Seventy days, seventy canvases. A private chauffeur takes you door-to-door from Paris to the village where Van Gogh painted his final masterpieces — the Auberge Ravoux, the church, the wheat fields and the quiet cemetery where he rests beside his brother Theo.
Book an Auvers half-day ↗Just 35 km north-west of Paris, Auvers-sur-Oise is the most moving stop on the Impressionist trail — and one of the hardest to reach without a car. Trains involve a change at Pontoise and a country branch line; a private chauffeur brings you from your Paris hotel to the door of the Auberge Ravoux in under an hour, then stays with you as you follow Van Gogh's footsteps from easel spot to easel spot.
Stand in the bare attic room where Van Gogh spent his last seventy days.
The church, the town hall, Daubigny's garden — the real-life scenes behind the canvases.
No train change at Pontoise, no waiting on rural platforms. Your car is always two minutes away.
A classic half-day begins at the Auberge Ravoux, the modest inn where Vincent rented room number 5 for three and a half francs a night. The room has been left almost empty — a skylight, a chair, the silence — and it is all the more powerful for it. From there it is a short walk up the lane to the church of Auvers, instantly recognisable from the swirling canvas now hanging in the Musée d'Orsay, and on past the town hall Van Gogh painted decked out for Bastille Day.
Above the village, the lane climbs between the wheat fields of Wheatfield with Crows to the walled cemetery where Vincent and Theo lie side by side beneath a single mat of ivy. Depending on the season and your pace, we add the house of Doctor Gachet, the painter's friend and physician, the studio-garden of Charles-François Daubigny, the Absinthe Museum or the château of Auvers and its Impressionist exhibition — see all our day trips from Paris.
Auvers-sur-Oise lies about 35 km north-west of Paris, in the Oise valley. By car it is usually 45 minutes to an hour door-to-door, depending on your pick-up point and traffic.
Yes. Room number 5, the small attic room where Van Gogh spent his last seventy days, has been kept almost bare, as he left it. It opens seasonally, roughly from spring to late autumn, with weekly closing days — we check the opening days and times for your date before confirming the itinerary.
Yes — the village is compact and close to Paris. A five-hour hire comfortably covers the Auberge Ravoux, the church Van Gogh painted, the wheat fields and the cemetery where Vincent and Theo rest, with time left for coffee or an early lunch.
Trains from Paris usually require a change at Pontoise or Valmondois; the direct seasonal train runs only on certain weekend mornings. With a private chauffeur you leave from your hotel door at the time you choose, and the car waits between every stop in the village.
Van Gogh arrived in Auvers-sur-Oise in May 1890, fresh from the asylum at Saint-Rémy, drawn by the presence of Doctor Paul Gachet — an eccentric physician, amateur engraver and friend of the Impressionists who agreed to keep an eye on him. What followed was the most concentrated burst of creativity in Western art: more than seventy paintings in seventy days, among them The Church at Auvers, Wheatfield with Crows, Daubigny's Garden and the melancholy Portrait of Doctor Gachet. He died in his attic room at the Auberge Ravoux on 29 July 1890, with Theo at his bedside.
What makes Auvers so affecting is how little has changed. The village was a painters' colony long before Vincent — Daubigny settled here, Cézanne and Pissarro worked in these lanes — and it has kept its low stone walls, thatched roofs and open plateau of wheat. Discreet panels reproduce each canvas at the very spot where it was painted, so you can hold the painting up against its motif, 135 years apart. It is a short visit, but few of our guests leave unmoved.
In seventy days he produced more than seventy canvases, including The Church at Auvers, Wheatfield with Crows, the Portrait of Doctor Gachet and Daubigny's Garden. Panels around the village mark the exact spots where he set up his easel.
In the small village cemetery just above the church, on the edge of the wheat fields. The two brothers lie side by side under a blanket of ivy, said to have come from Doctor Gachet's garden. Entry is free and the walk from the church takes about five minutes.
Absolutely — it is one of our favourite full days: Van Gogh's village in the morning, Monet's gardens in the afternoon, about an hour's drive apart through the Vexin countryside. We price the combined day on request, based on your dates and vehicle.
Auvers-sur-Oise and Giverny are the two poles of the Impressionist story around Paris — Van Gogh's tragic final summer on one side, Monet's forty-year garden on the other — and they sit barely an hour apart across the Vexin plateau. By public transport, linking them in a day is practically impossible; by private car it is a natural, unhurried loop. A typical combined day starts in Auvers at opening time, crosses to Giverny for lunch near the Fondation Monet, and ends in the water garden once the afternoon coaches have gone.
If you would rather keep Auvers on its own, the half-day pairs neatly with an afternoon flight, a château visit or a free evening in Paris. Groups travel comfortably in our Business Van, and art lovers with more time often continue the thread into Normandy, where the light of Honfleur and Étretat started it all. Ask us for the combined-day quote when you book — we build the timing around the opening days of the Auberge Ravoux and Monet's gardens.
We usually suggest a nine o'clock start — Auvers is close enough that there is no need for a dawn departure. Leaving the A115, the road drops into the Oise valley and the village appears exactly as the panels promise: church first, then the huddle of roofs. We park by the Auberge Ravoux and let you take room 5 slowly; most guests come down the narrow staircase without saying much, and we have learned to let the first minutes of the drive stay quiet. The walk up to the cemetery is loveliest before noon, when the plateau smells of warm wheat and the crows — yes, they are still there — lift off the fields in twos and threes. If you are combining with Giverny, we leave Auvers by half past twelve; the hour across the Vexin, past silos and orchards, makes a perfect intermission.
All-inclusive private price for a 5-hour half-day: chauffeur, vehicle, fuel, tolls and waiting.
from 479€up to 3 passengers · 5-hour half-day
from 599€up to 7 passengers · 5-hour half-day
from 661€up to 3 passengers · 5-hour half-day
Indicative from-price for a private half-day; the final quote depends on your exact itinerary, dates and group size. Combined Auvers + Giverny full days on request.
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