Series / Find Me In Paris

Max, Isaac, Ines, Lena, Thea, Jeff

Find Me in Paris is a time travel-dance series that ran for three seasons from 2018 to 2020. The series follows Helena "Lena" Grisky (Jessica Lord), a fictional Russian princess and student at the Paris Opera Ballet School in 1905 who finds herself transported to 2018.

The series is an English-language German-French co-production between ZDF and Cottonwood Media, written by Canadians Lori Mather and Jill Girling.

In 2022, the creators of Find Me in Paris announced a Spiritual Successor series Spellbound, set in the same location but with a new, slightly younger cast of characters and a focus on magic rather than time travel. It premiered in 2023.

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Find Me in Paris provides examples of:

• 20 Minutes into the Past: In season 1 episode 4, Henri lands in 2017, a year too soon.
• Absurdly Powerful School Jurisdiction: The Paris Opera Ballet School strictly forbids dancing outside of school and other genres of dance, meaning Max's underground hip-hop crew the Blok must remain anonymous in order to avoid getting trouble.
• Ambiguous Situation: Max and his father Armando Castillo have differing accounts of exactly why their relationship soured and who is at fault. Although their relationship does improve, it's never made entirely clear whose side of the story was closer to the truth.
• Anachronistic Soundtrack: Done intentionally when someone brings music back to the past, such as when Thea does it in season 2 or Jeff does it in season 3.
• Accidental Time Travel: Lena is unexpectedly transported to 2018 through a timepiece Henri found and gave her, assuming it was a normal necklace.
• Age-Down Romance: Oscar, who we first meet as an Ageless adult before he's turned into a teenager in season 2, starts a relationship with Bree in season 3.
• Alternate History: Lena is a member of the fictional Russian royal family the Griskys.
• Amnesia Loop: The effect of the Bureau's memory wiping technology is that it will repeatedly wipe any knowledge one regains of time travel.
• Artistic License – History: While they might be taught privately at home by dancing masters, no family of the middle or especially upper and noble classes of Imperial Russia would dream of sending their daughters to train as a professional dancer. While admired for their beauty and dancing onstage, ballerinas of the era were viewed as little better than sex workers — many noble men kept ballerinas as mistresses and the dancers were expected to 'service' the patrons^note particularly the subscription holders, who provided most of the company's funding of the ballet.
• Artistic License – Linguistics: Since she is Russian, Lena's surname should be Griskaya, the feminine variation of Grisky.
• Bait-and-Switch Boss: Quinn, not Nico, ends up being the Big Bad of season 3.
• Bait-and-Switch Sentiment: Max begins telling Jeff about these "feelings" he's been having, and Jeff assumes he means for him before he says for Lena.
• Ban on Magic: Victor reveals to Henri in season 1 episode 14 that a group of time travellers, including himself, decided to deactivate the time portals at some point as they felt time travel was too dangerous. The timepiece Henri gave Lena reactivated them. Generally, time travel is only permitted when the portals are open (which happens intermittently) and with a time piece.
  Victor: If you don't use a timepiece, you shouldn't travel at all. To travel with a homemade portal is like breaking down the door when you don't have a key.
  • The Bureau also enforces keeping time travel secrets under wraps and threaten to interfere when Muggles (such as Ines) discover and get close to sharing it with the rest of the world.
• Betty and Veronica Switch: On paper, Thea should be the familiar Girl Next Door Betty to Lena's (temporally) exotic upper-class Veronica. But their personalities are mostly the opposite. But even beyond Max, they have a pretty intense dance rivalry and become Competition Freaks around each other.
  • Betty and Veronica is played a straighter, and genderswapped, with the Henri/Lena/Max triangle, with Henri as the Betty, her Childhood Sweetheart from 1905 and Max as the Veronica, an alluring new presence in her 2018 life. Nico from season 3 arguably takes Max's place in this equation.
• Blank White Void: This is what "time jail" is portrayed to be.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Lena is blonde, Ines is brunette, Thea is strawberry blonde.
• But Not Too Gay: Isaac and Jeff are one of the only canon pairings to never kiss onscreen. And while season 2 sets up that they like each other, they only become an Official Couple offscreen, confirmed in passing dialogue.
• Can't Live with Them, Can't Live Without Them: When they're reunited in season 2, Lena and Henri are not really on the same page about things and they disagree about whether to stay in the present, which is what Lena wants, or go back to the past, which is what Henri wants. But despite these disagreements, they still love each other and are not happy when separated again.
• Cassandra Truth: The existence of time travel.
