Lacking the glamour of the Champs-Elysées or the artsy charm of Montmartre, this area is generally overlooked by visitors. A stone’s throw from les Grands Magasins, St-Lazare was the city’s first train station, opened in 1837, though more recently spruced up and fronted by a bronze sculpture of tottering suitcases. For all that, it’s a commuter hub rather than an international gateway – unless you count the collection of streets named after European cities which criss-cross behind the station. Today, this area is a curious enclave of sheet music shops and luthiers; otherwise, the quartier lacks much in the way of animation. It wasn’t always the case. Monet (who immortalised St-Lazare’s steam-filled heyday before his beloved waterlilies) was a key member of the Groupe des Batignolles, which included the painters Manet, Renoir, Sisley, Pisarro and Degas. Zola was also a regular at the long gone Café Guerbois where they met up in the 1870s. The result was the birth of the Impressionist movement.