"Van Gogh's Table..." by Alexandra Leaf

May 19, 2011  by Suzanne De Cornelia of French Heart


Do you have a secret reading ritual and wonder if someone out there shares it? Mine is to sometimes pair food, wine and ambiance with my latest book selection. Rather like a candlelit pre-bedtime bath—it pushes the everyday world aside to create a more conducive state.

So with ‘Van Gogh's Table at the Auberge Ravoux’ in hand, I knew my petite pre-reading ceremony had to be special. This magnificent volume reflects everything I love—France, French food, French art, history and culture. It also contains 50 recipes~and revealed a secret connection to the town where I live--Carmel-by-the-Sea.

The Auberge Ravoux is an inn and café located in the picturesque arts community of Auvers-Sur-Oise twenty-two miles north west of Paris. It had attracted well-known artists like Cezanne, Pissaro, Daumier—when Van Gogh was encouraged to go where he’d also be near Dr. Gachet, a kindly arts lover who treated mental-health conditions.

On May 20, 1890, Van Gogh checked into room number 5. Over the next 70 days he made 70 drawings and paintings.

The book captures this two-month period that preceded his death with photographs, letters, reproductions of Van Gogh’s work, and recipes for the Ille-de-France fare that was served to him at the inn. Culinary historian Alexander Leaf and Dr. Fred Leeman, former chief curator of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, were aided in the authoring and research by the previous chef at the Auberge Ravoux, Christophe Bony, who is now the chef at (drum-roll please) Casanova Restaurant in Carmel-by-the-Sea. (pictured above and below)

I now knew what my ceremony would be.

My lunch and wine were supreme. And it was a delight to be given a tour by the manager that included descending into the wine cellar for a peek at over 20,000 bottles, many of them rare and under lock and key. But the high point was to touch Van Gogh’s ACTUAL table from the last two months of his life. The gift to Casanova’s owner, Walter Georis, was the result of his meeting and befriending Dominique Janssens, who’d purchased the Auberge Ravoux in 1987 to renovate Van Gogh’s last home and create a museum in his honor.

Van Gogh was a multi-lingual, well educated man who left a record of his thoughts in hundreds of letters to his famously devoted brother. On June 10th he wrote Theo, ‘Some day or other, I believe I will find a way of having an exhibition of my own in a café.’

Theo was at Vincent’s side as he died from a self-inflicted gunshot-wound that July at age 38. Though Van Gogh’s work did not sell while he was alive, today three of his pictures number among the top ten highest priced in history. His painting of Dr. Gachet fetched the most at $139.5 million.

On my way to relocate to Aix-en-Provence on October 25, 2011—I’ll stop in Amsterdam to visit my son, a US-French citizen, and the Van Gogh Museum before heading down to Auvers-Sur-Oise to see the Auberge Ravoux.

Van Gogh's Table: At the Auberge Ravoux is AVAILABLE for purchase HERE

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Merci Beaucoup to Suzanne for sharing with Reading is Fashionable...
This is a PERFECT post for Tablescape Thursday!!!

Looking forward to hearing more from her!  Andddd Looking forward to hearing from YOU!!!  

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