Very few French shows travel. L'Agence, known internationally as The Parisian Agency: Exclusive Properties, is the rare exception: a French family selling French houses in French, watched around the world. Variety reported that it ranked as Netflix's fourth most-watched show globally in 2023, which for an unscripted French-language series is remarkable.
Students bring it up in lessons constantly, usually because they enjoyed it and want to know whether it is any good for learning. My answer is yes, and for a reason most people do not expect: it is not the property that makes it useful, it is the family.
What is L'Agence, and who are the Kretz family?
The show follows Kretz & Partners, an independent luxury real estate agency based in Boulogne-Billancourt, just west of Paris, run entirely by one family. Olivier and Sandrine Kretz founded it; their four sons Martin, Valentin, Louis and Raphaël work in it; and Majo, the grandmother, appears throughout.
It premiered on the French channel TMC on 24 September 2020, reached Netflix internationally on 23 June 2021, and has run for five seasons and 37 episodes, with the fifth arriving on Netflix in France in early 2025 and internationally that April. The family has since expanded beyond the screen, opening a Paris flagship on the rue du Bac in 2026.
Why the world fell for this particular family
Property shows are everywhere. What sets this one apart is that the conflict is domestic rather than commercial. The stakes in an episode are rarely "will the deal close." They are "will Olivier admit that Valentin was right", or "why did nobody tell Sandrine about the meeting."
That is also why it works internationally: you do not need to care about a seven-million-euro château in the Luberon to understand four brothers annoying each other. And it is why it works for learners, which is the part I care about.
The real reason it is excellent for French practice
Most French media aimed at learners gives you one register. L'Agence gives you two, in the same scene, from the same person, and lets you hear the switch.
A Kretz brother showing a property to a client speaks careful, professional French: vous, complete negations, conditional politeness (je vous propose de, si vous le souhaitez). Ten minutes later, in the family kitchen, the same person is speaking fast, dropping the ne in negations, using on instead of nous, and interrupting his mother. Hearing one speaker move between those two modes is the single fastest way to internalise French register, far more effective than being told the rule. The rule itself is in my guide to tu vs vous in French, but hearing it happen is what makes it stick.
There are three more practical advantages:
- The vocabulary repeats. Every episode revolves around the same fifty or so words: un bien, une visite, une offre, le mandat, les honoraires. Repetition across 37 episodes does what flashcards do, only slower and more enjoyably.
- The images carry the meaning. When someone says "la verrière donne sur le jardin", you are looking at the glass roof and the garden. Comprehensible input, handed to you.
- The accents are clean. This is standard educated Parisian French, not regional or heavily slangy. If you are training your ear for the TCF or DELF listening sections, that is the accent you will be tested on.
The property vocabulary you will hear in every episode
| French | English, and why it matters |
|---|---|
| un bien | a property. The everyday word, far more common than "une propriété" |
| une visite | a viewing. "Faire visiter" is to show someone around |
| le mandat | the listing agreement. "Un mandat exclusif" is an exclusive listing |
| les honoraires | the fee. Used for agents, lawyers and doctors, never "le salaire" |
| un appartement de standing | an upmarket flat. "Standing" is a false friend borrowed from English |
| un hôtel particulier | a private mansion in a city, nothing to do with hotels |
| une pièce de vie | the main living space. Estate agent French for a big open room |
| le cachet | character, charm. "Beaucoup de cachet" means full of period features |
| le compromis de vente | the preliminary sale contract, signed long before completion |
| le notaire | the notary, a public officer who is legally required in every French property sale |
That last one is not just vocabulary, it is a genuine difference in how France works. There is no French equivalent of a conveyancing solicitor chosen freely by each side: the notaire is a state-appointed officer, the sale legally passes through them, and their role is written into the process. If you ever buy property in France, this word will govern several months of your life.
The family French: what to steal for your own speech
The professional vocabulary is useful if you are moving to France. The family conversation is useful for everybody, because it is how French people actually speak to people they are close to.
Du coup... → so, therefore (the most overused connector in spoken French)
Franchement → honestly, frankly
Carrément ! → absolutely, totally
C'est pas possible ! → I can't believe this
Tu rigoles ? → are you kidding?
Ça marche → works for me, deal
J'avoue → true, fair enough (literally "I confess")
Bref → anyway, to cut a long story short
Ça vaut le coup → it's worth it
On se rappelle → we'll speak later
You will also hear an enormous amount of workplace French that happens to double as family French, because for the Kretz family they are the same thing: une réunion, un rendez-vous, relancer un client (to follow up with a client), ça avance (it's progressing). If that side interests you, I have written separately about French work culture and about faire le pont, which explains the French relationship with time off better than any single expression I know.
What level do you need?
B1 to start, B2 to enjoy without help. Reality television is unscripted, so people interrupt, trail off and speak over each other, which is objectively harder than a scripted drama. But the topics are concrete and visible, so a determined A2 learner can follow the property scenes even if the family arguments are still out of reach.
A practical way in: watch the viewing scenes with French subtitles and the family scenes twice, once with and once without. The viewings will build vocabulary; the family scenes will build your ear. For where this sits against other options, see the best French shows on Netflix for learners, and if you want the scripted, faster equivalent set in another French industry, Dix pour cent is the natural next step. The other unscripted option, harder because the speech is more emotional and slangier, is Love Is Blind France.
Is any of it staged?
It is a produced television programme, so scenes are set up, filmed over months and edited for rhythm. But the agency is real, the family is real, the properties are genuinely on the market, and the business has grown substantially on the back of the show. The French you hear is not written for foreign viewers, which is precisely the point: nobody in that kitchen is slowing down for you, and that is why it is worth the effort.