It’s a momentous picnic for a young couple to understand they are courting in Colette’s The Ripening Seed. With the summer half gone, Phil Adebert (sixteen and a half) and Vinca Ferret (fifteen and a half) pack their picnic baskets and walk down the rocky cliffs like “explorers, to eat out of doors in one of the deep clefts in the cliffs: a time-honoured pleasure.” Phil leads the way to the surf carrying nets and gear and looks back consciously to ask if Vinca needs help with the heavy baskets; she flashes her blue eyes and says, “Don’t bother!” They settle on a small open space of clean, smooth sand, spread a blanket, and eat lunch just before noon: litres of sparkling cider and mineral water, a baguette for sandwiches of buttered lettuce and cubes of gruyere, salt, ripe pears, and sardines. They are so adult; they use flatware and drink from glasses. Typically French, Vinca serves and cleans up while Phil relaxes.
Featured Image: Jacques Cura. Le Ble en herbe (1953)
See Collette. Le Blé en herbe. Paris: Flammaron, 1923; Claude-Autant-Lara. Le Ble en Herbe [The Game of Love ](1954). Screenplay by Jean Aurenche and Jean Aurenche is based on Colette’s The Ripening Seed; Mischa Sorer. The Ripening Seed (1973). The screenplay by Penelope Mortimer is based on Collette’s novel.