My wife and I will be spending a week in Paris in late May. The first few days we will be at the French Open. The next few days we will be exploring what Paris has to offer.
On the last night, my wife and I would like to find a small quaint town about an hour or two by train outside of Paris where we relax after our week of sightseeing. Ideally we would arrive mid-day, explore the town and spend the night at a local bed %26amp; breakfast or small boutique hotel.
This is a very common thing to do in America and we thought it would be fun to use our last day to find a place to unwind after going non-stop in Paris.
The only catch is we have a 2:30p flight from CDG back to the states the next morning. So we HAVE to ensure we our back at the airport in plenty of time to check in for the international flight.
Any suggestions?
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See following notes from my daytrip file. Not updated. Go to Transillion for transportation.
Hotel, logis de France member:
ldf.reservit.com/reservit/fiche_htl.php…
Auvers-sur-Oise (www.auvers-sur-oise.com). Michelin * sight. Van Gogh spent his last years in this small village on the Oise River northwest of Paris. You can visit his home, Auberge Ravoux (daily except Monday from 10:00 am - 6:00 pm, 01.34.48.05.47), and his gravesite. There is a 90-minute multimedia presentation with audio guide called a %26quot;Journey Back to the Days of the Impressionists%26quot; at the Château d%26#39;Auvers (also called the Château de Léry), 2 rue de Léry, daily except Monday, 01.34.48.48.48. Museums of interest include the Musée de l%26#39;Absinthe and Daubigny%26#39;s studio. SNCF rail access from Gare du Nord or Gare St-Lazare direction Pontoise. Change at Pointoise for the connection to Creil. Get off at Chaponval or at the main station at Auvers dur Oise. Or take the RER; from La Défense, take the RER going to Cergy Saint-Christophe. Get off at Cergy Préfecture, and take the 95 07 bus getting off at Butry station. Note: If taking the train, check at the %26quot;banlieue%26quot; ticket office of the train station for a joint ticket for the SNCF train and entrance to the Château.
VOYAGE AU TEMPS DES IMPRESSIONISTES. The Trip Back to the Time of the Impressionists, in the elegant Auvers château, is one of France%26#39;s most imaginative and innovative museums. You%26#39;ll receive a set of infrared headphones (English available), with commentary that guides you past various tableaux illustrating life in the Impressionist era, and although there are no Impressionist originals, 500 reproductions pop up on screens interspersed between the tableaux. Some of the special effects - talking mirrors, computerized cabaret dancing girls, and a simulated train ride past Impressionist landscapes - are worthy of Disney at its best. Rue de Léry, PHONE: 01-34-48-48-48. COST: EUR9.20. May-Oct., daily 10-6; Nov.-Apr., Tues.-Sun. 10-4:30. Here’s the chateau URL: www.chateau-auvers.fr/english/Sommaire.htm
Message: Auvers-sur-Oise, which we just did last summer, after 25 years of visits to Paris. Maybe I should qualify that by saying that you might want to see some of the more popular sights like Giverny and Chartres first, but Auvers-sur-Oise was wonderful. The whole town is a memorial to Van Gogh, with markers with his paintings on them all around the hilly town, and the home where he lived which is now a thriving restaurant, and his and his brother Theo%26#39;s graves up in a lonely cemetary covered with ivy in the fields beyond the town - and the château there had one of the best holographic exhibits about Impressionism I%26#39;ve ever seen anywhere in Europe.
Alternatively, take the RER out to the Ile des Impressionistes and visit the Maison Fournaise, where Renoir painted the boating party painting(have lunch there in the restaurant on the Seine). It%26#39;s only a short trip, but memorable.
On my last trip to Paris, 12-26-1-6, I took what I now consider to be one of the best day trips outside of Paris. I went to the village of Auvers sur Oise. This is the village where Van Goth spent the last 70 days of his life. He also painted 70 canvases during this time. The town looks familiar right away, as he essentially painted it, the police station, the auberge, the church, assorted other buildings and the fields. He was not the first painter to spend time in the village. Pissaro was the one that suggested he get away from Paris and live in this quiet village.
It is easy to get to, just take the Metro to the Gare St. Lazaar stop, stay underground and follow the signs to the RER Gare St. Lazaar station. Remember to have your ticket validated before you board. The train goes through the neighborhoods of Paris, out through an industrial area and finally farmlands and woods. You arrive about an hour later in Pantoise, transfer here to the local train to Auvers. The trains run frequently, there will be a
train waiting or one will come along with the next 15 or so minutes. Pantoise looked interesting, but I did not have the time that day. From Pantoise to Auvers, about a 10-15 minute ride, it is all farmland or woods. Travel time is about 1 hour, 15 minutes each way.
