ABBAYE DE BOULAUR

To support their community and maintain the buildings, the nuns have started to produce and sell monastic products. At Boulaur Abbey, there is a time for prayer and another for work. Every morning at 5 o'clock, it is the prayer that opens the day in the abbey church, bordered by the fields of wheat and sunflowers. Immediately afterwards, the nuns go to work on their farm. The 25 nuns of the community produce cheese, pâté, jam and flour. This work on the farm on nearly 27 hectares gives rhythm to the hours at the abbey as much as to the liturgy. "We are real farmers and like the farmers we have the status of farmers," confides Sister Anne. Two of the sisters are agricultural engineers, another is in charge of the accounts and Sister Anne supervises the operations. Meanwhile, in the fields, five other sisters are mowing the hay. They have exchanged the thick monastic garb for a shirt, jeans, boots and a straw hat. Every day, week and Sunday, summer and winter, the nuns go about their farm work. After the morning liturgical services, the community's eight cows are milked by machine. "We have switched to monotraite, we produce less milk but it is richer," says Sister Anne, in charge of communication at the monastery. The sisters collect an average of 60 litres of milk per day which is immediately transformed into cheese by Sister Agnes.