Wings: Gifts of Art, Life, and Travel in France

by Erin Byrne

Paris Book Festival Winner
Next Generation Indie Book Award Winner - Travel
Next Generation Indie Book Award Finalist - Memoir
Best Books Award Winner

Reader's Favorite Five Star Review
Amazon Five Star

France is steeped in refined traditions, with its rich history, exquisite art, robust culture, and varied cuisine. Writer Erin Byrne was changed by traveling around this country with the ghosts of artists and historical figures who shared with her their guides to living.
WINGS: Gifts of Art, Life and Travel in France (Travelers Tales | March 15) is a collection of essays drawn from Byrne's travels across the country. From Cézanne’s studio in Aix-en-Provence to a tiny village in the Jura Mountains, from a neighborhood bistro on the Left Bank of Paris to a plain high above the Normandy beaches, she travels through France collecting stories, characters, tastes and secrets that act as ingredients for change, then takes those experiences and digs deeper to uncover meaning.
Henri Cartier-Bresson issues a challenge, Sainte Geneviève offers resilience, Salvador Dalí seduces, Picasso entertains, and a wrought iron sign portends the future. WINGS is about the gifts that we all glean from our travels. This book will inspire readers to unwrap their own images and impressions in a new way.

Genres: Travel

314 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 15, 2016

About the author

Erin Byrne is the author of Wings: Gifts of Art, Life, and Travel in France, editor of Vignettes & Postcards from Paris and Vignettes & Postcards from Morocco, and writer of The Storykeeper film. Her work has won numerous awards which include three Grand Prize Solas Awards for Travel Story of the Year, the Reader’s Favorite Award, Foreword Indies Book of the Year, and an Accolade Award for film.
Erin has taught writing at Shakespeare and Company Bookstore in Paris, at Book Passage, Sausalito, and on Deep Travel trips. She is host of the LitWings event series at Book Passage, Sausalito, which features internationally well-known writers, photographers, and filmmakers. Erin hosts literary salons in the Bay Area and Paris, and is on the Board of Advisors of Litcamp, the renowned juried writers’ conference.
Erin is working on Illuminations, a novel set in the Ritz Paris during the occupation, her screenplay Siesta is in pre-production in Spain, and she will teach “Deep Travel Andalusia, In Search of Duende”, in the caves of Granada in March, 2018. www.e-byrne.com.

Reviews

[Randal White · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful, wonderful book! Excellent writing, great storytelling, incredible insights into life. The book is a series of short stories about the authors experiences in France. Whether describing a cheese, exploring the site of D-Day, or "communicating" with famous, dead artists, she excels at the task. I'm really happy that I read this one!

[Vivienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

The stories in this book . . . are not meant to amuse or entertain, but to call forth responses"

"Stories of the gifts I've received from France" . . .

"wings from the statue Victory in Musee du Louvre."

" This is the adventure of travel: We see, we feel, we perceive. Receptors reach out from our depths toward what we need, and we have the potential to integrate into ourselves the transformative treasures of the world."

These quotes are just a taste of what these fabulous essays/short stories have to offer. First to say, I am a big fan of the short story/essay format. I love the tightness, the ability to present a snap shot without losing the depth of an issue. Second to say, this book has so much that I love: all things French, all things writing, all things travel, art, philosophy, imagination, introspection. . . no wonder I loved it!

Erin Byrne presents a series of insights into how travel has the ability to create change and expand one's horizons and one's understanding of oneself . . . If we are open to allowing that to happen. She presents connections between great works of art, writing and history and real life. I hope that the reading of these insights will allow my own imagination to expand and enhance my life. Undoubtedly, this book is not for everyone, but it is definitely for me! *****

[Doranne Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

Erin Byrne's Wings Gifts of Art, Life, and Travel in France took me on a delightful flight. I followed her into cafe's, where I too could smell the "scent of coffee" and hear the "knife plunging through a crusty baguette...." She also took me to worlds I know little of, history, art, culture, writing retreats, and shared her own adventures.

[Debra Hartsfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't like the short story format.

[Mark Smeltz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not a typical travel memoir, which is both to the good and bad. It's broken up into many "stories" centered around a particular moment, conversation, or piece of art from Paris. Some of these feel a little artificial and affected, as when she creates imaginary conversations with buildings and deceased artists. The book also feels slightly disconnected, as the stories are not always related to each other.

But the author can really turn a phrase when she wants to, which elevates even the less interesting bits into something more. I did also enjoy some of the wartime vignettes, which felt more poignant than some of the other sections, as well as her reflections on aging and the transformative nature of travel.

Thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy via NetGalley.com.

[Kimberly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Byrne is obviously a talented writer, a writer who can evoke an image or emotion very clearly, but this essay collection was quite different from what I had imagined.

Byrne is correct in saying that travel changes you. It broadens your mind, refreshes your spirit, and, in some cases, changes your thinking entirely. I adored my time in France and was eager to dive into her perspective.

That said, I found Byrne’s stories and memories a tad…boring and a bit disjointed! I could not read this collection in one sitting, rare for me, and forced myself to come back to it many times.

Perhaps I am not the audience for this type of travel memoir? As a librarian, I know the patron I would recommend this book to—the modern era non-fiction lover, the couch traveler, or the reader impatient for inner-reflection.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy.

[Eileen Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

The essence of France seeps through the memoir of the author's journey through France.
The essays cover the food, people and places that Erin met, tasted and visited.
Ideal summer reading.
I was given a digital copy of this book by the publisher Author Guide Travelers Tales via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review.

[Janis Newman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is just sumptuous! Rich with sensual detail, it's like a headlong dive into the richness of France itself!

[Tina Reynolds · Rating 1 out of 5]

Incredibly, painfully pretentious. Boring.

[Yato · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was looking forward to reading this book because it was about two things I am really interested in, France and writing but I just could not get into the book. Sometimes the author's style just doesn't suit you. Unfortunately I could not even finish the book.