French impressionism highlights: Private day trip from Paris

A small island in the Seine at Chatou, the Ile des Impressionnistes is one of the most important sites in the history of painting, the exact spot where Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, and their circle spent their weekends and produced some of the defining images of Impressionism.

What to see

• La Maison Fournaise, the riverside restaurant and boathouse where Renoir painted the Luncheon of the Boating Party (1881), one of the most celebrated paintings in the Impressionist canon, now a museum with period rooms and a small Impressionist exhibition
• The island's towpath and Seine riverbanks, still largely unchanged from the scenes Renoir, Monet, and Sisley depicted throughout the 1870s and 1880s

What to do

• Lunch at the Maison Fournaise restaurant on the terrace where Renoir's models sat, the view from the table is almost identical to the painting

Take note

• The museum is closed Mondays and Tuesdays; verify hours head of time here https://www.musee-fournaise.com/

In the last 70 days of his life, between May and July 1890, Vincent van Gogh painted more than 70 works in and around the village of Auvers-sur-Oise. Almost every corner of the village appears on canvas.

What to see

• The Auberge Ravoux (also called the Maison de Van Gogh), where Vincent lived and died, the attic room where he spent his last weeks can be visited on a short guided tour
• The village church, wheat fields, town hall, and cafe, all recognisable from specific Van Gogh paintings and marked with reproduction panels showing the exact view he painted
• The cemetery at the edge of the village, where Vincent and his brother Theo are buried side by side under simple slabs of ivy

What to do

• Follow the self-guided Van Gogh trail through the village, which maps 18 painting locations with reproductions at each spot
• Visit the Maison Van Gogh for the guided room tour, it runs on the hour and lasts 15 minutes

Take note

• The House of Van Gogh is open Wednesday to Sunday; check https://www.maisondevangogh.fr/index-en.php for times
• The Musee Daubigny and Chateau d'Auvers offer additional Impressionist context nearby