Directly across from the train station there is a good restaurant whose name I have forgotten. The meal I will not forget for a long time. There are a couple of other restaurants closer to the police station. The auberge where Van Goth lived may serve food, it was closed from 12-24 to the end of Jan. so I cannot say for sure. I did peek inside and it looked just like it did a little over 100 years ago. There were two small hotels in the village.
There are signs that direct you to the chateau and the church. Throughout the town there are panels with reproductions of his paintings as well as paintings of Cezanne, Pissaro, Corot and others who spent time here and painted the town. You can look at the painting of the police station and look up and there is the police station. Unfortunately, most of the paintings are no longer in the village, but in major museums worldwide.
From the auberge you can go to the church. I suggest the footpath as it gives you interesting views of the village. The staircase to the church is beautiful is a rustic sort of way. From the back of the church (the part he painted) you can walk to the cemetery where he and his brother Theo are buried in ivy covered graves along the left wall.
For the return to Paris you take the trian back to Pantoise, but this time the train runs from there to the Paris Nord station. You do go through St. Denis on the way back and if you start early enough you could plan to spend a good bit of the day in Auvers and stop on the way back to see the cathedral where the kings and queens of France are buried. I just do not know if you need another ticket.
All in all, it was a memorable trip and right now is my favorite day time. No doubt it will be replaced by a yet unexplored locale close to Paris on my next trip.
So if you have a day to spend outside of Paris, you might want to consider this trip.
Marie
AUVERS-SUR-OISE (France) March 13, 2003 - Even the wallpaper smacks of history in the old 19th house that once belonged to Paul Ferdinand Gachet, one-time doctor and friend of Vincent Van Gogh.More than a century ago, Cezanne, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir and Van Gogh were regular visitors at the house, some stopping by for drinks or dinner, others setting up easels in the garden, inspired by the hilltop view.On March 30, memories of the legendary Impressionist and post-Impressionist masters who frequented this village northeast of Paris will be revived when Dr Gachet%26#39;s home is opened to the public for the first time, as part of a slew of worldwide celebrations marking the 150th anniversary of Van Gogh%26#39;s birth. Full article:
www.utusan.com.my/utusan/content.asp…
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You could also consider a short trip to the little town of Sceaux, in the southern suburbs, and accessible by RER B ( about 30 minutes from Paris), but it does not require an overnight.
It is a charming residential place, but if you like gardens, its big plus is the large 17th-century Parc de Sceaux, with formal ponds, spectacular rows of pruned trees, a château and an orangery wich houses classical concerts in summer ( see www.parc-de-sceaux.net/, for the pictures if you can%26#39;t reed French). I think the fountains run on Sundays.
There are markets in Sceaux on Wednesday and Saturday mornings.
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thanks to those that have responded so far. to be more specific we are also looking for a cozy bed %26amp; breakfast or small boutique hotel in this town for one night.
please let us know if you have any suggestions!
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You really should not plan on anything overnight if your flight from CDG is at 2:30 the next day. You should plan on being at CDG three hours before flight time which would be 11:30 A.M. Allowing tme to get there, the morning would be a major rush especially with train schedules that might require leaving at 9 ish.
Thus you might want to look for a place that is on a direct CDG route so you would not have to go back into Paris but could go directly from wherever you are staying.
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Thanks Holger.
Ok so let%26#39;s refine the request even further. Anyone know of a small quaint town outside of Paris that also has a direct route back into CDG so that we can catch our 2:30 flight?
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You will need help from the Paris experts like IrishRovr and Phread. A good guide book might also work if it has shorttrips out of Paris and decent maps.
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St Germain des Pres is a very quaint suburb of Paris. You can get there easily by RER (suburban metro) and there is a lovely central area, a forest to stroll through and a chateau with a museum and impressive grounds. We stayed at a Relais et Chateaux when we visited, but found it to be just good, not great.
Unless SGdP is on the RER B line (I don%26#39;t recall) you should probably allow two hours for transortation to get to CDG, because you would have to return to Central Paris.
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thanks phread: this is exactly the type of information we are looking for!
anyone else?
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I think phread meant St Germain en Laye. St Germain des Prés is hardly a suburb of Partis.
There is a great hotel at St. G en L (Le Pavillon Henri IV, I think...) with stunning views from its terrace across Paris.Stg. G en L is west of paris on The RER A Line. It%26#39;s no more than 40 minutes from Châtelet/Les Halles. You could easily make CDG in 90 minutes from there.
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Yes, Irish is quite right. Sorry, I had my feathers somewhat ruffled here today. St Germain en Laye is what I meant.
Fountianbleau would be another good option.
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