"There is nothing truly interesting in the world except Paris...everything else is just scenery."

Charles Paul Renouard- Visiteurs à l'exposition de 1900 sous une pluie torrentielle

The quote above is from a phamplet I picked up at the "Paris au temps des

Impressionists" exhibition that is currently showing at Hotel de Ville. Thanks to a

canceled class and a few hours to spare, me and Annie popped down the street

and joined the queue to get in. The only other time I had been in the Hotel de

Ville was last week, to see an exhibition about Paris at the time of the Commune.

That was interesting, but slightly depressing with people being killed and

monuments being burned down. Paris in the time of the impressionists was a lot

prettier... My favourite painting was the one above- The visitors to the 1900

exposition under torental rain, but I couldn't find a better version of it on the

web. The features of the woman's face, the details in their shoes, the pavement,

and the Eiffel tower in the background are so beautiful.

Here are a few of my other favorites:

Stanislas Lepine- Rue Saint-Vincent Montmartre 1878. I love this one because it shows Montmartre
when it was still a rural town on the edge of the city- there are streets that still have
this rural feel today.

Monet- The Tuileries

Gustave Caillebotte- Vue des toits sous la neige (l'effet neige) 1878
I enjoy this one because it combines two things I love about Paris;
rooftops, and snow.

Jongkind-The Seine and Notre Dame in Paris, 1864. The colours are so beautiful.

Van Gogh- Terrace of a Café on Montmartre (La Guinguette) 1886

Another Jongkind- This one wasn't in the exhibition, but I loved it so much I had to share.

The exhibition made me smile because it represented beautiful what I imagine
Paris would have been like at the turn of the century, with so many changes and
modernity being focused around the capital that had always tried to be the best
in Europe but was often surpassed by London. This period that the Impressionists
captured highlights the transformations in Paris creating distruprutions in the
lifestyle of its inhabitants, cafes and bars, concerts and cinemas, circuses,
operas, theaters and parks all grew up in number, and now characterize the most
beautiful city on earth.