Paris is the City of Light in all its facets. In the 1920s La Ville des lumires gleams especially bright and becomes a magnet for creative people from around the world. This is the decade of Coco Chanel and Josephine Baker, Art Deco and Surrealism, caf culture and cabaret. The most famous artists of the epoch, later called Classic Modernism, are in close contact and have lively exchanges with one another including Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia, Pablo Picasso, Ren Clair, Sonia Delaunay, Andr Breton, Paul luard, Max Ernst and Salvador Dal. The creative life and all its excesses flourish bohme is the word for this way of living. Composers like Igor Stravinsky, writers like James Joyce or Ernest Hemingway and exiles from Eastern Europe like Constantin Brancui or Marc Chagall enrich the illustrious scene on Montparnasse. The pulsing bars and dance halls of Montmartre are captured by photographers Andr Kertesz and Brassa. The French economy is booming and luxury department stores like La Samaritaine open their doors. Coco Chanel creates her own perfume and designs the little black dress.

More than 30 outstanding works of architecture, painting, sculpture, film, photography, design and fashion are presented, including Giacomettis Surrealist Suspended Ball and the film Un chien andalou by Dal and Buuel. To this day, the burgeoning creativity, diversity and savoir vivre make Paris a place of longing for night owls, bons vivants and aficionados of the fine arts.