USNR

We'd like to take a day trip out to Auvers-sur-Oise from central Paris, but we need advice on exactly how to get there by train. We know trains leave from Gare du Nord -- which line? at what hours? transfer at Saint-Ouen? How can we get a time-table and list of the stops?

elaine

here's one thread that will help some

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34398896

Christina

I wouldn't recommend that, I think taking the RER is easier than fooling with Gare du Nord and trains there. YOu just take RER line C to Pontoise, and then transfer to a local lightrail train to Auver-sur-Oise. I didn't plan ahead, just went when I felt like it, as there are RER runs all day, of course. Trains to Auvers from Pontoise are not quite as frequent, but if you get an early start, there should be no problem. I think I waited about 45 min. at Pontoise for the next train.

In actuality, the train to Auvers leaves from the station before Pontoise (St-Ouen, I think), but you won't save any time that way, as they originate in Pontoise, so I found it easier just to get out at Pontoise. That may be where you end up if you take a regular train from Gare du Nord, and then transfer to the same train to Auvers.

You can probably find schedules for that train on the SNCF website, no need for schedules for the RER as they are so frequent. That train will be called part of the regional RER line, but it is NOT the RER metro-like trains that run in the city, and will not be included on a Parisian metro/RER pass.

PatrickLondon

Anything's got to be better than (as Christina so aptly puts it) fooling with the Gare du Nord. I didn't think of the RER when I tried to go last time I was in Paris. By the time I'd given up on the ticket queues, the fact that only one ticket machine appeared to be working, the timetable information boards were in two different places..... well, I was in no mood to go anywhere other than the nearest axe-shop.

So I took a deep breath and a long walk instead.

Christina

I speak from experience, Patrick -- I also tried to get there from Gare du Nord once and gave up and left after wasting about an hour there. I can even read French fluently and speak it pretty well, but could not figure out what train to get on to go there, or where it was or how to buy a ticket. The information clerk couldn't explain it in a way I could understand. I suppose she was telling me to get on a train to Saint Ouen and then telling me something about what it would be named, but all I knew is I wanted to go to Auvers-sur-Oise, and didn't understand the whole thing.

Trains are easier for the major long-distance destinations, or even towns or cities in France, but these local suburban trains are not that easy to figure out, as well as the long ticket lines.

PalenqueBob

In any case when you buy your RER ticket and if you want to visit the intriguing castle at Auvers by a train + attraction ticket - to include rail fare and castle admission at a bargain total fare. If not going to the castle just buy an RER ticket (or look at Carte Orange, Formul I, etc pass)
The castle itself is so-so - not really a castle but a glorified villa in my opinion, but the inside has been transformed into a multi-media presentation to re-create the Temps des Impressionistes - the life and times in Auvers by Impressionists painters like Van Gogh, who died here in a local hotel - his blood stains still there to wit - the place where he drunk lots of absinthe as was the fashion of the times. Around town are posted reproductions of Van Goghs now famous paintings in the place they were painted - the local church, the corn fields - where his last work was done - with dark and brooding clouds that some say are a symbol of his dark mood that led him to shoot himself - not sure of details but a wonderful day trip - cute old village and Cezanne and Van Gogh reqproductions - the castle - oh back to its show - music and pictures evoke the life of the Impressionists in Auvers - a re-created train car they used to get here, etc. And village is on the Oise River, still busy with barge traffic going downstream to Conflans-St-honore and the junction with the Seine - you can pass thru Conflans via RER and get off and see the hundreds of barges tied up in this famous barge town (most are on the Oise just before the confluence with the Seine).

suec1

My daughter and I set off on a day trip to Auvers-sur-Oise. We did eventually get there but it was quite the exercise in frustration - FYI there is more than one St.Ouen (I think) That was only part 1 of the frustration (we tried to take the RER C to St. Ouen where we thought we could transfer - wrong!) Then there was the station where the tracks were being torn up and maybe we could go by bus. I just did this in June and I cannot tell you how we finally made it there. Getting home was easier using (I think) another RER line that ended up at Gare du Nord. Have you been to Giverny? If not, that may be an easier day trip. We found the impressionsits museum at Auvers somewhat bogus.

PalenqueBob

suec1 - i have to agree that the castle is kind of Kitschy - but i had fun there - a relief over usual dry castle tours, you sit at a reproduced 1890s cafe, listening to music of the era, etc. And not all that well done as i remember but i havn't been there recently. Certainly not a must thing to do there but can be fun.

suec1

To Pal. Bob - I think two things contributed to my "disappointment" with the castle. First of all as I mentioned above, our trip out to Auvers was frustrating. Then the guidebook (don't know if it was Fodor's) said the exhibition had some "disney-like" effects. Well maybe - but not the ones with a big WOW factor. But I think here in the US we are very spoiled with over the top entertainment displays. I learned a little bit more about the impressionists from the displays - would love to find some reproductions of some of the travel posters it mentioned that some of them did to hang in my house.

Beatchick

Excellent question as I was wondering that myself. Planning on going to Auvers-sur-Oise next trip!

Christina

There are a couple St-Ouens and there name is almost identical and they are the two stops just before Pontoise. The first is St-Ouen l'Aumone Liesse and the second is just St-Ouen l'Aumone. That last one is the correct one, the one JUST before Pontoise.

Which is why I said that one should just go to Pontoise as you can't make a mistake that way, and that is where the train leaves from to go to Auvers-sur-Oise, and then it comes back through St-Ouen l'Aumone and east to Auvers. It isn't difficult at all if one follows my advice to take the C1 to Pontoise. Of course, then you'll have to find the train to Auvers, but that's a real small station.

I don't think of Giverny as a substitute for Auvers-sur-Oise or that they are really like each other at all. Yes, they are both towns where some famous painters lived, but that's about it in similarity to me. I don't like Vernon where Giverny is as a place to hang out and only enjoyed seeing Monet's home in itself as the point of the trip. There is a lot more to do in Auvers-sur-Oise, and I think it's much more attractive a town.

I liked the chateau, I didn't think it was particularly kitschy, I think the French do those multimedia things quite well, actually.

cigalechanta

suec1, if you do go to Giverny, do not overlook, the American Impressionist Museum, it's wonderful as is a stop at the Antiente Hotel Baudy where the American painters once came to be near Monet. No longer a hotel but a restaurant with the paintings of the guests still there and the studio in back in the garden. Also there are many artist studios or shops to brouse.