  • No one believes Thea when she spreads the rumour that Lena is a time traveller, to the point where Bree and Kennedy are concerned for her mental health and Ms Carré insists she take a break from dancing.
  • Ines almosts gets laughed off the stage for bringing up her theory of time travel at her science teacher's colleagues' seminar. Justified in that Lena deliberately sabotaged the presentation so Ines wouldn't get in trouble with the Bureau.
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: The leotards worn at ballet school (at least in the present, that is), from lowest to highest tier: Division 3 wear light pink, Division 2 wear red/hot pink, Division 1 wear blue.
• Comm Links: Henri and Lena communicate between 1905 and 2018 by putting letters behind their "secret brick" on the roof of the Garnier.
• Competition Freak: Given the show takes place at a prestigious ballet school, many of the characters are ambitious and thus qualify for this at various points, including Lena, Thea, Max, Isaac, and even Jeff.
• Contrasting Sequel Setting: In season 3, Mr Castillo brings a group of First Division students (including most of the main characters) to the south of France for his new experimental workshop with the CJ Company.
• Daddy Didn't Show: Ms Carré takes notice of how much Thea's confidence gets knocked when her mother is around. She tells Mrs Raphael off for being such a Stage Mom and that she should leave if she wants what's best for her daughter. Backfires when Mrs Raphael doesn't show up to the recital, upsetting Thea.
• Dance of Romance:
  • When Max and Lena have to dance for an assignment, there are obvious sparks between them, much to the dismay of his girlfriend Thea. It's even Lampshaded with a legend that says those who dance La Fée together fall for each other.
  • Thanks to Lex messing around with Lena's carte blanche show, Jeff and Isaac end up paired together and the only dance couple not thrown off by Lex's meddling.
• Decade-Themed Filter: The present day has normal colour grading; 1905 has a turquoise sepia filter; 1983 colour graded brightly to resemble an 80s film.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance:
  • Thea scoffs at the conformity and propriety ladies in 1905 are expected to abide by, and tells the girls in Claudine's manners lesson that they're wasting their time and suggests they think for themselves.
  • Henri is rather alarmed by modern clothing and is worried that Lena will get in trouble in a sleeveless top.
• Devil in Plain Sight:
  • Neither Lena nor Ines suspects that Thea is the one who's been meddling in her life by intercepting her and Henri's letters, impersonating her, and stealing the timepiece her mother left her until she sees her wearing it.
  • Henri falls for Frank's suggestion that it was the Bureau that stole his timepiece and not him (with help from Thea).
• Easily-Overheard Conversation:
  • While Thea is forced by Ms Carré to move into Ines and Lena's room, Ines and Lena have one-on-one conversations in the hall by the door to their room. Through this, Thea finds out that they're keeping a secret.
  • This is how pretty much all of Max's secrets come spilling out as he has very public confrontations with his estranged father and brother.
  • Ines overhears Nico checking in with the Bureau, and while she might not remember time travel, she knows he can't be trusted. He is later Caught on Tape doing this while Lena and her friends are frozen, not considering that a phone was recording while Jeff was dancing.
  • Romy manages to overhear Lena briefly remember she's a time traveller before forgetting again. Nico then overhears her when she confides in Simon.
• The Edwardian Era: Many scenes take place during this era as Lena is from it.
• Eternal English: Besides the occasional intentionally dated slang or Poirot Speak thrown in, everyone speaks a standard English regardless of nationality or time period, and most of the actors use their native accents (notable exceptions being Eubha Akilade, Christy O'Donnell, and Hiran Abeysekera).
• Everyone Must Be Paired: The likely reason for the Frank/Ines and Oscar/Bree endgames.
• Fakin Macguffin: Henri gives Bureau agent Francie Parks a fake timepiece, an action that makes his father so proud, he agrees to give him his first lesson.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: Lena, of the 'person from the past ending up in the present' variety of having to adjust to a new time period. Ines assumes she is Amish and she rolls with it to excuse her unfamiliarity with modernity. Zig-Zagged when it's revealed Lena was born in 2003 but raised in the past.
  • In season 2, it's Henri who has to get used to the present after getting stuck there. Thankfully, he has Lena to guide him. Conversely, Thea has to adjust to 1905 (and then re-adjust to 2019 after getting a little too comfortable).
• For Your Own Good: Ines confronts Lena about sabotaging her time travel presentation. Lena explains that Lex was threatening to delete Ines if she shared that information to other Muggles. All Ines wanted was to be right, but Lena explains that she is right but can't be. She was trying to save her, but Ines won't hear it.
