The Charms & Challenges

  • At Églanterre, we politely ignore perfection.

  • Weeds, humans, animals and creativity run wild.

  • We make herbal things, beautiful things, edible things... and occasionally a glorious mess.

  • And we learn...a lot!

About Églanterre

On a ragged edge of an ordinary town called Écueillé, in the belly of France, lies Églanterre. In 2015, we bumped into this 5,000 m² piece of land. No one wanted it… just a rusty old barn, ground too steep, too rugged, too thorny, aghh, simply odd, to say the least. But when we stood there, surrounded by stillness, wild roses, brambles, hawthorn, agrimony and a sea of wild carrots elegantly rocking in the breeze, we knew: this place held something hard to pin down. Its refusal to behave, the stubborn nettles and brambles that guard it, the baby-pink roses with the wickedest thorns imaginable... We had to have it, and we have loved it ever since.

Over the years, under the matriarchal oak, ideas have come and gone. Some stayed long enough to take root, but the core idea, right from the start, stayed, grew blossoms and is finally blooming! The perfect imperfection, the ruggedness and the lack of any refinement are what we were wanting to share. Here we are then, turning it into existence... an unpolished, off-grid space for humans to gather, engage, share, learn, laugh and play, whilst coming up with limitless ideas and creation, be it art, plant remedies, or simply spotting a beautiful leaf or throwing your arms up into the air and dancing to the rhythm of the pecking woodpecker...

Oh, the endlessness of it all...

To me, plants and nature are inseparable from being human. How shocked I was when I started up my practice, by how far many people have drifted away from what we in essence are… nature in all its glory! Rooted in my training as a medical herbalist, and shaped by a love of music, creativity and an incurable urge to potter around outside, I’m therefore shaking together science, tradition, creativity and experience to give you a cocktail that is light, yet rich and informative or same thing just said in a different way, extensive enough to satisfy the curious mind, practical enough to be useful, and in total, enough to leave Églanterre undoubtablly tired but truly inspired !!

Life doesn't always
have to be serious.
Seriously.

I hope that by opening the gates to Églanterre, inviting you into my slightly unconventional world and way of doing things, you’ll be nagged by a growing desire to come and experience Églanterre as is ... untamed, unpolished but with a heart of iron ore (as good as gold isn't it?).

About me

I am nearer to 60 than to 50, South African by birth, was a rather awkward and shy child wandering off into the fields whenever I could, with my brown Dobermann dog, Svenli. I started my adult life working in a library, accidentally rolled into the world of art and theatre and spent many happy hours on stage with paint splotches on my hands and feet.

In 2011 I moved to Belgium to be with the love of my life, but the shock of suddenly living in a concrete jungle, nudged me into becoming a herbalist all over again (did a course back in South Africa many moons before)… ended up a medical herbalist, started a practice together with Karel, but I was left just short of strangled by the restrictions in Belgium… but where there’s a way, there’s a will. I have been dabbling with the idea of starting a herbal training centre in France. And so suddenly, the time was ripe for a new adventure. Églanterre!

Married to Karel De Brant, sculptor, BSR practitioner and counsellor. Match made in heaven. We have 4 children between the two of us. I have a brown Dobermann called Tao. My most favourite hobby at present is playing the piano to my potplants and accompanying Tao when she performs an operatic howl.