  We report on the direct measurement of the van der Waals interaction between
two isolated, single Rydberg atoms separated by a controlled distance of a few
micrometers. By working in a regime where the single-atom Rabi frequency of the
laser used for excitation to the Rydberg state is comparable to the interaction
energy, we observe a \emph{partial} Rydberg blockade, whereby the
time-dependent populations of the various two-atom states exhibit coherent
oscillations with several frequencies. A quantitative comparison of the data
with a simple model based on the optical Bloch equations allows us to extract
the van der Waals energy, and to observe its characteristic $C_6/R^6$
dependence. The magnitude of the measured $C_6$ coefficient agrees well with an
\emph{ab-initio} theoretical calculation, and we observe its dramatic increase
with the principal quantum number $n$ of the Rydberg state. Our results not
only allow to test an important physical law, but also demonstrate a degree of
experimental control which opens new perspectives in quantum information
processing and quantum simulation using long-range interactions between the
atoms.
