The Best European Romance Movies

Last updated on August 11th, 2024 at 07:46 am

These European romance movies are perfect for those who love three things: Europe, romance, and movies. 

And I’m one! Also, while I love each of them separately, a combination of all three is something else, though–a perfect way to spend a few hours of my day, to say the least.

So I’m sharing with you some of the wonderful European romance movies I’ve come across over the years. They’re all set in Europe—some, for its entirety; others, at greater length; and the rest while only for a smaller portion, still manage to delight with their European sights and flavor. And did I say there’s romance in all of them?

So sit back, relax and enjoy these European romance movies for I’m pretty sure they would make you fall in love with love and with Europe. Just as I did.

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Paris

• Midnight in Paris – An uninspired Hollywood screenwriter visiting Paris with his fiancée gets transported through time to the Paris of the 1920s and meets some distinguished and interesting people. This is a beautiful movie with Paris gorgeously shown in dreamy and nostalgic cinematography.

• French Kiss – A woman (Meg Ryan) takes off to France to bring back her straying fiancé and on the way meets a thief (Kevin Kline) who uses her to smuggle something. The two go on a quest all over France in search of the stolen item–and the fiancé. Such a funny and fun gem of a movie. Ryan’s comedic timing is on point and she shares good chemistry with Kline. Not to be missed!

• Amélie – A sheltered Parisian girl who tries to find love and herself by helping others around her. Would she succeed at both? A lovely movie that stars French actress Audrey Tautou (The Da Vinci Code).

• An American in Paris – A struggling former-serviceman-turned-artist gets caught up in a love quadruple in post-World War II Paris. He’s in love with his best friend’s girl, while there’s a wealthy art patron who’s more interested in him than in his art. Gene Kelly plays the title role in this 1951 classic.

• Moulin Rouge! – An English poet finds himself embroiled in a love triangle with a famous courtesan and a Duke in 1899’s bohemian Paris. Moulin Rouge, a nightclub, makes the intriguing backdrop of this dangerous love affair.

• Before Sunset – The sequel to Before Sunrise takes place nine years after the latter’s events. Jesse, an American writer, is currently in Paris to promote his book. Celine, the French woman, whom he met on a train from Budapest to Vienna nine years back learns of his Paris visit and spends time with him for a few hours before his flight back home. A lovely, honest, and thought-provoking film.

• Emily in Paris – A Netflix series about an American girl who finds herself working in Paris and experiences adventures, challenges, and love while there.

• The Girl on the Bridge – A woman on the brink of despair was stopped from jumping off a Parisian bridge by a knife-thrower showman. As they come together and later separate, they find out that they’re each other’s lucky charm. A striking, sweet and romantic film.

• Forget Paris – The story of an NBA referee who, while in Paris, meets a woman working at an airline there, and their roller coaster of a romance.

• The Package – A Korean drama series about a group of Korean tourists and their tour guide in Paris. It follows their journey through the city, nearby Mont Saint-Michel, and the French countryside. These folks would discover themselves and some would find love along the way. A beautiful and insightful film that has splashes of funny and fun.

French Countryside

• A Good Year – A British investment banker finds love and himself when he’s forced to reconnect with his past upon inheriting an estate in the South of France. A beautiful film that takes you to the vineyards and charm of rural Provence—an ultimate escape!

• Magic in the Moonlight – An English magician sets out to Côte d’Azur (French Riviera) to help debunk a well-known spiritualist, but ends up believing and falling in love with her instead. The French Riviera—Nice, Antibes, Menton—is beautifully showcased in this film.

• To Catch a Thief – A romantic thriller about a retired thief who’s forced to clear his name after a series of burglaries were pinned on him. A classic that also gives you a lovely view of the French Riviera.

• Chocolat – A single mother and her daughter stir up a quiet, conservative small town in France when they open a chocolate shop. Matters get complicated when they become associated with some town outcasts. A wonderful, heartwarming movie.

• Paris Can Wait – A woman reawakens her zest for life when what should have been a simple and quick drive from the South of France to Paris unexpectedly turns into a two-day road trip adventure filled with beautiful sightseeing, culture, food and romance. A lovely film!

• The Hundred-Foot Journey – A family leaves India and finds themselves in a small village in the South of France, where they set up an Indian restaurant, much to the chagrin of the local Michelin-starred joint specializing in haute cuisine that doesn’t welcome the competition. A fun and delightful film that gives you a glimpse of small-town France.

