FOUNDER

Alice Nelson is a novelist, essayist and critic. Her books have been published to critical and popular acclaim all over the world, and her short stories, essays and reviews have appeared in a range of international publications. Alice is also an experienced teacher of writing, and has worked on a wide range of collaborative community storytelling projects, as well as teaching at various universities, writing centres and community organisations. She has run writing workshops for prisoners, refugees, survivors of torture and trauma, and at-risk youth. Alice is particularly interested in the ways that we make meaning through the stories we tell ourselves and others, and how the unique sense-making that narrative facilitates can enrich, transform and heal.

Alice is the founder of La Gonette, and teaches a range of writing and storytelling workshops, facilitates community writing projects and runs literary seminars and writing retreats.

CREATIVE & PROGRAM DIRECTOR

Amy is a therapist, meditation teacher, academic and creative consultant. An internationally-recognised compassion researcher, Amy is also a certified facilitator of several compassion and self-compassion based programs, including Compassion Cultivation Training and Mindful Self-Compassion Training. She has a extensive experience delivering these programs in therapeutic, community, and organisational settings.

Amy is passionate about creating spaces that integrate deep dialogue, intimacy and self-discovery with playfulness, joy and a reverence for the absurd. As the Creative Director and Head of Programming at La Gonette, Amy weaves together a thoughtfully curated blend of teachings and experiences designed to illuminate the human spirit, expand relational horizons, and foster greater sensitivity to the world around us.

HEAD OF REGENERATION & SUSTAINABILITY

Lou is highly experienced in the restoration of a diverse range of houses and gardens and is a talented landscape designer and skilled project manager. She was recently involved in the complete renovation of the Bastide des Chapelins in nearby Bonnieux and is well-versed in the traditional building and decorative techniques of the region. Lou has a special interest in sustainability, permaculture and ecological regeneration, and ensures that we incorporate these principles into all that we do at La Gonette. She is closely involved in running our volunteer program.

Lou is also an internationally recognised equestrian champion and horse trainer and runs her own horse stud, specialising in Andalusians.

DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS

Sally-Ann has had a diverse career spanning human resources, social work, administration and project management. She has lived in Provence for 15 years and has been extensively involved in managing multiple properties, curating travel experiences and providing a sought-after concierge service for visitors. Sally-Ann has also managed an international writers’ residency. She is a passionate animal-lover and volunteers at the local Société Protectrice des Animaux.

At La Gonette Sally-Ann manages all our operations and administration, coordinates guest services, event management and oversees our volunteer program. She also provides curated concierge and event planning services for guests who hire the property, or hold an event here.

FOOD & STYLING

Jeni is often considered in the same space as food, and what she brings to the table is indeed a feast, both literally and metaphorically. But that's only one element of her genius. Everything about Jeni comes back to her impulse to create. Her home is her studio and stage, an entire creative biosphere. A hunter, a gatherer, an assembler, a disassembler, a maker, a curator, a thinker, a sartorialist, and a dancer.

Her situational art - the way she lives her every moment - prompts us to see our own living space as if it too were a narrative base. She shows that the real art of the matter is here at home and in the everyday rhythms and rituals of our days.

FOOD & STYLING

Harriet Davidson lives for ripe figs and sun-kissed stone fruits. She dreams about good tomatoes with ribbons of anchovies. You’ll find her perched at a counter, briny oyster in one hand and a glass of cold white in the other; or at her desk writing with a little plate of cheese and a few plump prunes; or in the vegetable garden fondling ripe tomatoes.

A life of living between the islands of the Antipodes and the South Pacific — from New Zealand and Australia to Papua New Guinea and Fiji — she’s ferociously curious with a desire for connection to people and place through food, whether that be through growing it, cooking it, or writing about it. Harriet is an accomplished cook, a published writer and an acclaimed editor now based between France and Australia.