Le déjeuner sur l'herbe - in search of the perfect picnic

“A picnic is more than eating a meal, it is a pleasurable state of mind.” DeeDee Stovel

My diary painting of the day is the classic, Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe, by Edouard Manet, shown above. I'm not going to talk about the painting and its illogical juxtaposition of nude ladies and dressed men but it did make me think about picnics.

Somewhere deep inside I have nurtured the ambition to create the perfect picnic - I almost did it for my son's wedding - it was a small wedding of just the immediate family and we picnicked in the park afterwards. It was a perfect day and I really tried hard with the food and it was good - but it was probably not perfect - as witness the picture below. It's really all a bit disorganised:

But then maybe the best picnics are disorganised. And the memory of the occasion lingers, bathed in a warm glow.

So what is the perfect picnic? Well once again I think A.A. Milne and his artist E.H Shepard give us a glimpse of perfection in the open-air party that Christopher Robin throws for all of his friends.

Admittedly he does have a table - which makes it all a bit more organised - but not totally because Rabbit and all of his friends and relations are there to add a bit of chaos to the scene.

So do you need a table? We did actually once partake of a very memorable picnic on one of those company jaunts. This one was in Borneo at the orang-utang reserve. We had breakfast in the jungle. At least my memory tells me it was breakfast, but actually, when I think about it, it must have been lunch. There was white linen and silver and waiters, and attendants to beat back the monkeys who were, of course, very interested. It was all very decadent, colonial and probably so wrong in so many ways, but it is one of the most memorable meals I have ever had - not that I can really remember what we ate. I hope that what was, I am sure, a considerable cost, went to the orang-utangs. Alas I can find no photos although there must be some somewhere. And if you read Mrs. Beeton or any of the other Victorian food writers you will read of similar over-the-top picnics. Although technically I'm not sure whether you could call it a picnic - more an alfresco meal. Indeed I don't think Christopher Robin's party is really a picnic.

A picnic is a simpler affair - and again Christopher Robin does it perfectly.

If ever there was a picture of a perfect picnic this is it I think. A simple cloth on the ground and a small amount of food. The joy is in the peace and the companionship of the three little friends, and the perfect day. Never mind about the ants, and the mozzies, and the wasps ... That's reality. The picture is Utopia.

And if you look closely at Manet's masterpiece you can see the beautiful still life of the picnic in the lower corner. Fruit, bread, cheese and wine. All you need really. Not even a proper tablecloth.

So perhaps our wedding picnic was perfect after all.

And here is a picture of my own genuine déjeuner sur l'herbe - genuine in that it was in France. I think in a Paris park. That's me at the front. The couple at the back left are the parents of the French girl who was my exchange student - Simone - she must have taken the picture. I think the other couple are her aunt and uncle. It looks pretty idyllic doesn't it?

One of my very favourite cookbooks is Claudia Roden's Picnic, about which I have spoken before. I will end with a few words from her introduction to the subject of outdoor food.

"The pleasures of outdoor food are those that nature has to offer, as ephemeral as they are intense. A bird will sing his song and fly away, leaves will flutter and jostle the sunlight for a brief second - sky, flowers and scents have each their small parts to play in the perfect happiness of those enchanted moments. They serve, as Jean Jacques Rousseau said, to 'liberate the soul.'" Claudia Roden