Pays des Impressionnistes


The Pays des Impressionnistes is a certification mark created by the Syndicat intercommunal à vocations multiples des Coteaux de Seine in 2001 to promote the cultural heritage of this touristic area. Nine municipalities in the Yvelines department of France bordering the loop of the Seine River, where, during the nineteenth century, impressionist painters exercised their art, are associated with this creation: Bougival, Carrières-sur-Seine, Chatou, Croissy-sur-Seine, Le Pecq, Le Port-Marly, Louveciennes, Marly-le-Roi and Noisy-le-Roi. There is the Path of the Impressionists, four hiking trails dotted with reproductions of paintings, reflecting the still remarkable character of this landscape of Impressionist sites which has been proposed for inclusion in the World Heritage Site since 2009. Rueil-Malmaison, in the Hauts-de-Seine department, joined them in 2010, when eight of these municipalities have entrusted development task of the Pays des Impressionnistes to the visitor center of Marly-le-Roi, which organises Impressionist cruises along the banks of the Seine, as well as visits of ateliers of contemporary painters.

History

The Path of the Impressionists

There are four Impressionists’ Trail paths with more than 30 reproductions of Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro and Alfred Sisley paintings on the spot of their creation.
From 2011, the visitor center of Marly-le-Roy became that of Pays des Impressionnistes, gathering Carrières-sur-Seine, Chatou, Croissy-sur-Seine, Le Pecq, Le Port-Marly, Louveciennes, Marly-le-Roi and Rueil-Malmaison.
It organizes Impressionist's cruises from April to October along the shores and islands of the loop of the Seine.
It also organizes visits of contemporary painters ateliers, such as those of Catherine Vaes in Croissy in 2012, and Claude-Max Lochu in Carrières-sur-Seine in January 2014.