercial storefronts in central Épernay were another important filming setting. These spaces were adapted into campaign headquarters for Téophane's political operation, allowing the production to create busy working environments filled with volunteers, planning sessions and campaign activity. Instead of building a generic political office inside a studio, the production used existing commercial spaces and transformed them for the story, giving the campaign headquarters a more temporary and slightly improvised appearance.
The surrounding Champagne countryside provides the major geographical shift once Paolo becomes increasingly fascinated by Téophane's social world. The landscape surrounding Épernay allowed the production to move away from the compact streets of the town and into more private, secluded environments. These countryside locations are important because physical distance starts reflecting social distance: the further Paolo moves into this world, the further he appears to travel from the ordinary life established at the beginning.
The private historic estates and châteaux in the Champagne countryside were used to represent the wealthy social circles surrounding Téophane. These properties offered grand dining rooms, expansive lawns, private entrances and substantial grounds, creating a sharp visual contrast with Paolo's townhouse and working environment. The production secured access to private properties for these scenes, meaning they should not automatically be treated as tourist attractions simply because they appear in the series.
The affluent private estates used for political and social gatherings are particularly significant to Paolo's visual progression. They represent the world he wants to enter rather than simply providing an attractive backdrop. Their scale and privacy make them feel deliberately separated from the public streets of Épernay, allowing the series to turn architecture into part of the social story. There is something almost amusingly cruel about it: the prettier the property becomes, the more complicated Paolo's life seems to get.
The grand dining rooms and formal interiors of these estates were used for closed-door political and social functions. Their polished appearance gives Téophane's circle a very different visual language from Paolo's domestic surroundings.
The contrast is not subtle, and it does not need to be. One side has worn floors and tight staircases; the other has spacious rooms where people can discuss power over dinner. The production clearly understood that sometimes the easiest way to explain a class divide is simply to put two very different rooms next to each other.
The isolated countryside manor used for the election-night climax is another major location within Paolo. This property was used for the final episode and became the setting for the confrontation involving Paolo and Téophane.
Its secluded position, extensive interiors, private rooms and gravel driveways allowed the production to create a contained atmosphere as the story reaches its most pressured point. The location is especially effective because the property initially looks like the ultimate symbol of the world Paolo wants to access, only for the same architecture to become increasingly restrictive.
The private study rooms inside the election-night estate were also important to the final stages of the story. These enclosed interiors give the climax a more intimate setting than the public campaign scenes earlier in the series. The production could use doors, corridors and separate rooms to control who sees what and when, turning the manor's layout into part of the tension rather than treating it as background decoration.
The dark gravel driveways and secluded exterior grounds of the election-night estate complete the location used for the series finale. The setting gives the final episode a physical sense of isolation, placing the characters far removed from the ordinary streets where Paolo's story began. It is a neat geographical progression: the series starts with everyday life in Épernay and gradually pushes its central character towards increasingly private and exclusive spaces.
There is also a broader connection between these locations and the series' production approach. Sébastien Marnier chose real-world locations across Épernay and the surrounding Grand Est countryside to give Paolo a grounded physical environment. That decision means the locations are doing more than filling the screen behind the cast. The difference between a cramped townhouse, a municipal building and an expansive private estate becomes part of the storytelling itself.
For viewers hoping to recreate Paolo's locations, Épernay's historic centre, public squares and Hôtel de Ville are the most straightforward places connected to the production that fit naturally into a visit. The private residences and estates are a different matter. Some were privately owned properties used under production arrangements, so appearing in a television series does not automatically make them open to visitors. That distinction matters if you are planning an actual trip rather than simply collecting filming-location trivia.
Paolo has a surprisingly good location strategy for a series built around social ambition. Épernay does not need to be dressed up as some impossibly glamorous French setting because the production gets more mileage from putting ordinary streets beside grand estates.
The geography almost becomes a silent character. Paolo can walk through one part of town as a piano mover and then enter another world where everything suddenly looks bigger, cleaner and considerably more expensive. There is a slightly sarcastic joke hiding in that contrast: apparently all you need to change your life is a political campaign, an old schoolmate and access to the right driveway.
The decision to shoot on location also keeps the story from feeling overly theatrical. Even when the characters behave dramatically, the streets and buildings remain stubbornly real. That makes Paolo's gradual shift in social surroundings feel more tangible and, frankly, more uncomfortable in a good storytelling sense. If you enjoy visiting film locations, Épernay could therefore offer something more interesting than simply posing beside a recognisable building.
Ultimately, the known Paolo filming locations give the 2026 HBO Max series a distinctly French setting while keeping the story firmly rooted in Épernay and the wider Grand Est landscape. From Paolo's stone townhouse and the town's cobbled streets to the Hôtel de Ville, campaign spaces and private Champagne estates, each setting reflects a different stage of his journey.
Because some exact private addresses were deliberately kept out of the public eye during production, viewers should also be cautious about online location claims that promise every doorway and bedroom used by the crew. If you have watched Paolo, which of these locations would you most like to visit, and would you actually recognise it without the camera angle doing half the work?