Cernay-la-Ville lies in the centre of beautiful forest and outstretched farmland, a unique and picturesque landscape calling out to be painted. Because of the arrival of the railroad and the invention of the paint tube in the mid-1800s, painters started to explore the outdoors more and work in the field. Out in the countryside!

Next to being outdoors, the hundreds of painters visiting Cernay-la-Ville were curious by the quarries and quarry workers in town. These were housed in the 8 Cernay inns, where the painters would gather in the evening. Two of these inns still exist today – “The Leopold” and the “Auberge des Paysagistes”. Cernay-la-Ville is still very active as a cultural hub in the middle of nature, both for outdoorsy tourists and art fans.

Visit: yearly exhibitions of the painters’ colony, regular artistic exchanges, the “petit moulin” museum and barn, the painters’ colony, the quarry workers’ inns. The Cistercian Abbaye des Vaux de Cernay, Château de la Madeleine, Château de Breteuil, Château des Mauvières, Château de Dampierre, Château de Rambouillet.