La salle de garde: bastion of the French lunch hour for junior doctors.

André, and some of the art dealers of the time. They visited him frequently and brought interesting people with them such as Rodin and Matisse, who visited Cagnes-sur-Mer a couple of times (fig 17). His cook and his chauffeur were devoted to him. The cook carried him in her arms around the house or garden, and his chauffeur drove him everywhere until the last months of his life, stopping at all the places that Renoir wanted to admire and paint. Without doubt Aline, his wife, was the most important person in his life (fig 18). She devoted her life to him, making sure that he had no worries about the household and that he was always surrounded by friends. The visitors and models were welcomed with open arms, and Aline’s excellent cooking and choice of good wine were well known. Her death in 1915 was a great loss to him. From that time on, his youngest son, Coco, who was only 14, took over his father’s care in the evening after the staff had left (fig 18). Renoir was completely dependent on him and made sure a teacher came to the house so that he could see his son as much as possible. He took great pleasure in teaching him ceramics in a specially built studio.