River Seine snakes around Paris and Île de France, and with it, a number of small islands grace the region. We know all about the Île St Louis and Île de la Cité within central Paris, where the city’s history began with the settlement of the Parisii, but other islands are very much “invisible” to many. I should definitely explore more of them!

To the west of Paris, straddled between the communes of Levallois and Neuilly-sur-Seine, lies a small, picturesque island called Île de la Jatte, aka “Island of the Bowl”. We stumbled across it quite by chance, when Chloé and I went to Levallois for lunch at the weekend. I struggled to pinpoint why the name sounded familiar, but Chloé knows it well – it used to be a favourite hangout among Impressionist artists. Seurat’s Un dimanche après-midi à l’île de la Grande Jatte (now housed in Art Institut of Chicago) is indeed a very well-known painting to many!

Seurat was by no means the only Impressionist artist who came out here for inspiration; Van Gogh, Monet, and Sisley had also been spotted to work here in the days gone by. The island is not quite as bucolic as it used to be in its hey day, but there are green spaces aplenty, along with architecturally diversed and interesting buildings. I’d happily stay in many of them, including those which resemble small castles in their own rights!

Rather unfortunately, given the constantly high level of water in the River Seine in the last year or so, the lower lying gardens of the island are currently flooded and out of bound. Such a shame for not only there are no gentle slopes leading into the lapping water to be seen, it also effectively truncates a dedicated Impressionist trail.

I’ll have to come back for revisit with F, as I’m sure he’ll love it here too. Next trip, I hope to see the trail better and could walk some of the parks that are, for now, under water, and maybe try one of the restaurants on the island too. It seems they’re well-reputed, and one was spotted to be nestled among a most scenic corner!