Restaurant Fournaise

Guided Tour

RESTAURANT FOURNAISE

A Family Business

As early as in the mid-nighteenth century, boating attratcs the Parisians on the banks of the Seine, where Alphonse Fournaise, a boat carpenter, has jsut installed his boat workshop. His wife has opened a restaurant there.

Renoir and the "Luncheon of the Boating Party"

Among all these famous people, Pierre-Auguste Renoir becomes a regular guest of the Restaurant from 1868 to 1884. "You could find me anytime at Fournaise's. There, I was fortunate enough to find as many splendid creatures as I could possibly desire to paint." In 1880, he writes to a friend:

The "Guinguette" of the Impressionnists

The Island of Chatou : a peaceful place, a beath of fresh air and inspiration for many artists eager for mobile light and shivering shadows. Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, Berte Morisot, Edouart Manet, Camille Pissaro et Pierre Prins ... As many painters that enjoy meeting in Chatou.

Restauration of the Maison Fournaise

Alphonse Fournaise goes on with the boating activity until 1910 whareas Alphonsine has closed the Restaurant 4 years before. With the passing of the year, the Maison Fournaise goes to crack and ruin. It was on the verge

Whereas Alphonse devots much of his time organizing regattas ans water festivals, Miss Fournaise takes care of her guests, offering the French traditionnal cooking. Alphonse Junior lends a helpful hand to the ladies about to embark for a boat ride, while his sister Alphonsine, one of the painter's favorite models, welcomes and attends the customers.

They are joined by the literacy world and the golden -not so golden - bohemia of the second half of the XIXth century to benefit from the warm atmosphere of the Maison Fournaise.

"I can't leave Chatou, because my painting is not finished yet. It would be nice of you to come down here and have lunch with me. You won't regret the trip, I assure you. There isn't a lovelier place in all Paris surroundings". The painting referred to was one of the no less than thirty paintings carried out by Renoir in Chatou, including among others the portrait of Alphonse Fournaise Senior, smoking his pipe with relish after sipping a late absinth. One of the greatest sign of this coming there is Luncheon of the Boating Party, painted from the balcony of the Restaurant, today in the Phillips Collection in Washington.

of collapsing when the town of Chatou purchased it in 1979 and made it a isted building. acquise en 1979 par la ville de Chatou.From 1984 à 1990, this is the first part of the renovations ! Clic to discover the process of restauration ! Today, the Maison Fournaise has refund its former vcation. A restaurant, a museum and a boat workshop will welcome you to itroduce you in the Impressionnist atmosphere !

Gustave Caillebotte enjoys boating on the Sine, Degas becomes close friend with Alphonsine, while Guy de Maupassant evokes the warm atmosphere of the Maison Fournaise in several of his short strories

André Derain (bormn in Chatou) and Maurice de Vlaminck settle their workshop in the Maison Levanneur, just next to the Restaurant. Together with Guillaume Appolinaire and Henri Matisse, they prepared for the artistic revolution that was to take place in the 1905 "Salon d'Automne", with the emergence of the Fauves.