• Friendship-Straining Competition:
  • Jeff and Lena go head to head to take Max's place as leader of the Blok.
  • A romantic relationship variation with Isaac and Jeff, who get competitive over roles, making Company, and being named First Boy.
• "Groundhog Day" Loop: A mini version. The timepiece the Time Collectors get ahold of is able to trap people in mini time loops, doomed to repeat the same action over (while Fading Away) until it's turned off. Frank traps Victor with this.
• Have We Met Yet?: Henri firsts meets Oscar in 2017 with Oscar knowing who he is (and he is not happy to see him). Henri then he accidentally goes back to 1905 and seeks out Henri; this time it's Oscar who doesn't know who Henri is.
  (in 2017)
  Henri: Do you know me?
  Oscar: Know you? You are the bane of my existence!
  (later in 1905)
  Oscar: Can I help you?
  Henri: Oscar, it's me.
  Oscar: Pleased to meet you, Me.
  Henri: You must be joking, we just met... 100 years in the future!
• Hope Spot: Henri and Lena see each other on the pont and Meadow Run towards each other, only to have their joyous reunion thwarted when Henri gets captured and sent back.
• I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship: That, and Henri are the reasons why Lena panics over the prospect of Max liking her in season 1 episode 8. When he finds out, he assures her that they're Just Friends.
• I Never Got Any Letters: In season 1 episode 12, Thea finds the secret brick and Henri's letter to Lena detailing his latest plan to get back to her and uses to get Lena to try to find him so she can take her place in the midseason showcase.
• Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube!: The punishment dealt to crews that lose hip-hop dance battles to the crew Group X.
• Insult Backfire: About Lena's carte blanche choreography during rehearsals:
  Lena: Isn't it just the most romantic thing you've ever seen?
  Mr Castillo: Well, it's carte blanche. It can be as romantic as you like. But it's a little bit... precious, don't you think?
  Lena, gushing: Yes. It's so precious.
• Irrevocable Message: Lena gets irritable and argumentative with Henri when he informs her she's in a time bubble. Emotions running high, she starts blaming him for everything and basically tells him to get lost. She immediately regrets writing this though and goes to take back the letter, but it's already been sent.
• King Incognito: Lena tries to blend in as a normal 21st century girl and present day student at the dance school, per Henri's advice in his letter. (She's not very good at it).
• Laser-Guided Amnesia:
  • Victor's punishment when turning himself into the Bureau so that his son and Lena and Thea might be spared is having all memory of time travel wiped. If Henri tries to re-teach him, he will just forget again in an Amnesia Loop. He's effectively Brought Down to Normal.
  • Nico later performs this time travel memory wipe on Lena and her friends at the beginning of season 3. Only Henri and Bree are spared because they were not present.
• Love-Obstructing Parents:
  • Lena's parents do not approve of her seeing a "peasant boy", with her mother claiming that it's humiliating.
  • Victor gets in the way of Henri reuniting with Lena multiple times and even breaks the time portal so he can't travel. Harsh, but Justified as he's trying to stop his inexperienced son from breaking the laws of time travel so he doesn't cause a Time Crash and make the situation worse. He later suggests Lena stop trying to reach Henri to get the Bureau off their backs.
• Meanwhile, in the Future…: The time periods 1905 and 2018—2019 are presented as if they're happening concurrently.
  • In season 1 episode 15, Henri and Lena through their back-and-forth letters realise they're both on the roof of the Garnier at the same time, over 100 years apart. It's possible to communicate in real time as if the letters were handwritten texts.
  • Through The Power of Love, Henri and Lena can sometimes sense when they're in the same location at the same time.
  • Thea spending a few months in the past translates to her being gone for a few months in the present, instead noticeably different amounts of time elapsing. This might be to do with the frequency of portal openings.
  • In season 2 episode 21, the timepiece Thea is holding in Oscar's Clock Shop starts reacting to a timepiece on Oscar's desk in the same location in 1905, creating a time rip that Henri and Oscar fall through.
  • When Lena, Frank, Henri, and Nico accidentally leave Ines, Jeff, and Isaac in 1905 in season 3 episode 13, they end up being late for their dance cues. Thankfully, Lena can temporarily freeze time in the present while they figure out what to do.
• Mirthless Laughter: Lena and her friends laugh when they read her mother's letter telling them to stay away from the Bureau at all costs, after having been captured by them and negotiated their way out by agreeing to give themselves over at a later time if they're the Chosen One.
