gomiki

Have you been to Island of the Impressionists? Maison Fournaise? What did you think?

gomiki

Hoping someone has comments.

ChgoGal

I'm sorry I can't provide any information, but thank you for posting the question, as a river cruise to Chatou and the Impressionists' walk looks wonderful. Hope someone can provide feedback!

KathNZ

Yes I have been there for lunch... in October 2019. It was absolutely hosing down and so not possible to dine on the verandah. The restaurant is in a lovely setting by the Seine and from memory the food and service was very good, and mid-priced. The walk from the RER station took us through some attractive 'well to do' residential streets with suburban type house and gardens rather than apartments. Due to the weather we didn't hang around to explore the area further, but it was a relaxing half day and interesting to see a different aspect of Paris not too far from the city centre.

gomiki

KathNZ, thank you! That's very helpful. Too bad the weather wasn't better.

rouelan

I can't comment for maison Fournaise but I can for the island. There is not much to see (on east side, there is a big lab and a small golf course -I used to hit balls there; on west side, it starts with a big sandy / muddy place used for fairs or the likes of cirque du soleil). As already posted, after the "place", it is possible to walk along the banks.
If you want to walk along the banks, no need to go to the island (and cross the busy bridge). Both banks are nice for walking, maybe the one on Chatou side is better as it is possible to go till Le Vesinet, kind of garden city built end of 19th century and catch the RER there to go back to Paris. On Rueil side, you could however walk till château de Malmaison (Napoléon and Josephine) and get a bus from there

gomiki

rouelan, thank you for all the detailed information. We are looking for new things to do in Paris and this sounded interesting. Finding good info has been challenging.

rosiecaro

I wasn’t going to comment because I have a long story but I’m in the mood today so I will share. I went about 15 years ago, I was so excited, one of Renoirs paintings, a copy of course, hangs in my living room and I was as happy as the proverbial frog on a lily pad when we got there. It is a bit of a challenge to get there and honestly I don’t even remember how we did it I know we did it, with public transport and some walking once we got close. We sat down to our meal out on a balcony, all was really well with my world until my first bite of food and I bit down on something crunchy and thought oh my gosh what is this, one of my teeth had fallen off! So what I remember of my food is that it was really good, we ate out on the deck which was lovely but the whole meal was a little hampered by the fact that I now have a broken tooth in Paris and no dentist to go to. The upside of the story is I was never in any pain but the downside of the story is that my whole visit is colored by that experience. I’ve actually considered going back this fall but I’m not sure I want to do that treck alone. I would really encourage anyone interested to go, it is interesting to see and like I said what I remember is that my food was good.

gomiki

rosiecaro, yikes! That sounds terrible. Thank you for saying you would encourage anyone to go. I think I'm still on the fence, so we will see.