Sacre Bleu. Or “sacred blue,” named for the color of the cloak of the Virgin Mary, is made from crushed lapis lazuli, a gemstone that has been prized since antiquity for its intense blue hue. Brought from the Orient by camel and ship, across deserts and over mountains, the finest blue pigment is infused with danger and adventure and, some say, supernatural powers. Interestingly, there is nary of mention of the color blue in all the extant writing of the ancient Greeks and Romans; nor does Roman Catholic liturgy mention the color blue until the 12th century. Really. Hmmm. Tres interessant . . .Lucien Lessard is the son of a baker, who is the son of a baker, who is the son of a baker (you get the picture), but it was his father’s dream that Lucien become a painter like his friends Renoir, Monet, Bazille, Pissaro, and Cezanne. But when Lucien meets a young girl named Juliette he falls madly in love and devotes himself to painting her wearing a bewitching blue dress. (She wears the dress, not him.) Until one day Lucien arrives at his studio to discover that all of his paintings have been taken. Gone, too, is the beautiful Juliette and the odd little troll-like fellow known as The Colorman who traffics in artists’ paints, in particular a startlingly intense shade of blue . . .A mystery, a love story, and an art history lesson all rolled into one (bonus: crusty French bread, absinthe, and can-can girls!), Sacre Bleu shows once again why Christopher Moore is one of today’s bestselling novelists.
