Auvers-sur-Oise

The tranquil Oise River valley, which runs northeast from Pontoise, retains much of the charm that attracted Camille Pissarro, Paul Cézanne, Camille Corot, Charles-François Daubigny, and Berthe Morisot to Auvers-sur-Oise in the second half of the 19th century. But despite this lofty company, it's the spirit of Vincent van Gogh that haunts every nook and cranny of this pretty riverside village. Van Gogh moved to Auvers from Arles in May 1890 to be nearer his brother. Little has changed here since that summer of 1890, during the last 10 weeks of Van Gogh's life, when he painted no fewer than 70 pictures. You can find out about his haunts and other Impressionist sites in Auvers by stopping in at the tourist office at Les Colombières, a 14th-century manor house, set on the Rue de la Sansonne (closed from 12:30 to 2 pm every day). Short hikes outside the town center—sometimes marked with yellow trail signs—will lead you to rural landscapes once beloved by Pissarro and Cézanne, including the site of one of Van Gogh's last paintings, Wheat Fields with Crows. On July 27, 1890, the great painter laid his easel against a haystack, walked behind the Château d'Auvers, shot himself, then stumbled to the Auberge Ravoux, where the owner sent to Paris for the artist's brother Theo. Van Gogh died on July 29. The next day, using a hearse from neighboring Méry (because the priest of Auvers refused to provide his for a suicide victim), Van Gogh's body was borne up the hill to the village cemetery. His heartbroken brother died the following year and, in 1914, was reburied alongside Vincent in his simple ivy-covered grave. Back when, the villagers called the painter Fou-Roux (mad redhead) and derided his art. But now, more than a century after his passionate rendering of life and landscape, the townspeople here love to pay tribute to the "Van Go Go"—as Japanese tourists like to call him—who helped make their village famous.