What Claude Monet said and ate

"Landscape is only an impression, instantaneous, hence the label they've given us, all because of me, for that matter."
"I am precisely the man of isolated trees and wide spaces." Quotes from the book Monet Water Lillies by Charles F. Stuckey.

From Monet's  Table The Cooking Journals of Claude Monet, we get a glimpse/impression of his life.

Text by Claire Joyes. Photographs by Jean-Bernard Nuadin.

At Giverny, "Monet and his second wife, Alice, created their own art of living. Their sole culinary ambition was to serve beautifully prepared dishes using whatever the kitchen-garden or the farmyard could supply."

"The recipe for bouillabaisse came from Cezanne, the recipe for their bread rolls from Jean Millet. Their tarte Tatin was a souvenir of the visits to the Tartin sisters themselves, to sample this famous dish."

The kitchen wall behind the massive double oven cookstove is a variety of blue and white tiles. The dining room is painted a yellow somewhere between egg yolk and sunrise. Scrambled Eggs were served with wild mushrooms, such as morels, chanterelles or oyster mushrooms and trufflesfor Chiristmas.

The dishes are yellow with wedgewood blue rims. Imagine the fragrance rising from tiny vases of fresh lilacs mingling with the scents of fresh baked bread, Mussels with Fresh Herbs, or Pike in White Butter Sauce, or Lobster Newburg. Smell Truffles poached with bacon in the bottom of the pan and enough white wine over. Cook over medium heat 35 minutes. Yum! One of Marguerite's dessert specialties was the Green Cake Vert-vert featuring pistachios and kirsch. Everything invites one to enjoy the food and the company, even though Monet didn't linger over his food or want seconds to be served. If the eye wanders through the open French doors, it is treated to an explosion of color from the overflowing gardens.

Monet rose early to work in morning light. With lead white, cadmium yellow, dark madder, vermillion, emerald and cobalt blue oils, he captured slivers of light as he saw them. Just thinking of him makes me long for Giverny. They lived well. They ate well. It is reflected in his work. I found it to be he happiest place I've visited anywhere in the world. God Bless him!

2012 Red Convertible Travel Series