Private Guided Tour Van Gogh in Auvers

An extensive half-a-day Van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise private tour to follow the footsteps of Van Gogh in the charming tiny city of Auvers, the former village where Van Gogh spent the two last months of his life. You want a van Gogh tour in Paris, do not hesitat, this one is full of art and emotion in a haven of peace at only 34 km from the French capital.

Stairway at Auvers by Vincent Van Gogh painted in July 1890 to illustrate the van Gogh in Auvers guided tour, Paris area, France.

Stairway at Auvers by Vincent Van Gogh painted in July 1890 the last month of his live.

Van Gogh in Auvers private tour essentials 

  • +/- 4-hour private walking tour in English
  • Distance covered: +/- 3.5 km to 8 km (without museum galleries)
  • Really private tour = your party only (up to 6 people)
  • Postgraduate (MPhil) certified French national guide
  • Availability: from April to October – not on Monday & Tuesday
  • From 220 € for 1 to 2 people, 270 € for 3, etc.

Access to Auvers from Paris is quite tricky, so be sure to fully read our dedicated section before making any booking request.

KNOW MORE / BOOK NOW

What’s in the tour?

Painters in Auvers

Famous Auvers Church

Auvers Charming Village & Country side

Van Gogh Last Days

Vincent and Theo Tomb

For Docteur Gachet’s House and Auberge Ravoux please see at Van Gogh in Auvers Private Tour Spirit section.

Why a Van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise Guided Tour?

Firstly because Auvers is the place where Van Gogh spent the 70 last days of his life, an incredible period of creativity for the artist as he created there no less than 78 paintings.

Secondly, because the “village” of Auvers is a charming place in the countryside.

Van Gogh himself wrote in a letter to his brother Théo when arriving at Auvers Tuesday May 20th 1890 how charming is the place “Auvers is very pretty, there is a countryside all around, typical and picturesque”.

Auvers is an artists’ village and many famous ones came there before and after van Gogh.

Nowadays, the village of 2000 inhabitant of the time of van Gogh became a little city of 6 813 inhabitants. (2019). But the atmosphere of rurality is still there as the place is still bordered by wheat fields and the Oise River. Auvers is a great place to escape a few hours from the busy and fussy French capital and to have a little test of provincial France.

 

Vineyards at Auvers-sur-Oise by Vincent Van Gogh to illustrate the Avers-sur-Oise guided tour.

Vineyard at Auvers-sur-Oise by Vincent Van Gogh view from Champonval area.

Van Gogh in Auvers Private Tour Spirit

This tour is a “follow the footstep of van Gogh” tour. The tour route is organized in function of the milestones of the stay of Van Gogh in Auvers.

We will see how van Gogh’s mindset changed during the 70 days of spring and summer 1890 he spent in Auvers and how and why he finally commited suicide.

This tour is designed first of all to be a pleasant walk in a charming French “village”. On our route, we will cross the main square of the village, the inn where Van Gogh was staying, the medieval church, etc.

As this tour is private, the motto is flexibility and it is possible to adjust how long the walk will be if a longer walk is not a problem for you we can go till Dr. Gachet’s house.

The tour is a neighborhood tour, not a museum or monument tour. So, visiting museums is not the purpose of the tour. Nevertheless we may, if you want, enter in Auberge Ravoux (entries not included 6€ pp) where is Van Gogh’s bedroom and/or in the Dr. Gachet house and garden (free). 

In case of bad weather we will obviously spend more time in museums. There is no warranty of access in museums.

Photo of the painting "View of Auvers-sur-Oise with a church" by Vincent Van Gogh to illustrate the Auvers guided tour, Paris area, France.

“View of Auvers-sur-Oise with a church” is a painting by Vincent Van Gogh that strongly resume all the aspects of the place for van Gogh: a countryside village rounded by wheat fields, with its nice houses and its impressive medieval church. The main subjects of most of the more than 70 paintings in created in the last 70 days of his life there.

Your Private Tour Guide in Paris

Certified French national guide
BA, Magna Cum Laude, Heritage Developpement & Preservation from Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers
Postgraduate from Paris Dauphine-PSL University

Know more about Yves, your private tour guide in Paris

 We Definitely believe that our Van Gogh in Auvers private tour is a must
for any lover of Van Gogh’s work!

What you can expect to see on the route of the Van Gogh in Auvers Tour

Auvers-sur-Oise Train Station

This is where van Gogh arrived in Auvers Thuesday May 20th 1890. From there he went directly to Dr. Gachet house.

