In July of 2020, we escaped crowded Paris for a remote region of Greece. This audio story, excerpted from my memoir-in-progress about my family’s expat years in Paris, is exclusive to subscribers at The Wandering Writer.
by Michelle Richmond, New York Times bestselling author of nine books, including a new espionage novel set in Paris. Subscribe for exclusive stories from Paris.
In May of 2020, two weeks after the first lockdown ended in France, we took a day trip by car to Auvers sur Oise, where Van Gogh spent his final months. After being confined to a one-kilometer radius of our apartment throughout April, we were finally allowed to leave the city. New regulations permitted travel up to one hundred kilometers, and the beautiful little riverside town of Auvers Sur Oise is just thirty kilometers from Paris.
After a pleasant drive, we parked near the Auvers sur Oise train station and set off on foot. Meandering through the town’s quiet hills, we saw the fields that inspired some of Van Gogh’s most celebrated works. You can walk through these fields and imagine the painter there, moved by the sky and the vast open spaces. A narrow path running through town follows the curve of the river. On the other side of the path are private homes, where we saw children playing and families gathering for meals. After the long gray lockdown of Paris, it was a joy to witness those familial scenes.
Auvers sur Oise was peaceful and empty of tourists that weekend, because borders were still closed. The video begins on the steps of Auvers, memorialized in the painting of the same name. It ends at the boarding house where Van Gogh spent his last days. He died in an upper room of the boarding house. According to the sign, the room has not been changed since that day in 1890. The boarding house is now a restaurant, and the building attracts a lot of tourists during normal times. In that strange interlude, however, the gate to the house was locked, the restaurant closed.
From this path you can wander up to the church, then keep going up the hill to the small cemetery where Vincent Van Gogh is buried beside his brother, Theo. I had visited the famous cemeteries of Paris to see the graves of Simone de Beuvoire, John Paul Sartre, Degas, Edith Piaf, Moliere, Jim Morrison, Balzac, and many others. But none of the gravesites moved me the way this simple, rustic gravesite for Vincent and Theo did. For a touching glimpse of this fraternal relationship, read Dear Theo, comprised of letters written from Van Gogh to his supportive younger brother.
If you enjoyed this post, you might enjoy my Paris stories at The Wandering Writer. My new novel, a spy thriller set in Paris, will be published in early 2027. It’s a sequel to The Wonder Test, which introduces FBI agent Lina Connerly. In the novel, Linda travels to Auvers sur Oise. Subscribe to my newsletter to get behind-the-scenes notes on life in France, audio stories, and early access to exclusive chapters from the novel.
image of Golden Gate Bridge, by Simone Enderlin
I fell in love with San Francisco on a family vacation when I was thirteen years old. I decided then that I would live here someday. Fast forward to Fayetteville, Arkansas, 1995. I was doing a brief layover at The University of Fayetteville. Brief enough not to lose my mind, but long enough to meet a boy from San Francisco. The rest is history.
When The Telegraph asked me to talk about what no Londoner should miss on a trip to San Francisco, it wasn’t easy to whittle it down. From where to eat to what to avoid, here are my top recommendations for tourists in San Francisco.
Read San Francisco, My Kind of Town, in The Telegraph.