Maison Fournaise
The Maison Fournaise is a restaurant and museum located in the Seine on the Ile des Impressionnistes in Chatou, in the Rue du Bac No. 1, about 10 km west of Paris. Since 1982 it has been protected as a monument historique.
History
Dating back to 1844 the house was acquired by Alphonse Fournaise in 1857 and opened as a restaurant in 1860. The increasing popularity of boat trips on the Seine in the then still more rural Chatou revived the business and in 1877 built the famous balcony on the Fournaise Pierre- Auguste Renoir his rowers with the Seine in the background can have breakfast. The restaurant was the meeting place of the French Impressionists as Renoir, Claude Monet, and Edgar Degas. The writer Guy de Maupassant was also a frequent guest at the Maison Fournaise and describes it in his novel La femme de Paul as a restaurant Grillon. Around the turn of the century supplanted the enthusiasm for cycling rowing and the restaurant was closed in 1906
From 1984 to 1990, the Maison Fournaise by the community with the support of Chatou Amis de la Maison Fournaise and the Friends of French Art from Los Angeles has been restored and the facade has today again the appearance of 1880. Since 1990 it is again operated as a restaurant and the municipal museum opened in 1992.
Alphonse Fournaise, portrayed by Pierre- Auguste Renoir