Place de Mairie (City Hall Square)

It is where is the inn where was staying Vicent. He painted a lot of canvases around like Stairway at Auvers, Chestnut Trees in Blossom or The Town Hall of Auvers on 14 July. In the parc beside is a sculpture representing van Gogh by Zadkine.

Auberge Ravoux (Ravoux Inn)

It is the inn (auberge) in which van Gogh was staying in Auvers. The place is now organized like a little museum which shows the room where van Gogh lived and died 29 hours after he (most probably) committed suicide. It is a very simple empty room, nevertheless full of emotion.

According to a 1956 letter of Adeline Ravoux (the daughter of the innkeeper, then aged 76), the usual day of van Gogh was to go out in the early morning for plein air painting and then return to the Ravoux inn for lunch and indoor afternoon work on his paintings. Adeline also wrote in this letter that is father gave up in 1905 his two van Gogh, Adeline Portrait The Woman in Blue and The Town Hall of Auvers on 14 July for forty francs.

If you want, we can enter in Auberge Ravoux (entries not included 6 € pp, no warranty of access). Inside you will have a +/- 10-minute mini-tour (the room) & a +/- 10-minute movie and a souvenir boutique. The movie can be shortcuted.

Photo of the painting "The Town Hall of Auvers on 14 July" by Vincent van Gogh to illustrate the Auvers guided tour, Paris area, France.

Photo of van Gogh painting The Town Hall of Auvers on 14 July. The Yorck Project – GNU Free Documentation License.

Maison du Docteur Gachet (Doctor Gachet’s House)

Some very famous van Gogh masterpieces were painted there as “The portrait of Doctor Paul Gachet“, “Docteur Gachet’s Garden in Auvers” or the two painting of Dr. Gachet’s daugther Marguerite one at the piano the other in the garden. 

Arrived in Auvers in 1872, Docteur Gachet was himself a painter and also an art patron. A lot of painters were his friends and/or patients as Cézanne, Corot, Daubigny, Guillaumin, Manet, Pissarro. Renoir and … van Gogh. Cézanne lived in a house close to Dr. Gachet one from 1872 to 1874. 

After the death of his brother Théo van Gogh gave to Docteur Gachet most of the works Vincent painted in Auvers.

A big part of the legendary Dr. Gachet art collection including 44 paintings and drawings by van Gogh, 42 by Cézanne, 13 by Pissaro, a few Monets, Renoir, Etc. is now in the Orsay Museum. There is no more van Gogh paintings in Dr. Gachet house. Nevertheless one original of Van Gogh etching L’Homme à la Pipe is normaly shown there.  

Most of the house of Dr. Gachet has been kept as it was in the end of the 19th century. 

If you want we can enter in Dr. Gachet house (free entrance, no warranty of access).

Dr. Gachet portait by Vincent Van Gogh to illustrate the Auvers guided tour, Paris area, France.

On 25 May van Gogh was initiated by Dr. Gachet with whom he engraved a plate and printed a few copies of L’Homme à la pipe, a portrait of
Dr. Gachet which is Van Gogh’s only etching.

The Auvers-sur-Oise Church

A very interesting landmark for at least two reasons:

1/ This church is the subject of the famous “The Church in Auvers-sur-Oise, View from the Chevet” masterpiece which was part of the Doctor Gachet collection and is now visible in the Musée d’Orsay. This is without any doubt one of the top three van Gogh paintings in terms of color intensity with Starry Night (MET in New York, USA) and Café Terrace at Night (Kröller-Müller Museum, Netherlands).

You will then discover the astonishing differences between the real church and the vision Van Gogh was having of it.

2/ Notre-Dame d’Auvers is also a magnificent example of early gothic of the 12th century built at the same time period as Notre-Dame de Paris.

The Auvers-sur-Oise Castle

The Château d’Auvers is a 16th century castle transformed in the 17th which appears in only one van Gogh painting. Behind the Castel is the former country lane in which most probably van Gogh shoot himself.

There is absolutly no plan to enter in the castle in our Auvers tour but we may walk in the nice castle garden.

The Church in Auvers-sur-Oise by Vincent van Gogh to illustrate the Auvers guided tour, Paris area, France.

Photo of van Gogh painting “The Church in Auvers-sur-Oise, View from the Chevet”. The Yorck Project – GNU Free Documentation License.

