Auvers-sur-Oise -- Vincent Van Gogh
 

First a confession: I had not been to Auvers-sur-Oise since 1971 when my only reason to go there was because there was a rock festival. It had been raining and everything was muddy so I went straight back to Paris. Good news: the SNCF was on strike that day. Even though the trains were running more or less, they were free of charge. Bad news: I absolutely and totally ignored Vincent Van Gogh, because he was not on my agenda.

So, a mere 42 years later I was suddenly struck with an imperious desire to return and pay tribute to Vincent. (If you read my report, you will see what sort of insignificant event can set you off on such a trek.) It was an enchanting day and I took quite a few pictures.

Here is my report: http://tinyurl.com/q2suxce

Stunning... I'd like a poster size "landscape" print of the Wheatfield myself. <GRIN>

You have the gift. Thank you.

Everytime I use my bookmark of the 'eglise,' I picture the village again.

Your report brought back good memories of one of my all-time favorite daytrips. It is certainly too bad that Vincent didn't get to have a much longer and happier life.

We went to Auvers on the hottest day of our late September 2011 trip and were really pretty wiped out from the heat when we left to return to Paris. An old train took us from Auvers to Persan Beaumont where we caught one of those beautiful, new and wonderfully air-conditioned commuter trains.

merci again for posting your wonderful photos - I've been to Auvers a few times and for me at least it was a wonderful surrealistic experience to be like right in those corn fields with crows circling overhead at the exact spot Van Gogh painted some of his very last canvasses - of crows brooding over a darkened sky forbidding perhaps Van Gogh's own sad mental state right before he shot himself. And to see the blood-stained bed still in the Hogtel Ravoux (?), etc.

I always thought overall Auvers was a better experience than even Giverny - Cezanne's portraits are also re-created at the place in Auvers where he painted them.

Thanks for posting!

Kerouac, thanks SO MUCH for that lovely glimpse into Auvers-sur-Oise. I have always wanted to go there. I particularly enjoyed that beautiful house with the lime green shutters – No. 30. And the great flowers, especially the hollyhocks. And, of course, the church.

VanGogh lovers might like to read THE YELLOW HOUSE: Van Gogh, Gaugin, and Nine Turbulent Weeks in Provence by Martin Gayford – has that charming Vincent’s bedroom on the cover. A very short book which really shows the devotion between the artist and his brother Cleo who died shortly after him.

Now if you could only take a trip to ARLES….

I do hope to make (I don't want to call it) a pilgrimage to some impressionist sites in Provence one of these days.

Arles and St-Remy-d-Provence both have done like Auvers and posted reproductions of paintings done by Van gpogh and Cexzanne and a gaggle of other Impressionists who flocked to the Arles area. Especially of interest to me was those around the sanitarium Van Gogh put himself into in St-Remy after he sliced his ear off - something some blame on him eating lead in paints and the effects of absinthe.

Here's hoping kerouac goes to Provence soon! How about some of those proverbial lavender fields?

I appreciate anything Van Gogh. Thanks for posting this Kerouac. I am always slightly surprised how his works draw me in. There was such sadness in his life but his works are so full of hope - saddens me.

I just went through your report on the link above. I have to agree with you that those graves certainly are very moving. Thanks for posting.

Wonderful report! I enjoyed your photos and observations and felt like I was almost along on the trip with you. I was, of course, interested in the church but I particularly liked your wheat field pictures. We were in St. Remy last month and visited the sanitarium -- very moving.

ttt

Another in a series of wonderful reports.

I can highly recommend the presentation at the chateau.

I also loved the special effects show at the Auvers chateau but do not expect a really old chateau - some folks called the show tacky but I loved it - perhaps has changed.

I have heard enough good things about the show to want to see it -- I just didn't want to see it on the perfectly lovely day that I was there last week.

I promise that I will go back for the show.

I would also be interesting in knowing if anyone has had a meal in Auvers and what they thought of it.

Excellent report -- thank you so much! I loved our day trip to Auvers a couple years ago, and this brought back so many memories -- especially the graves that I also found extremely moving.

I know some people say that the chateau show is tacky, but I loved it too. I felt transported back to the time of the Impressionists. I highly recommend it (and would see it again).

You can easily combine a visit to Auvers with a look at Conflans-aint-Honore (sp?) where the Oise river meets the Seine and which is barge central with literally hundreds being tied up here - a really neat site - take the train to Auvers from Gare du Nord then the train down to Conflans and then RER C back to Paris. Not sure kerouac has trained his camera on Conflans but if not here's hoping he will!

So many beautiful photos but my favorite is the stone house with the blue shutters. I don't know why, but I am very drawn to it.

You have given us another good reason to come back to France.
Merci! =D>

Yes, PalenQ, I did a report about Conflans-Sainte-Honorine a couple of months ago, but I don't think I mentioned it here: http://anyportinastorm.proboards.com...&page=1#168266

The stone house with blue shutters huh. I'll bet so many dreamers dream of a village house in the countryside just like that. I know we did. As an 'homage' we painted our outside "shed" (read that as 100 years ago the outhouse) in the backyard of our house in the city that color blue.
But I dream...and that blue against the old lichen dressed stone house....