• Missed Him by That Much: Pinky and Clive capture Henri and send him back to the past just as he and Lena are about to run into each other. Lena realises he's there, but he has dematerialised by the time she runs over, leaving only a letter.
• Mistaken for Special Guest: After fainting, Lena tries to say her name is Helena, but the people around her assume she's saying she's Elena Grande, a new student they were expecting from Italy. Victor bails her out when the real Elena Grande arrives, pretending to be her guardian late to bringing her papers.
• Move in the Frozen Time: It's established Henri can temporarily freeze people with his timepiece. When he gets to the present in the season 1 finale during a recital, he freezes everyone, and then unfreezes Lena.
• Multinational Team: The Paris Opera Ballet School appears to be an international school with English as its primary language of instruction, thus the characters come from all over (although some have ambiguous nationalities). Lena is Russian (although it's implied she's spent much of her life abroad, which could explain why she doesn't have a Russian accent at all), Max and Armando are British-Spanish,
• Mysterious Protector: Victor Duquet, Henri's enigmatic father, shows up to help Lena out. He later breaks her and Thea out of time jail.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Henri gives Lena a time piece which results in Lena accidentally travelling forward in time to 2018. Neither of them knew about the special powers of the time piece beforehand, so Lena can't come back to 1905 directly.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed: A man named Steve walks into Oscar's Clock Shop looking for items for his new computer company. Bree hands him her smartphone from the future, which doesn't work in 1983 and tells him to invent. Needless to say, he's inspired.
• No Romantic Resolution: The last thing we ever see Pinky do is quit the Time Collectors at the beginning of season 3 over losing Ines, "the only girl I've ever loved", to Nico's mind wipe. He doesn't return even after Ines has regained her memories, and Frank doesn't seem to have any qualms about pursuing her.
• Not a Date: After being paired together for an assignment, Dash and Ines spend time together and go out for a meal. However, he thinks it's a date and she does not.
• Odd Friendship: Jeff and Lena. He helps her learn hip hop and she helps him learn ballet. Jeff and Thea could also apply.
• Opening Narration: Each episode starts with Lena introducing herself and the premise:
  Lena: My name is Lena Grisky, and I go to the best ballet school in the world. I have a secret: I'm a time traveller from 1905, and my boyfriend Henri is doing is doing everything he can to get me home.
• Pair the Smart Ones: Frank strongly admires Ines' intelligence.
• Performance Anxiety: Many of the characters go through this at some point or other, including Lena, Thea, and Ines. Even Mr Castillo gets it at one point.
• Playing Both Sides: Violette asks both Lena and Thea to be her mentor, and she seems to enjoy their rivalry.
• The Power of Love:
  • Whenever they are physically near, Lena and Henri can feel each other's presence in their hearts.
  • Oscar seems to think this is the reason Lena is able to send letters to Henri in the past through their "secret brick" as that kind of thing usually only works when the item in question is sent from the past to the future. However, this theory might not be the case as they're not the only ones shown to be capable of this.
  • Lena believes this is the reason she is able to defy the Bureau's memory wipe after reuniting with Henri in season 3.
• Previously on…: Following the opening theme, the episodes start with a narrated recap of the previous episode.
• Prim and Proper Bun: Dancers with long hair, such as Lena and Thea, wear their hair in a tight, neat bun most of the time.
• Pushed in Front of the Audience: Lena lands in the middle of a line of dancers about to go on stage for the Défilé and is prevented from leaving the line. She faints upon finding out what year it is.
• Rage Breaking Point: Max publicly snaps at Thea for her behaviour towards Lena in season 1 episode 16 when he learns that she stole her mask, preventing her from being able to participate in the flash mob.
  Max: What is WRONG WITH YOU? Who does that? I don't even know who you are anymore.
  Thea: Where are you going?
  Max: Away from you. We're done.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • When they break up, Max tells Thea "You don't care about the Blok. You don't care about anyone but yourself." It doesn't work beyond a few Tears of Remorse as Thea simply doubles down as she blames Lena for taking "everything" from her (or really, everything Thea feels entitled to).
  • Jeff gives one to Jenna in season 3 for being so unpleasant all the time.
• Rebellious Princess: The events of the series are kicked off by Lena planning to run away with her boyfriend so she doesn't have to go back to Russia. In her narration she states she cares more about ballet than being a princess.
• Reverse Polarity: Henri asks Frank if he's tried reversing the wires on the time portal to get it to work, to which Frank retorts of course he's tried that.