Countryside – Wheat Fields

We will cross a wheat field which was the subject of one of Van Gogh’s very last paintings the “Wheatfield with Crows”. van Gogh had a fascination for wheat fields the last weeks of his life, he painted various paintings on the theme including portraits.

Banks of the Oise River

Van Gogh painted only two canevases depicting the Oise at Auvers. Despite the impressive Paris growth since 1890, the banks of the Oise at Auvers is still a lovely place nowadays.

Countryside – Grove & Undergrowth

Our route will cross grove and undergrowth similar to those painted by van Gogh.

Auvers Cemetary

There are the graves of Vincent and his brother Théo. Van Gogh’s friend symbolic painter Emile Bernard who came to the burial painted a canvas called “Enterrement de Van Gogh” (van Gogh interment).

Painting "Green Wheat Fields at Auvers-sur-Oise" by Van Gogh to illustrate the Auvers-sur Oise guided tour. Paris area. France.

Vincent Van Gogh Green Wheat Fields at Auvers-sur-Oise

Photo of  the painting "Young Girl Standing Against a Background of Wheat" by Vincent van Gogh to illustrate, the Auvers guided tour. Paris area, France.

Girl in White” also known as “Young Girl Standing Against a Background of Wheat” by Vincent van Gogh, once again reflects the interest of Vincent in wheat fields.

New Discovery Van Gogh Final Painting Location

Historians know that Van Gogh works on his last painting  “Tree Roots” on July 27, 1890, the day he shot himself before coming back to Auberge Ravoux and died there. But till now the question was where were these roots? Well, during spring 2020 Wouter Van de Veen from the Van Gogh Institut found the solution base to a vintage postcard of rue Daubigny at Auvers.

So we now includ a new milestone in our Auvers van Gogh tour to see the now-famous roots, they are only 150 meters from Auvers Church.

Know More About Auvers-sur-Oise

Other Painters in Auvers

Even if Auvers-sur-Oise is before all famous for Van Gogh, a lot of painters came there before him.

Landscape painter Charles-François Daubigny spent more than two decades in Auvers where he has now his own dedicated museum and where it is also possible to visit his workshop. Despite being an honorable member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts Daubigny was supporting non-conventional impressionist painters.

Impressionist painter Camille Pissaro was living next to Auvers in Pontoise. The most famous view of Auvers he painted is probably A Cowherd at Valhermeil (MET New York). 

 

a cowherd at valhermeil auvers sur oise - c pissaro - met

Photo of A Cowherd at Valhermeil (MET New York) by Pisaro. 

Paul Cézanne also stayed in Auvers following his companion and mentor Camille Pissaro. Cézanne did not focus on painting Auvers’ main monuments but preferred to represent the patchwork of the house rooftops as in the “Auvers Panoramic view” (Art Institute Chicago).

But Auvers’ most famous work of Cézanne is probably The Hanged Man’s House, it is one of the three canvases presented by the artist in the 1874 first impressionism exhibition and in which the treatment of volume can be considered as a germ for future evolution to cubism.
The painting is now in musée d’Orsay (also see our Orsay Tour) and the scene of the painting is still visible from the street between Dr. Gachet’s house and Champonval train station.

The list of Auvers-sur-Oise painters is long and we should also speak for the 19th century about Camille Corot, Norbert Goeneutte, etc., and for the 20th century about Henri Rousseau (Douanier Rousseau), Emile Boggio, Otto Freudlich, Pierre Daboval etc.

Panoramic View of Auvers-sur-Oise paintend by Cézanne

Panoramic View of Auvers-sur-Oise painted by Cézanne between 1873 and 1875. The tall white building on the upper left is the house of Dr. P. Gachet, which will later be so important in van Gogh’s last months.

Photo of "The House of Père Lacroix" a canevas by Cézanne to illustrate the Auvers guided tour, Paris area, France.

Photo of The House of Père Lacroix a canevas by Cézanne. The same place has also been depicted in a very famous van Gogh painting Houses at Auvers in which the tiled and thatched roofs of the houses form a patchwork of color.

Other Museums and Point of Interest in Auvers

A part from Ravoux Inn and Dr. Gachet house the other places of interess in Auvers are:

  • Studio House Daubigny – Saturdays & Sundays 10:30am to 12:30pm – 2pm to 6:30pm
  • Auvers’s castle Tuesday to Sunday & public holidays from 10am to 6pm
  • Absynthe Museum: dedicated to the green fairy – Saturdays & Sundays 1:30pm to 6pm
  • Studio House Emile Boggio – Saturdays & Sundays  2pm to 6:30pm
  • Le Botin a replica of Daubigny bateaux-atelier (boat house).
  • Daubigny Museum: installed in a 17th century mansion – closed on Mondays
    • from Tuesday to Friday from 2:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. 
    • On Saturday, Sunday and holidays from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
    • In July and August: from Tuesday to Sunday: from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and from 2:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. 

