On a starry, starry night or day

It's May 1 once again. And I'm celebrating "the international labor's day" by not working at all. I rarely do that, for my work requires me to work even on a holiday (and even on week ends at that). But since I went back to school in January, small things like this is very much appreciated. And so I promised to spend it with my family.  Quality time with my loved ones.

Following Van Gogh path

But since it's in the middle of the week, a Wednesday, everything was decided on a last minute basis. (For the next day, we need to go back to work.) So to avoid being tired and everything, we initially planned just to go biking with the kids for an hour or so but for sometime now our youngest really wanted to visit the village where her second favorite artist/painter spent his last breath. Her second favorite painter? None other than Vincent Van Gogh. I don't know if the reason behind it is because it has the same name of his father or because she really loves the work that she did at school following the "starry nights made by Van Gogh."

So after breakfast as soon as we decided to cancel biking at a park near home, we spent few minutes preparing for our family's first "joy ride" for the year 2019, which is rather late. Normally, our first joy ride happens on winter break on the month of February but since there's a lot of changes going on in our lives as a family and in my life personally, we didn't have the chance to do so. So to Auvers-sur-Oise it is.

#myhappinessjustbesideme

Well, a little bit of background to the village of Auvers-sur-Oise. It is a small village once described by Vincent Van Gogh himself to his brother Théo as "seriously beautiful." It's a quiet town located on the northwestern of Paris. Around 50 minutes to an hour ride by car. Although you can also reached it by using public transportation. Using the Transilian U train from gare de Nord and then changing into Transilian H at St. Ouen L'Aumône and going down on the Auvers-sur-Oise train station. It will take about an hour and 10 minutes ride by train.

So what treasure did we discover there? It was as seriously beautiful as Van Gogh has described. Aside from the village itself, one main attraction there was the story behind his death. And of course, the painting he created based on houses, fields, streets that were there during his time and that are still there today. 

The village was quiet even with tourists and hikers going through and fro through out the village. Maybe because it's a holiday or maybe because it is the aura released by the village itself. Everything was lovely to look at.  

There's a tourist information near the train station where you can get a map of the whole village. With suggestions on where to start first or where famous spots can be located. There are also replica's of famous paintings made by Vincent Van Gogh on the exact spot where he got the inspiration for such paintings. 

                                  
And because it is the village where Vincent Van Gogh stayed and since he was the second favorite painter of our youngest, she and his brother had fun finding all those paintings and comparing it to the real ones. 

All in all, we spent our day really well, spent it well together plus the fact that my kids learned something about someone who is written down in history. Although his death is still a debate (suicide or murder or accident) as of this day, he has given humanity beautiful perspective through his paintings. And a lot of artists derives their inspirations from those.

 

Before ending our day, we visited his grave located at the Cemetery found on the road "Chemin des Vallées de Butry." 10 minutes from the train station.  Said a little prayer for his soul and his brother's. And went home. And then I readied myself for I am sure that I'll be facing endless questions about him as soon as we get home.