Ambika Mathur was sitting on her parents’ couch, watching “Emily in Paris” and feeling sorry for herself. It was summer 2022. Ambika, a California-based model, was feeling “kind of stagnant.” She’d just broken up with her long-term partner and moved back in with her parents at the age of 25. And while she was regularly shooting commercials, nothing was really “lighting her fire” at work.

As Ambika watched fictional Emily flit around a dreamy Paris — full of career highs, beautiful clothes, French pastries and a steady stream of handsome men — an idea started to form. Maybe Ambika could go on a similar European adventure? The Netflix show still playing in the background, Ambika reached for her laptop and started Googling flights from Los Angeles.