    The information about museums opening hours is given without guarantees for overview purposes, if you are specifically interested by one of them please directly check their website. Most of the points of interest at Auvers (museum etc. ) are closed during the low season (November to March).

vincent_van_gogh_irises-gty-ocp

The Château d’Auvers is surrounded by eight hectares of wooded parkland and gardens. The Gardens show a large variety of flowers and are famous for their 23000 Iries, if you come to Auvers between mid-May and mid-June you may normaly admire them blooming as van Gogh did in Arles in 1888 when he painted is famous Iries.

Tour Reviews

Van Gogh in Auvers-sur- Oise, walking tour giving incredible insight into the life & works of Van Gogh.

We did the Van Gogh tour to Auvers – sur-Ouse with Yves. This is the highlight of our time in France. Yves met & returned us to Paris, spent the day in an incredibly beautiful historic town & learned more about Vincent in a few hours than from years of research. Highly recommended.

Jeff M

May 2023 - Tripadvisor

Important: How to Acces to Auvers from Paris

The tour starts and ends in Auvers-sur-Oise and we don’t take part or commit in any aspect of the transport to / from Paris or any others places. Nevertheless here are some practical informations about 4 possible alternatives to get to Auvers from Paris.

1. We clearly recommend using a private driver / taxi to get to Auvers from Paris.

2. Alternatively if you want to spend the all day in Auvers during high season (april to october) one round trip Paris / Auvers / Paris by train is normally active for the weekends and the bank holidays.  When we write this page (may 2022) the official schedule shows one direct train from Paris to Auvers at 9:38 AM and one train back at 18:15 PM. This information is given without guarantees for overview purposes, always check the official webpages.

3. It is also possible to get to Auvers-sur-Oise by normal suburb trains doing some connections, but we advise you against this solution which may be tricky.

4. Alternatively to the taxi or the high season direct train we offer you to meet your guide in Paris Gare du Nord and to follow him in the suburb trains. This solution consists in taking a direct train to Merry-sur-Oise (in front of Auvers on the other side of the river) and walk downhill +/- 1.8 km (1.1 Miles) to Auvers where the tour starts. This possibility is offered for free, but we don’t commit in any aspect of the transport that you do under your own responsibility and at your own charge (our guide can help you to buy your tickets). 

At the end of the tour you will have the possibility to follow your guide back to Paris via suburb train (no direct train, change to do in Pontoise). We don’t commit in any aspect of the transport that you do under your own responsibility and at your own charge (our guide can help you to buy your tickets). 

In any case, if you choose the train be ready to take a taxi alternatively to solve the situation in case of train suppressions (strike, maintenance works, etc.).  

Things to know before Booking

Meeting Point

In Auvers-sur-Oise (in front of the train station).

Alternatively, also possible in Paris Gare du Nord.

Read our dedicated section before choosing.

Van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise Private Tour Attention Points

  • Access to Auvers from Paris is tricky be sur to read our dedicated section before booking.
  • Tour is on foot and there is a lot of walking.
  • Prices do not include transportation, food, drinks, museum tickets or any other extra services.
  • Neighborhood tours: we normally don’t enter museums. Nevertheless we may, if you want, enter in Auberge Ravoux and/or in the Dr. Gachet house. There are no guarantees of access in museums.
  • Tour duration & content are purely indicative, they may vary due to contingencies.

BoOk your Van Gogh in Auvers-sur-oise Private Tour

Just follow the below 4 steps online easy process.   

(1) Request a date & schedule for your tour

(2) Receive our answer email – if yes you have 24h to pay

(3)  Pay your private tour on line by credit card

(4) Receive our
confirmation (email)

Nota bene : answer to step (2) is most of the time yes. 

Photo of one of the very last Van Gogh self-portaits painted in 1889 in the asylum of Saint–Rémy-de-Provence his last stay before Auvers-sur-Oise, to illustrate the Auvers guided tour

One of the very last Van Gogh self-portraits painted in 1889 in the asylum of Saint–Rémy-de-Provence his last stay before Auvers-sur-Oise.