London

• Notting Hill – A famous Hollywood actress and a simple English bookshop owner fall in love and find a way to conquer their differences.

• Four Weddings and a Funeral – An Englishman keeps finding himself in a wedding scene, not of his own. Several encounters with an American woman may just give him the love he’s waiting for. Funny, witty, and romantic.

• Bridget Jones’s Diary – Bridget Jones, a thirty-something, single girl, takes charge of her bungled-up life by, for starters, starting a diary. A series of events thereafter may just lead to her finding true love. Actress Renée Zellweger shines in the title role.

• Wimbledon – A professional tennis player finds himself in a slump and decides to throw in the towel. An encounter with a rising star in the women’s division might just be the thing that’ll bring back his mojo.

• The Wedding Date – A single woman hires a top-notch male escort to pose as her boyfriend when she goes home to London to attend her sister’s wedding. A chick flick that’s entertaining, cute, funny and tender.

• Love Actually – A look at different forms and stages of love as it follows eight relationships that live through the magic and crazy that is the Christmas rush. Funny, heart-tugging, magical, and all-around engaging.

English Countryside

• The Holiday – Two women, dissatisfied with their lives and living in different parts of the globe, trade homes, where they each find love. Funny, moving, and sweet.

• Pride and Prejudice – Hate turns to love in this classic tale by Jane Austen. Set in the idyllic English countryside, Eliza Bennet and Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy realize that pride and prejudice have no room in love.

• Bend It Like Beckham – A girl from a traditional Indian family finds it a challenge to break free from her parent’s and culture’s expectations when she dreams of playing professional soccer. 

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Ireland

• Leap Year – A girl wishing to get proposed to sets off to Ireland on the heels of her boyfriend on Leap Year to make that wish come true. Some best-laid plans, however, just aren’t meant to be. Prepare to be dazzled with picturesque Irish moors and quaint villages.

• P.S. I Love You – A young widow heads off to Ireland to fulfill one of her deceased husband’s instructions on how to continue living her life.

• Once – A guy and a girl bond over their love for music and collaborate to create a song and deal with their love issues. A lovely, unpretentious film that’s romantic and bittersweet.

• The Matchmaker – An assistant to a politician running for election goes to Ireland to help boost his campaign but arrives in the middle of a matchmaking festival, where she becomes a sought-after candidate for matchmaking.

Scotland

• Made of Honor – A playboy realizes that he’s in love with his best friend of 10 years just when she’s about to tie the knot to another man.

• A Castle for Christmas (2021) – Escaping from her irate fans in New York, famous author Sophie Brown packs up her bags for Scotland and there buys a castle and finds new love with a Duke. Brooke Shields plays the lead role in this heartwarming and lovely Netflix original that gives us beautiful views of small town Scotland and the Scottish countryside.

The Netherlands 

• The Fault in Our Stars – Two patients bond and find love in this melancholic film. While only a portion of the movie takes place in The Netherlands, still you get to see beautiful Amsterdam, one of my favorite places on Earth.

Rome

• Roman Holiday – A European princess on tour in Europe escapes her security detail and embarks on a sightseeing escapade with an American newspaper reporter. Romance blossoms between the two.

• To Rome with Love – A look at the lives of locals and visitors in Rome. A lighthearted and fun movie by the illustrious Woody Allen.

• When in Rome – A girl who’s unlucky in love suddenly gets pursued by many guys after she gets back from a trip to Rome, where, it turns out, she had set off a curse that resulted in that. A romantic comedy.

• Only You – A woman calls off her wedding and travels to Italy to pursue a man she believes is her destiny. Marissa Tomei and Robert Downey, Jr. are lovely together, and picturesque Italy is captivating. 

• Eat Pray Love – In a quest to discover herself, a divorced woman takes a journey around the world and finds love along the way.

• All Roads Lead to Rome – A vacation to Tuscany, Italy by a single mother wanting to bond with her teenage daughter turns into something else as she grapples with a rekindling attraction to a former lover and an errant, runaway daughter.

• Love and Gelato (2022) – Lina travels to Rome to fulfill a promise she made to her dying mother. Guided by the latter’s past diary, she explores Rome and along the way learns more about her mother’s past life and finds answers to some mysteries regarding herself. Of course, she also finds love and eats delicious gelato.

