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Auberge Ravoux ( 01 30 36 60 60; 52 rue du Général de Gaulle; 2-/3-course menu €29/37; lunch Wed-Sun & dinner to 9.30pm Fri & Sat Mar–early-Nov) What could be a more appropriate way to celebrate the life of Vincent Van Gogh than by having lunch or dinner in the house in which he died? Auberge Ravoux has been a café d’artistes (artists’ café; or so it claims) since 1876, so it predates Van Gogh’s fateful sojourn by more than a dozen years. Reservations essential.

Café de la Paix ( 01 30 36 73 23; 11 rue du Général de Gaulle; starters €8-10, mains €8.50-15, lunch menus €12.80 & €18.90; 7am-8.30pm Wed-Sun, 7am-3pm Mon) Across the road from Auberge Ravoux, locals pile into the 1950s village cinema, now a café-restaurant with stage and wooden floor where jazz concerts take centre stage at weekends. Food covers the whole gamut, from brasserie-style grills to more-refined restaurant dishes, and it has a few hotel rooms up top.

Impressionist Café ( 01 30 36 71 31; Château d’Auvers; starters €10-12, mains €14.50-20, lunch menus €16 & €20; lunch Tue-Sun) A delightful spot to eat and drink à la château, be it a light lunch (its plat du jour with a glass of wine costs €15) or a sweet something in the afternoon. Seating is beneath stone vaults or in the shade of the chateau outside; don’t miss the 17th-century grotto adorned with thousands of tiny shells next to the restaurant entrance.

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TRANSPORT: AUVERS-SUR-OISE

Distance from Paris 35km

Direction North

Travel time 60 to 70 minutes by train, bus or RER/bus

Car Route A15 from Paris’ Porte de Clichy, exit 7 to route N184 (direction Beauvais), exit ‘Méry-sur-Oise’

Bus From mid-April to mid-October Les Cars Air France ( 01 74 25 08 12) operates a direct bus several times a week from place de la Porte Maillot (Map) to Auvers-sur-Oise.

RER train Line A3 from Gare de Lyon or Châtelet-Les Halles (€5.40) to Cergy Préfecture station, then Val d’Oise bus 95-07 (destination Butry) to rue du Général de Gaulle. The last bus ( 01 34 25 30 81) back to Paris leaves Auvers around 8pm weekdays (7pm weekends).

SNCF train Suburban train from Gare du Nord or Gare St-Lazare to Pontoise or Persan Beaumont then a connecting train to Auvers-sur-Oise; the last train to Paris leaves just after 9pm weekdays (10.30pm weekends). April to October, the SNCF runs a direct train (30 minutes) on Sunday departing from Gare du Nord at 9.56am and leaving Auvers at 6.15pm; the SNCF package (adult/10-17yr/6-9yr €16.10/14.20/10.20) including return transport from Paris and chateau admission is available year-round.

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Restaurant Joël Bouilleaut ( 01 30 36 70 74; 6 rue du Général de Gaulle; menus €49 & €79; lunch & dinner Tue-Fri, dinner Sat, lunch Sun; ) The racing-green canopied entrance sets the tone for Auvers’ stiff, fine-dining restaurant, best in summer when tables spill into the walled garden with church view.

Hostellerie du Nord ( 01 30 36 70 74; www.hostelleriedunord.fr; 6 rue du Général de Gaulle; d €95-125; Mon-Sat; ) The 17th-century townhouse in which this eight-room inn slumbers was one of France’s first post offices. Each room evokes a different artist: sloping-ceilinged Van Gogh faces the church the artist so famously painted; Ferrière showcases flowery watercolours for sale by the local artist; and Ferré – the only room to have a terrace – is for sculpture lovers. No rooms available on Sunday evening, when the entire place closes. Free wi-fi.

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DISNEYLAND RESORT PARIS

It took almost €4.6 billion and five years of hard graft to turn the beet fields east of the capital into Europe’s first Disney theme park, which opened amid much fanfare and controversy in 1992. Rocky start now a million moons away, what started out as Euro-Disney sees visitors (mostly families) pour into the park to scare themselves silly in the blood-curdling Tower of Terror, dance in a High School Musical, dive with Nemo, hit 70km/h in a Space Mountain rocket, shake Winnie the Pooh’s paw and share a fiesta of