It’s a difficult thing to define, La Gonette, and if you’ve spent time with us here, you’ll understand what we mean. One could say that it’s a 17th century manor house sitting at the base of village Simiane-la-Rotonde in the department of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. A chateau that’s now home to Australian author, Alice Nelson with her husband, her little boy and their three dogs.

A home filled with Alice’s collection of textiles and antique furniture, some of which has been in the house since its previous owner. Robert Kime, British antiques collector and textile aficionado, and friend of Alice’s, owned La Gonette for 20 years with his wife, Helen. Helen, also a writer, sadly died a few years after finishing the house and such was the depth of Robert’s loss, he rarely returned to their holiday home. He called the house a ‘sleeping beauty’ when Alice first met him, and as she lived locally at the time, she ended up tending to irises around the property that Robert had planted with Helen. Alice began to bring the home back to life, and has been doing so ever since buying the home a few years ago.

Afternoons scraping away the leaves that cover the iris bulbs and taming wild roses or brambles; bringing back Robert’s original furnishings and adding pieces from local antique stalls and markets; filling the cupboards with white, French antique bedding and napkins; and filling the pool with water – all of this has been part of waking the sleeping beauty. Another has been opening the doors of La Gonette to wonderful people. People who bring their desire for creativity, conversations, conviviality, connection; who understand La Gonette, and who bring with them a spirit of joy and play, a care for the world and a care for the people who fill it. People who have added layers and layers to bringing this historical home back to life.

‘I hadn’t believed such a place could exist: a place where my actual life coincided with the life I’d always dreamed about; a life that’s simultaneously languid and stimulating; a life in which — from talking about art and literature to picking wildflowers for the evening’s centrepiece — are revealed to be not only equally important, but equally satisfying.’ — Michael Cunningham

Through this, we’ve come to know, so deeply, that it’s the people that make a place of beauty. And it’s through this knowledge that we want to collaborate with like-minded creatives, writers, people who will continue to add layers and continue to help us create a place for connection and creation. We want to invite people into La Gonette to spend time sharing their knowledge, their care, their understanding, and in turn, connect people to one another and to the place they find themselves.