<<I would also be interesting in knowing if anyone has had a meal in Auvers and what they thought of it.>>

Don't know if this is exactly what you are looking for, keourac, but we ate at the creperie across the street from the park with the Zadkine statue - Crêperie l'Auversoise. (You can see the sign in your picture of the main street.)

Full disclosure: it was the only place open when we were there.

It was our first introduction to the savory crepes made with the buckwheat flour (galettes). It is hard for me to comment on the quality as it was a different taste for us (crepes here in the States tend to be made with white flour and usually smothered either inside or out with a sauce of some sort), but we all liked it. It was a huge crepe accompanied by a large, plain salad - very filling and really too much for us to eat.

Not many people in there when we first sat down, but filled up while we were there. The owner and his wife were very friendly - and service was good.

just to let you know, a Van Gogh exhibition is planned for next year in the under renovation Van Gogh fondation in ARLES. This will be terrific
saintremydeprovencetourism.blogspot.fr/2013/07/van-gogh-in-provence-van-gogh.html

Kerouac, can you tell me how long the direct train runs from Paris to Auvers? I will be in Paris 7 Sept through 21 Sept - will it still be running? Merci.

I could not find any direct train for a search for this Monday but at :34 after each hour you can take a train from the Gare du Nord Banlieue part (under the main Grandes Lignes station I think and do a simple 5-minute transfer at the suburban Persan Beaumont station for trains direct to Auvers - very simple - there is another route where you have to change at a another suburban station but have 22 minutes between trains. But every hour at :34 is a simple enough rail link - but if you are located in parts of Paris close to RER C then taking that to say Conflans-s-Honore and changing to a train to Auvers may be quicker than trekking over to Gare du Nord.

Persan Beaumont

The only direct trains to Auvers (from Gare du Nord) are on the weekend. Otherwise, you have to change at either Pontoise or Persan Beaumont.

The Pontoise connection may have the advantage of having three different lines to get there from Paris -- Gare du Nord, Gare Saint Lazare and the RER C. However, I have not actually counted the number of minutes for each itinerary so I don't know how much time can be saved one way or the other.

For anybody also wanting to go to Conflans Sainte Honorine, you should know that it has two different stations -- Conflans Sainte Honorine out of Gare du Nord and Conflans Fin d'Oise on the RER A. When I went there, I arrived at one station and left from the other, which suited me fine because I didn't have to backtrack to the first station.

Those two station at Conflans are a high and a low station I believe as the lines cross each other - one much higher than the ground level other - anyway some kind of weird station alignment.

You can also get to Conflans from Gare Saint-Lazare. For anyone searching routing information use www.transilien.com and note that you'll have to enter either Gare du Nord, Gare Saint-Lazare or a stop on the RER C as your departure point.

<i>Those two stations at Conflans are a high and a low station I believe as the lines cross each other - one much higher than the ground level other - anyway some kind of weird station alignment.</i>

Actually, that station with the 'high' station and 'low' station is just one station -- called Conflans Sainte Honorine. The other station that I was talking about -- Conflans Fin d'Oise -- is along the river and is only an RER A station.

thanks for clearing that up and continuing to post such superb meme artistic photos - always makes me want to go to that place again!

Thanks. Just catching up on some of your photo essays that I missed while away. So many of us wind up going places because you do. You're a regular Fodorite pied piper.

<i>Actually, that station with the 'high' station and 'low' station is just one station -- called Conflans Sainte Honorine. The other station that I was talking about -- Conflans Fin d'Oise -- is along the river and is only an RER A station.</i>

The above th

The above that I wrote is completely wrong! It is the Conflans Fin d'Oise station that has the high station and the low station crossing each other! One is the RER A that does to La Défense/Charles de Gaulle-Etoile/Auber, etc. and the other one goes to Paris Saint Lazare.

I am absolutely not a suburban expert. I have been going to a lot of these places for the first time.

Just beautiful. Thank you for sharing your adventure.

Anybody in Paris right now, now that the temperatures are moderate, it would be a great time to go and discover, Auvers, Conflans, or any of those outer suburbs.

Thanks, kerouac! I will be going to Auvers on a day trip when I am in Paris next month. I can't wait. I'm reading Van Gogh: The Life by Steven Haifeh and Gregory White Smith. Fascinating read.

I will also be visiting Arles next month (as part of a 3-week vacation in France).

susan001 - if a Van Gogh fan and it Arles be sure also to go to St-Remy-de-Provence, just a few miles away where Van Gogh admitted himself in an asylum after slicing his ear off - like in Auvers there are reproductions of his paintings he did whilst there set up in bucolic scenes where he put them on canvas.

topping

Auvers-sur-Oise to me is one of the sweetest day trips from Paris - one that many may not know of - I actually like it better than Giverny and I loved Giverny!

Auvers-sur-Oise to me is one of the sweetest day trips from Paris - one that many may not know of - I actually like it better than Giverny and I loved Giverny!