• Rivals Team Up:
  • Ines and Lena team up with Frank and Pinky to take on the Bureau after they've taken Henri and Clive.
  • Victor, who is ex-Bureau, offers to help Frank find Clive so they can take down Lex together.
  • Despite feeling betrayed by her former friend, Lena works with Claudine to protect them both from Nico.
• San Dimas Time: Justified by the fact that time travel is shown to be rather limited. There are irregular, short windows when the portals are open, indicating that time travel is permitted and considered to be safe. In addition, there's no indication that noticeably different amounts of time elapse between different time periods.
• Schizo Tech: Oscar explains that the reason Henri and the Time Collectors are having difficulty getting the portal to work is that it involves technology from the future, and that they'll need to find a power source to kickstart it.
• Secret Legacy: Victor reveals to his son Henri that they are a centuries-old family of time travelers after Lena disappears and Henri searches for answers, though Henri is not yet authorised to make use of it himself. (He tricks the Time Collectors to take him to 2018 instead).
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: In season 2 episode 12, Lena's ballet-off with Jenna Bicks in Brussels gets her and all her friends in huge trouble with the school. She decides to use her mother's timepiece to reverse time back to the moment before Jenna provoked her, this time reacting more calmly.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: Oscar and Bree.
  Frank: Dial it back, lovebirds.
• The Slow Path: For items rather than people, this is shown to be a viable way to send things to the future, be it a message, a physical object, or even Henri's music via record (leading to a song he recorded in 1905 becoming a hit single in 2019). For example, Frank leaving a letter for Pinky in Victor's office, or Alexandra leaving the timepiece for Lena in a secret location with Henri's quicker letters telling her where to find it.
• Terrible Trio: The Time Collectors: Frank, Pinky, and Clive.
• Thinking Out Loud: Characters sometimes do this when they're alone, such as when Henri snooping around his father's office.
• A Tragedy of Impulsiveness:
  • Thinking she'll never see the friends she's made in 2018 again, Lena impulsively kisses Max. On stage, during the midseason showcase. In front of everyone. Needless to say, she gets in trouble with Thea and with Ms Carré who nearly expels her.
  • Despite Pinky's warnings that the Bureau has turned the portal into a trap, Lena goes through it anyway to find Henri. They end up in a Blank White Void with no idea how to get out (until Pinky and Ines pull them out).
  • Feeling disillusioned when Lena ignores his calls, Henri decides to take the portals being open as an excuse to go back to 1905. By the time he realises his mistake in leaving her behind, the portals have closed.
• Threat Backfire: Frank tries to threaten Henri into giving him the necessary information to build a time portal, but freezes and stutters, and Henri mocks him.
• Those Two Guys: Dash and Jeff.
• Time Police: The Bureau and the Time Collectors rival each other in this regard, with the Collectors viewing themselves as rebels against the corrupt Bureau.
• Time-Traveling Jerkass: The Time Collectors especially Frank as he wants Lena's timepiece to become the most powerful time traveler.
• The Unmasking: Just as he reveals he plans to leave for London over his Career-Ending Injury, Lena tells Max in season 2 episode 25 her secret in return — that she's from 1905.
• Valentine's Day Episode: That takes place right after Lena and Henri, via letter, piece together why Victor said they can't be together — because they're from different time periods, the Bureau will never leave them alone. Needless to say, Lena goes into Valentine's Day heartbroken, though she gets temporarily cheered up when Bree and Kennedy rope her into their roses tradition.
  • Because Lena messes up the rose orders, Isaac gets one from Ines and mistakes all her actions to him on that day for flirting. To his relief, she clarifies that it wasn't.
• We ARE Struggling Together: Frank and Pinky disagree on method. Their arguments over how to go about capturing Lena distract each other long enough for Henri to run away.
• Wistful Amnesia: Since what they do remember doesn't add up, Ines and Lena suspect they're missing parts of their memory, but they don't know why or of what. Lena finds Henri's letter, triggering flashbacks that bring it all back for a moment before forgetting again.
  • Dancing for Ms Carré and Mr Castillo triggers more flashbacks, this time of her 1905 life, throwing her off balance.
• Wrong Time-Travel Savvy: In his attempt to get Lena back, Henri messes with a lot of time travel rules and even gets her more stuck than she initially was by creating a bubble around her.
• Your Universe or Mine?: An rare example with Lena and Henri, as Lena was born in 2003 but raised in the past where Henri is from, meaning they lived congruently and were in a relationship before being separated. When they finally reunite in 2019 in season 2, Henri wants to go back to 1905, while Lena wants to stay.

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