Tatigaba.

Tatigaba by Emilie Johnson | Illustrations: Marie Joly

The Christmas present I gave out this year was a children's book I wrote and created - in both French and English, illustrated by my heavily talented sister-in-law, Marie.

This project was inspired by a trip that Marie and I took in May, 2009. Christened "Tatigaba" by Marie - the name of the clown/artist - the main character in this book. It is a children's book, but hopefully its audience will be wider than that. Our trip was to Entrevaux, France - a little mountain village in les Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. Gaby lives there. Gaby is Xavier and Marie's aunt and she is magical. I left Entrevaux feeling like I had read some sort of poetry I never knew existed before going there.

And then there is Marie. Marie - the artist. Marie is a wonder and I'm lucky to be related to her through Xavier. Clearly, the shining part of this book is its illustrations.

If you like it enough, you can buy a copy.

Marie's Drawings from Tatigaba.

Dream team.

These people are all my siblings/parents - enough people for two full basketball teams
(not even counting baby Grace - although she was the good luck charm).

Johnsons in the wilderness.

Any Johnson gathering means a lot of movement in outdoor spaces. Age is no matter. Rain - not a problem. Gear, we've got tons of it. Coming home is like going to singing/dancing/cooking/competitive sports/nature camp.




Andrew helps everyone brush up on Thriller skills.




Marc acts like he owns the hinterland.

Firs.

Snowshoeing.

From this.

To this.

Meet Jean-Pierre, Bambi, Esther, Lucile and Frank.


And Sam.

Paroles...Paroles.

Si tu n'existais pas déjà, je t'inventerais.

If you didn't exist already, I would invent you.

(Dalida and Alain Delon singing "Paroles...Paroles" - a French classic, according to local French sources. Things to like about Dalida: Italian born in Egypt - naturalized French, her Italian accent while singing French, masculine beauty - almost like a drag queen, her life-size statue at her grave in the Cimetière de Montmartre [not to mention Place Dalida just around the corner], the eyeliner).

Gasolier.

Temple of Dendur.

The company I work for held its 25th anniversary celebration last night at the Metropolitan Museum in the Temple of Dendur (you know the circa 15 BC one). It was pretty spectacular and the museum itself was also open to us for sauntering.






Xavier just doesn't stop looking dapper. He can't help it.