Gare Saint-Lazare

The Gare Saint-Lazare dominates its street with a massive, stone facade punctuated by dozens of tall, arched windows. Behind that wall, over one hundred million passengers pass through every year. When Claude Monet painted the station in eighteen seventy-seven, he focused on the thick, white steam billowing from locomotives into the high glass roof. He had to convince the station manager to keep the engines running and fill the hall with smoke so he could capture the blur of modern travel.