But pause a moment: You don't have to be an art expert to appreciate what's on offer, and you may come away smitten by the beauty on display.

The exhibition - Impressionism: Treasures from the National Collection of France - features 47 major paintings from the prestigious Musee d'Orsay in Paris.

The collection includes Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, Paul Cezanne, Monet and Manet.

These now revered artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries were once denounced for rejecting previously established concepts of painting which had long focused on history and religion. Instead, they chose scenes of everyday life.

The French exhibition's last two stops in China - Beijing and Shanghai - attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors. In 15 days in Beijing, 320,000 people flocked to view.

Organizers hope to attract 100,000 visitors in Hong Kong.

The single most valuable work on display is Manet's The Fifer, valued at HK$460 million.

Tang Hoi-chiu prefers Renoir's Woman, Torso in the Sun

``I love the way Renoir seems to mock the woman with his vigorous brush strokes of purplish green stains and how the light radiates through the leaves and ends up sprinkling her body,'' Tang said.

But then the curator of Hong Kong Museum of Art, where the exhibition opens today , has a bit more specialist knowledge than the rest of us.

Tang believes that all of us can also easily identify with the paintings because Impressionism is about scenes from everyday life.

``They [the painters] liked to roam bars and cafes, just to drink and chat,'' says Tang.

``You can see Lan Kwai Fong in Degas's In a Cafe, the Absinthe Drinker where two miserable-looking people sit opposite each other with a melancholic elegance. It's a fact of life now and then.''

The French exhibition is one of the biggest seen in Hong Kong Museum of Art, says Tang, who has worked at the museum for 32 years.

``It has been the biggest exhibition dedicated to a singular theme in Western art. It is a very rare opportunity to view all these works at the same time,'' Tang added.

The French Impressionists' tour of China follows an exhibition in Paris of Chinese historical landscape paintings in the middle of last year.

Musee d' Orsay curator Caroline Mathieu has been traveling with the collection since it left Paris, and helped choose the exhibits.

She says the treasures on loan seem to her like a motherless child and are sadly missed back home. ``So we received letters [from French people] saying, `Oh it's impossible, I go to Musee d' Orsay but the Renoirs are never here.' ''

Mathieu is a first-time visitor to China and Hong Kong. And although she is used to the classic opulence of Parisian architecture, she's excited by the architectural skyline of Hong Kong Island.

She has been working non-stop since January 22 to make sure the condition of the paintings is right for today's opening. She has also been responsible for hanging the works.

Impressionism, first in painting and later in music, developed chiefly in France. The most conspicuous characteristic of the movement was to accurately record scenes through the transient effects of light and colour.

Edgar Degas and Paul Cezanne painted in an Impressionist style for a time in the early 1870s. Edouard Manet, whose work in the 1860s greatly influenced Monet and others of the group, adopted the Impressionist style later.

Security has been a major concern for the traveling exhibition which has been transported in five aircraft.

But visitors in Hong Kong will be allowed to stand just one meter from the unprotected paintings on show.

``Light and colors on the paintings will not come out right if there are [protective] glass layers over them,'' explains Tang.

``Some people will come to look because they are intrigued by the high value,'' says Tang. ``Of course, you should see beyond that. It's a good thing to let yourself be in touch with the art so you can start to know it and, hopefully, keep being inquistive about it.''

Impressionism: Treasures from the National Collection of France runs until April 10 from 10am to 8pm at Hong Kong Museum of Art, 10 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui. Admission: HK$30 from Fri to Tue, $20 on Wed. Enquiries: 2721 0116.

More info at http://hk.art.museum