Of course the skyline of Paris we so admire today was not created in a day. It developed over the last seven hundred years, beginning with majestic Gothic cathedrals in the medieval period (11-13th centuries), as in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, and the Church of St. Germain des Près. A few centuries later, these medieval structures were joined by more rectilinear, classical ones of the French Renaissance, and then by the majestic forms of the seventeenth and eighteenth-century French Baroque, as in the Louvre Palace and the Corn Exchange. What these all have in common, despite their stylistic differences, is their cream colored, quarried stone of the region and their blue-gray sea of slate roofs. The Paris of the eighteenth century was famously rendered by Michel-Etienne Turgot (1690-1751) in his 1739 map of Paris, showing each individual building (and even trees) at that time.

After the French Revolution (1789) and Emperor Napoleon I (reigned 1804-1814), Emperor Napoleon III came to power in the mid-nineteenth century, establishing the Second Empire (1852-1870). Napoleon III and his Prefect, Georges Eugène-Haussmann, undertook a spectacular modernization of Paris. Their urban project encompassed the whole city, from the construction of new avenues, bridges, monuments, to the standardization of house facades and house numbering system and to the use of uniform street structures (lights, benches, advertising columns). To plan out the renewal, miniature models of city areas were made, similar to the two shown here. At the same time the Emperor invested in restoring important medieval monuments, such as Notre-Dame Cathedral, whose spire was remade by the architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879); his preparatory wooden model and drawings are exhibited here, the first time abroad since 1935.

巴黎叫人艷羨的天際風景綫並非一天建成。其濫觴可追溯到七百年前的中世紀以（11-13世紀）巴黎聖母院和聖日耳曼德佩修道院為代表的哥德式建築。幾個世紀以後的文藝復興時期，巴黎的天際上漸次出現渾厚方正的古典式建築的身影。延至十七及十八世紀，豪放宏偉的巴洛克風格又在巴黎留下了痕跡，其中以羅浮宮和穀類交易所最為有名。然而這些風格大相逕庭的建築，採用的都是巴黎地區獨有的黃灰色石灰岩，同時亦以藍灰色的板岩蓋頂。時任巴黎市長的杜戈（1690-1751）於1739年監製的巴黎地圖讓我們能一窺十八世紀時巴黎的盛況：這細緻的地圖展示了當時巴黎的每棟建築，有時甚至連街角的一株樹木都包含在內。

經歷過法國大革命（1789）和拿破崙一世的統治（1804-1814）之後，巴黎在十九世紀中葉迎來了拿破崙三世的第二帝國（1852-1870）。拿破崙三世與其寵信的規劃師奧斯曼男爵展開了巴黎現代化的計劃。改造計劃包羅了城市的各部分，從建設新的大道、橋樑、紀念建築，到統一平民樓房的門面規格及編號方式，乃至為大街小巷添置同樣的街燈、長椅、以供張貼告示的柱墩等等。當時為著規劃之用，法國當局曾製作過一系列的街道或城區模型，在是次展覽中就展出了兩件，當年計劃之精詳可見一斑。不能不提的是拿破崙三世亦斥資修復了不少中世紀的古蹟：巴黎聖母院的尖塔就由他委託建築師維奧萊-勒-杜克 （1814-1879）所重建。是次展覽有幸借得當時建築師為皇帝所準備的木製模型和設計圖，這些作品均是自1935年以來首次於外國展出。