I've got it... the Saint Lazare [train-station in Paris, then]. I'll show it just as the trains are starting, with smoke from the engines so thick you can hardly see a thing. It's a fascinating sight, a real dream. I'll get them [the station office] to delay the train for Rouen for half an hour. The light will be better then.

Monet's remark to Renoir (who responded: you are mad!) in January 1877; as quoted in The private live of the Impressionists Sue Roe; HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 2006, p. 173 - 1870–1890