Janine Montupet

Janine Montupet, a much-celebrated French novelist died Sunday morning at her Hailey, Idaho home, of natural causes.

Janine Montupet was born in Oran, French Algeria, of Provencal, Corsican, Italian, and Irish ancestry. Her parents Louise and Paul Poggi, moved to Paris when she was fifteen. Janine married aluminum foundry industrialist, the late Jean Montupet in Paris in 1947, and shortly thereafter wrote her first novel, "The Red Fountain" about the French colonists in Algeria, the first in her successful series of historical novels set in Algeria and published by Robert Laffont.

Later, while living in Normandy, she was inspired to write "La DenteIliere d' Alencon" ("The Lacemaker") a successful historical novel detailing the lives of the seventeenth and eighteenth century lacemakers of Alencon, who produced the finest lace to adorn European nobility.

Then Janine returned to her favorite subject, Algeria, and soon published "Couleurs de Paradis" ("Colors of Paradise") a novel about the cohabitation of the French colonists and the Arabs in Algeria. Intrigued by the French perfume dynasties, she then penned a saga about the perfume families surrounding Grasse, Haute Provence, and another historical novel dealing with a family of great chefs, "Un Gout de Bonheur et de Miel sauvage," (A Taste of Happiness and Wild Honey") and yet another novel on France's women's shoe industry, "Bal au Palais Darelli" ("The Ball at the Palace of Darelli"). Passionate about writing and story telling, Janine finished a total of twenty novels, published by Robert Laffont, Albin Michel, and Flammarion, publishing houses in Paris.

Continuously writing, she followed her children to the United States thirty years ago, to spend more time with her growing family. Janine is survived by her son, Jean-Paul Montupet and his wife Isabelle Montupet, their children, James Colin Montupet, Pauline and Peter Thomas Shanley; as well as her daughter Martine Montupet Drackett, Martine's husband, Dan Drackett, their children, Clementine Drackett Philbrick, Clementine's husband, and their children, Clementine Drackett Philbrick and Hunter Philbrick, and Aurelia Isabelle Drackett.

A private family memorial will be held when Janine's family convenes in Sun Valley for the Christmas holidays. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Hospice and Palliative Care of the Wood River Valley Post Office Box 4320, 501 First Avenue North Ketchum, Idaho 83340-4320 USA (208) 726) 8464 or www.hpcwrv.org,
hospice @wwrv.svcoxmail.com.

Please visit www.woodriverchapel.com to leave a condolence, share a photo or light a candle.

For more information: dan@drackettsv.com, martine@drackettsv.com (208) 578-9200