"This is a story about the color blue. It may dodge and weave, hide and deceive, take you down paths of love and history and inspiration, but it's always about blue."
— Prelude in Blue
Sacré Bleu is a novel by Christopher Moore set in 1890s France, it follows several painters, a physical muse, and the color blue. It begins with the murder of Vincent van Gogh, and it just gets stranger from there.
Sacré Bleu provides examples of the following tropes:
- Anti-Hero: Bleu, full stop. She's highly amoral, and finds no guilt and occasionally a fair bit of enjoyment in killing. But she truly does "love them all".
- Bittersweet Ending: The Colorman is dead and Lucien has his Juliette forever. But he can never go home, never see his friends or family again, and will have to make the Sacre Bleu for eternity or the love of his life will fade into nothing.
- Catchphrase: The Colorman's "Accident. Couldn't be helped."
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Le Professeur and his son, Le Professeur Deux. They may cross the line into moment of awesome, between #1's rat Ben-Hur and #2's steam stilts.
- Deadpan Snarker: Bleu, absolutely.Bleu: I want you to paint me nude.
Lucien: (dumbstruck)
Bleu: Well, you can leave your socks on. But other than that, nude. - A God Am I: Bleu refers to herself as "a fucking goddess", and she's not at all unjustified in doing so.
- Historical Domain Character: Several 19th-century painters play a role.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: "Cheesy Marie" is the exception, but Mireille and the others at the Moulin Rouge seem quite nice.
- In-Series Nickname: Subverted. "Poopstick" appears to be Bleu's nickname for the Colorman. Turns out that's his real name.
- Lovable Sex Maniac: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec spends much of his time in a brothel. But he's seen to be an extremely loyal friend and one of the more pleasant people in the novel.
- Mama Bear: Mere Lessard. She nearly brains Bleu with a crepe pan when she believes that "Juliette" is endangering her son.
- Ms. Fanservice: Bleu. She's been known to employ the "Look at these!" method when a conversation is not going her way.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: The Colorman. When asked what his first name is, he responds with "The". He was born in 38,000 BC and his name was originally "Two Grunts and a Shrug". This translates to "Poop on a Stick", so you can't really blame him.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Despite being 40,000 years old, the Colorman behaves like an unruly kindergartner, shrugging off his evil deeds with "Sorry, Accident. Couldn't be helped".
- Really 700 Years Old: Bleu and the Colorman (really 40,000 years old in his case, and maybe even older in hers), as well as Lucien at the end.
- Shown Their Work: As usual, Moore has done his research.
