Less than 2 hours from Paris: do you know these 5 villages? They are so beautiful that they have inspired the greatest painters of our time

In 1883, the famous painter Claude Monet took up residence in Giverny, a small town that is still little-known. An avid gardener, he continued to transform his garden, known as the Clos Normand, before building his water garden, featuring a pond and a Japanese bridge.

It was from these exceptional settings that he drew inspiration and created some of his most famous canvases, notably the "Water Lilies", a series of 250 paintings, as well as the "Japanese Bridges" and "Glycines" series.

After his death in 1926, his house and gardens became the Claude Monet Foundation, enabling art lovers to visit these exceptional sites.

A visit to Auvers-sur-Oise means following in Van Gogh's footsteps and discovering the many places he painted, including the church, the town hall and the wheat fields. You can even visit his house or the inn where he died in 1890.

Bathed in water and bordered by the Fontainebleau forest, this romantic little town owes its charm to its many preserved monuments and buildings: mills, ramparts, keep, bridges, fortified gates, and the church of Notre-Dame with its Renaissance organ.

Before it was awarded the label of "most beautiful detours in France", the Impressionist painter Alfred Sisley made it his playground and source of inspiration: there are no fewer than 450 paintings depicting the village.

Barbizon was a legendary site for pre-impressionist painting in France, attracting some of the most sought-after artists of the period, including Théodore Rousseau, Millet, Camille and many others.

With the forest of Fontainebleau just a stone's throw away, the trees over a hundred years old and the facades of the houses covered in vegetation, it's easy to understand what inspired these painters to create the "Barbizon School" movement.

Nicknamed the "village of painters", the village remains a land of artists, where the streets are home to workshops, small boutiques and art galleries.

Where to stay in Île-de-France?