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Italian Countryside and Beyond

• Letters to Juliet – An aspiring American writer comes across an unanswered love letter while on a trip to Verona, Italy, and finds herself helping the sender get some answers. She finds love in the process. A delightful romance that displays the beautiful Italian countryside.

• Under the Tuscan Sun – Another movie that gives us a glimpse of lovely rural Italy. It’s the story of an American woman who decides to settle in Tuscany and her adventures and misadventures along the way. A beautiful film and Diane Lane (Paris Can Wait) is as stunning and charming as ever.

• A Room with a View – A young English woman develops doubts about her impending marriage after meeting a man during her recent vacation in Florence, Italy. 

• Murder Mystery – A cop and his wife from New York go on a European vacation to revive their marriage, but end up getting mixed in a whodunit murder mystery.

• Love in the Villa (2022) – A third-grade teacher who has just been dumped by her boyfriend embarks on a much-awaited trip to Verona, Italy, only to find that all her carefully laid plans for the trip have gone awry. For one, she discovers she has to share a villa with a complete male stranger, whom she goes toe to toe with. Funny, sweet and charming.

Greece

• Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Two lovers caught on opposite sides of the war are torn between loyalty to each other and their respective countries.

• Before Midnight – Nine years after the events of Before Sunset, you’ll find Jesse and Celine now married and vacationing in Greece with their twin daughters. Unresolved issues and doubts emerge that put their love and marriage to the test. 

• My Life in Ruins – A dissatisfied ex-teacher moonlighting as a tour guide in Athens, Greece may just put her life back on track and find love on her last tour stint. Beautiful Greece is a sight to behold in this movie.

• Mamma Mia – A young woman living on an idyllic island in Greece invites 3 men thinking one of them could be her father. Mayhem ensues when her mother later finds out. This is an entertaining musical with Meryl Streep leading the ensemble.

• Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants – Four longtime friends who’ve never been separated from each other suddenly find themselves spending summer apart in four different places. They decide to pass on and share a pair of pants that fits each of them well, as well as share stories of their summer adventures. Lena, one of the girls, would spend her summer visiting relatives in Greece, where she’ll meet a guy she’ll fancy.

Spain

• Vicky Cristina Barcelona – Two friends on a holiday in Barcelona fall for the charm of painter Juan Antonio. Further complicating matters is the arrival of Juan’s fickle ex-wife.

Other European Countries 

European romance set movies in other countries.

• Before Sunrise – The prequel to Before Sunset when Jesse met Celine on a train to Vienna, formed a connection with her, and decided to spend the few hours before his flight back home exploring Vienna together.

• The Tourist – An American tourist in Italy becomes the target of the authorities and the mob after a woman he’s getting attached to uses him as a decoy.

• Monte Carlo – Three young girls head off to vacation in Paris, where one of them gets mistaken for a British heiress. As a consequence, they get whisked off to Monte Carlo, where they find out how the other half lives.

• Chalet Girl (2011) – Kim, a 19-year-old English girl who was once a skateboarding prodigy, but now trying to make ends meet with her low-paying work, accepts a job as a chalet caretaker in Austria. This temporary stint in a foreign country may just provide an opportunity for her to make a new career and find love.

• Last Holiday – A department store employee who was diagnosed with a deadly disease spends the last of her savings vacationing in the Czech Republic. Turns out the diagnosis was wrong and her long-time crush is also in love with her, so all’s well that ends well. Only some parts were spent in Europe and the romance isn’t the main plot, but it’s an enjoyable movie, so you might want to give it a try.

A Collection of European Countries 

European romance movies that took place in many countries.

• Chasing Liberty – A US President’s daughter ditches her bodyguards in Europe in an attempt to gain a few days of freedom and thereafter meets and falls in love with a man who’s hiding secrets of his own. Such a stunning and fun movie!

• Just Married – A newlywed couple’s love is tested when they spend their honeymoon in Europe. This movie took place in Italy and Austria.

• EuroTrip – A high school graduate who’s just been dumped by his girlfriend heads off to Europe to meet his German pen pal. Along with his friends, they experience adventures and misadventures on their trip.

• Incognito – A Rembrandt forger gets entangled with an art expert who nullifies a painting he forged. A suspenseful film with beautiful, moody sceneries.

Wrap Up

There you go, the European romance movies that would both take you to Europe and make you fall in love. Which would be your next watch?

If you know of other European romance movies worth watching that I missed (because I’m pretty sure there are a number), please do share!

Don’t forget to share this post if you like it. Happy watching!

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