In the series, Belly didn’t get to study abroad in Paris since she missed her deadline after agreeing to skip the experience for Jeremiah. However, after their wedding is called off, she spent a year in the City of Love, where she took online classes, made new friends and had a fling with a guy named Benito.
While readers only had a glimpse of Belly’s study abroad experience—which was in Spain—through Conrad’s letter, the series dedicated three episodes to her time in France.
For Jenny, expanding on Belly’s time away from her family was needed for the character arc.
“There is so much that is going to surprise fans about how much we’re showing of Belly in Paris and the whole ending,” Jenny told Entertainment Weekly in September. “It’s not just an epilogue.”
“I kept adding more and more to the last scripts the longer I was in Paris, because I kept thinking of more that needed to be included,” she admitted. “There’s just so much to living on your own, for the first time, in a foreign place, and that’s important for Belly as she’s growing up.”