PARIS, Nov 25 (AFP) - For people curious to find Amelie's cafe or the little Paris bistro where Audrey Hepburn and Walter Matthau grabbed a bite to eat in "Charade", a new tourist guide makes it all easy.

 

"Paris Vu au Cinema" (Paris, as seen at the movies) digs into the French capital's rich history as the setting for many films to give readers step-by-step itineraries to finding the real-life addresses glimpsed on the big screen.

 

Thus the book points the way to the charming Montmartre locales inhabited by Amelie in the 2001 French movie of the same title - locales that have already drawn thousands of Americans, Japanese and Germans struck by the impossibly magical Paris depicted.

 

Other harder finds can also be traced, including the Cochon a l'Oreille restaurant graced by Hepburn in the 1963 film "Charade", or the museum that stood in for the presidential palace in the French movie version of "Absolutely Fabulous".

 

Many of the 300 films referenced in the guide are titles only the French know and love, but tracking them down can be rewarding, such as those tracing Sophie Marceau's footsteps in "La Boum 2" to Café Angelina - a gourmet's paradise specialising in a divine hot chocolate.

 

There's also the restaurant l'Escargot Montorgueil that served as the model for the studio decor for Shirley MacLaine's turn as a prostitute in "Irma la Douce", and the commercial yacht used by director Tim Burton in his yet-to-be-released movie "The Big Fish".

 

The guide's writers, Francois de Saint-Exupery and Marie-Christine Vincent, plan to follow up the book with a whole series about films set in other regions of France.