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When considering day trips from Paris, it can sometimes be rewarding to look beyond the obvious destinations of Versailles or Disneyland. It is safe to say that you will not find Asnières-sur-Seine, which sits on the north-west edge of Paris, in any of the usual guidebooks. However, it may provide an alternative spot to spend a few hours away from the capital.
If you go there today, you will find a mixed residential suburb with well-heeled and working-class streets full of houses and apartment buildings in a range of architectural styles from functional and art deco to state of the art. You will also find France’s oldest pet cemetery, which holds the graves of a number of celebrated animals.
Having featured in many Impressionist and post-Impressionist paintings, Asnières has a rich cultural heritage. It was also an important location in terms of the industrial development of France. As the name suggests, it is located on the banks of the River Seine. The river played a key role in its growth, as raw materials and finished goods could be easily transported between the city and the many factories and workshops that had located there.
As the Parisian middle-class expanded in the 19th century, Asnières was transformed into a destination for promenading, bathing and boating. A bevy of young Modernist artists then flocked there to capture on canvas the industrial growth, as well as the people who were engaged in leisure activities.
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In the mid 1870s, Claude Monet painted scenes featuring the industrial life of Asnières; boats on the river and workers unloading coal from a boat. In the summer of 1887, Vincent Van Gogh visited the suburb and painted a series of 23 art works. They all feature outdoor scenes including the river bank, trees, bridges over the Seine, and factories. He even painted some of the local restaurants.
Critics praised Seurat
One of the most famous paintings set in Asnières is Georges Seurat’s large masterpiece,
Bathers at Asnières
. It shows a group of working-class men and boys making the most of their free time. Some are shown relaxing on the river bank, while others are swimming in the river with the chimneys of the factories where they worked in the background.
Critics praised Seurat for this painting which combined "the shifting world of scenes and values created by the interaction of industry and nature". The same artist also painted the middle-classes enjoying a stroll by the banks of the Seine in another of his paintings set in Asnières, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.
The pet cemetery of Asnières was opened in 1899. This makes it France’s oldest pet cemetery and quite possibly one of world’s first zoological necropolises. At the entrance stands a statue to Barry, a mountain rescue dog that is reputed to have saved the lives of more than 40 people who were lost in the Pennine Alps in the early 19th century.
Thieves stole collar
It is the burial place of over 3,000 animals including a lion, a panther, dogs, rabbits, birds, hamsters, fish, sheep, foxes, racehorses, cats and even a few monkeys. You can find the graves of some famous animals there, such as the canine Hollywood movie star, Rin-Tin-Tin, who starred in 29 movies between 1922 and 1931. One of Napoleon’s dogs is buried there and also present is Prince of Wales, a dog that graced the stage of a local theatre on 406 occasions between 1905 and 1906.
Readers might be interested to know that it is the final resting place of the Co Meath-born racehorse, Troytown. Seven shamrocks adorn the gravestone of this champion horse that died while competing in the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris at Auteuil in June 1920.
The cemetery hit the headlines in 2012 when thieves stole a diamond-studded collar from the grave of a poodle named Tipsy. The collar was said to be worth €9,000. Apart from the collar, the love that people had for their pets is on display for all to see in the inscriptions on the gravestones. One reads: “Disappointed by people, never by my dog”, while another reads: “6 kgs of pure love”.
One other interesting site in Asnières concerns the luxury goods manufacturer, Louis Vuitton, who opened his atelier or workshop there in 1859. He insisted that the workshop be located near the river so as to be able to unload the poplar wood needed for the leather-bound trunks that would make him famous. He built a house beside the workshop in 1860. The workshop is still in use today and the art nouveau house was renovated in recent years. They are both open to the public at weekends. A place with a rich history indeed.