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RER Rueil-Malmaison . A long narrow island in the Seine, the Ile de Chatou , between Rueil-Malmaison and St-Germain-en-Laye, was once a rustic spot where Parisians came on the newly opened rail line to row on the river, and to dine and flirt at the guinguettes . A favourite haunt of artists was the Maison Fournaise , just below the Pont de Chatou road bridge, which is now once again an attractive restaurant (daily except Sun eve in winter: lunch & eve until 10pm; menu 24.24, carte 200-30.49-38.11; tel 01.30.71.41.91). It also houses a small museum of memorabilia relating to Impressionist painters (Thurs & Fri 11am-5pm, Sat & Sun 11am-6pm; 3.81). One of Renoir's best-known canvases, Le Dejeuner des Canotiers , shows his friends lunching on the balcony of the Maison Fournaise, shaded by a magnificent riverside plane tree. A copy of the painting pasted on a board next to the restaurant marks the spot where Renoir would have placed his easel. Habitues of the restaurant included not only Impressionist painters, but also de Vlaminck and his fellow Fauves, Derain and Matisse. The Maison Levanneur , opposite, was rented between 1900 and 1905 by Derain and de Vlaminck as a studio. It has since been renovated and now houses the Centre National de l'Estampe et de l'Art Imprime (Wed-Sun noon-8pm; free), which puts on temporary exhibtions linked to the art of printing. Heading south, under the Pont de Chatou, will bring you to the Parc des Impressionistes, a fairly nondescript park with a few picnic tables. Beyond the park, however, a narrow wooded path, with the Seine running both sides, takes you as far as the Grenouillere (10-min walk), a popular spot in the early 1900s for riverside drinking, dancing, bathing and boating; it was much frequented and painted by the Impressionists. A small museum of memorabilia relating to the Grenouillere (Tues, Thurs and Sun 2-6pm; closed mid-Dec to mid-Jan; 3.05) is housed in the Maison Josephine (so-called because Josephine de Beauharnais lived there for two years before her marriage to Napoleon) on the other side of the river in Croissy, but you need to head back up the Pont de Chatou to cross over, and follow the river downstream on the Chatou/Croissy side to get there. Access to the island is from the Rueil-Malmaison RER stop. Take the Sortie av Albert-1er, go left out of the station and right along the dual carriageway onto the bridge - a ten-minute walk. River cruises round the island of Chatou or as far as Auvers-sur-Oise, the town where Van Gogh spent the last two months of his life, depart from the Capitainerie (May-Oct Sun and public hols; 7.62-48.78 depending on the cruise; tel 01.47.16.72.66 for tickets and information) on the Rueil-Malmaison bank of the Seine, opposite the Maison Fournaise.
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