A gleaming Ripolin-branded river barge glides beneath the Pont d'Arcole in this vivid mid-century colour view, the ornate mansard rooflines and Renaissance revival façade of the Hôtel de Ville rising dramatically behind — a quintessential postcard Paris frozen in a golden afternoon light that tourists of the 1950s would have tucked into their luggage as proof they had truly arrived. The Hôtel de Ville, Paris's city hall rebuilt after the Commune fires of 1871, dominates the right bank skyline with its 136 statues and twin pavilion towers; the Ripolin paint company's advertising on the barge hull is a charming period detail, a reminder that the Seine was still a working commercial artery well into the postwar decades. Published by the prolific Éditions d'Art Guy from their address at 38, rue Sainte-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie, this card belongs to the celebrated Paris et ses Merveilles series and is numbered 428.