We went to the 'Restaurant de la Maison Fournaise' on the Ile des Impressionnistes near Chatou this evening. We had planned on going at some point since we moved here, given that it is so close to our house, and really is quite a historic place: it was on this island, between 1880 and 1881, that Renoir painted his 'Luncheon of the Boating Party'. The house was a well known landmark of the late 1800s. According to the phillips collection,

Parisians would flock to Chatou's Maison Fournaise to rent rowing skiffs, eat a good meal, or stay the night. In 1857, the entrepreneur Alphonse Fournaise bought land in Chatou to open a boat rental, restaurant, and small hotel for the new tourist trade. From the mid 1870s, Renoir often visited the Maison Fournaise to enjoy its convivial atmosphere and rural beauty. He painted scenes of the restaurant, as well as several portraits of Fournaise family members and landscapes of the surrounding area. In fact, Renoir occasionally traded paintings with the Fournaise family for food and lodging.
So it was necessary that we go. What we didn't expect, but what we did get, was good food at a reasonable price, with excellent service. The menu is available online, if you want to see what we had to choose from. It was a good night out, and the walk home from the island, over the Seine, and through Chatou was a great way to finish things out. Now we're trying to figure out how many more times we can eat there before we leave Chatou....
Jason in Egypt commented:
Well, I might want to go there... We shall see.
on Tue May 10 18:52:07 2005

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