I got to see this this past week! In Carmel, CA, in the tiny backroom of a beautiful little restaurant, Casanova.
One of the owners of Casanova Restaurant, Walter Georis, departed with his family for a three-month holiday in Paris.
Intrigued after reading the cookbook Van Gogh's Table, Walter took the family on a train ride 22 miles northwest of Paris to have lunch at the Auberge Ravoux in Auvers-sur-Oise, a small but well-known artist's village.
Vincent van Gogh spent the final seventy days of his life boarding at the Auberge where he painted the picturesque countryside, the church at Auvers, the popular portrait of his friend Dr. Gachet, and Adelaine Ravoux.
The second and third floor of the Auberge Ravoux, named the Maison de van Gogh, has since been turned into a small museum honoring the life of Vincent van Gogh. Here guests can visit the attic room where the artist lived before enjoying the hearty country cuisine of the period in the restaurant below.
Back in Paris, Walter Georis and Dominique Janssens, the owner of the Auberge Ravoux and Maison de van Gogh, met and became great friends over a six-hour lunch at Café Beaujolais on the left bank. As a symbol of their new friendship, Dominique honored Walter by sending him the table at which Vincent van Gogh enjoyed his meals at the Auberge Ravoux.
At Casanova, the table is in a private room called Van Gogh's Room decorated in the style of the Auberge Ravoux
