Postcards from France is a story of how the sensual powers of this essentially feminine country, healed a profound loss of love, identity and place. Seeking peace and joy after the death of the two most significant people in her life, the author returns to France - a place where she feels an inexplicable sense of belonging. "Here I become the person who lives inside my skin, not the person who lives inside my house and inhabits my job." Stories of French experiences move through the ages taking you from the sublime to the repugnant, the humorous to the poignant. "Madame Paris sits proud and sanguine with her Mona Lisa smile, hinting at her knowledge of what has happened throughout the centuries, without judgment, without sentiment. She glances at her cobblestone streets that once ran with blood as she gestures to her elegant opulence. She flips through the dissent and the creativity with no discernable preference and mingles all that she has been and seen into an infallible sense of self." You will travel to some of the most enthralling villages in Provence, the best of Normandy, Brittany, the regal Loire Valley and the incomparable Paris, as the author digs into the history of new and familiar parts of France for colour, context and meaning, then sends it home on postcards to herself . Salut, I am sitting in history, in the sun-flecked shade of a plane tree that could have been planted when Mozart was learning to play piano or when Marie Antoinette was attempting to figure out her bewildering husband and king of France, Louis XVI. Remember this moment. Je suis très content. With love, me.
About the Author: In primary school Gai Reid was constantly snapped back into the classroom by the teacher. She was off on little adventures in her head. But Gai shied away from writing, believing her creative talents were all about art and needlework. Gai studied Graphic Design which led her to the television industry. After a few years of graphics she was seduced by the multi-dimensional expression that was possible in production. For twenty years she produced factual programs including documentaries, developing her writing skills and finding her "voice". It was here that she discovered her ability to distill the essence of a story through research. Since Gai's first visit to France in 1999, she has read books and blogged bout France, sharing her photos and stories. She has written travel articles for magazines and newspapers, but watching the chapters of a book grow became intoxicating. What really makes Gai Reid sparkle is finding the right words and framework to share the joy that fills her so utterly when she is hearing the French language, absorbing the history, staring at the art and architecture, consuming the food and wine or just walking in Paris. Writing about France, creating a mini-movie on the page is now what keeps her invigorated until she can board another flight for Charles de Gaulle Paris to collect more stories.