14/04/2026
Last June, joined us for our inaugural A Week in the Country — a reading and writing retreat with Michael Cunningham. It was the beginning of a wonderful friendship between La Gonette and Lindsey. In fact, we’ve spent the last few weeks speaking with brilliant women all over the world who will join us for a week with Lindsey this coming September. More on that to come, but for now, a piece that Lindsey has written for after spending that week with us last year.
Lindsey tells the story of landing at La Gonette …
At the time, La Gonette was largely abandoned. “It was very Miss Havisham,” recalls Alice Nelson. “Everything remained intact. There was still a game of cards on the table. Robert’s slippers were at the foot of the bed. Everything was covered in dust. The garden, already wild, had become completely un-manageable.” The rooms themselves, with their thick beams and whitewashed walls in shades of faded ochre and bluish-sage green, seemed to be holding their breath.
And writes of her time with Michael …
This spring, Michael Cunningham, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist for The Hours (1998), will once again host a week of readings and reflection in this place that has become a creative refuge for him. Last June, he confided: “I sense a strong feeling of continuity in these places, the impression that the house still bears the imprint of the full and rich lives that have passed through it.”
The story is linked in our bio, and is on our website.
Merci Lindsey, merci BEAU Magazine.
As always, endlessly fortunate to have capturing moments and days of La Gonette. All photographs are by Doreen.
