Abbaye de Chambarand, Cistercian abbey near Roybon, France

Abbaye de Chambarand sits at about 600 meters elevation in the Chambaran state forest along a small stream in southeastern France. The building was constructed on a former farmhouse site and now serves as a monastery with workshops.

Founded in 1868 by monks from Sept-Fons on the Galauret stream, the monastery was named Notre-Dame Immaculée in 1872, became an abbey in 1877 and saw its church consecrated in 1878. Closed by anticlerical laws in 1903, it reopened in 1931 when Trappistine nuns from Maubec and Mâcon settled here. In 2020 Bernardine sisters from the Jassonneix priory took over.

The monastery's name, Notre-Dame du Sacré-Cœur, was carried over from the Mâcon community that moved here in 1931. The nuns supported themselves by making Trappist cheese from raw milk bought from neighbouring farmers until 2003, when the cheese-making stopped and the equipment was sent to Algeria. Since 2020 Bernardine sisters have run a cosmetics laboratory with the Trappist abbey of Nový Dvůr in the Czech Republic.

The monastery is not open to visitors; the community lives a cloistered life, so the buildings and grounds cannot be toured. The site lies in the Chambaran state forest on the plateau at 616 m, reached by small forest roads near Roybon, so plan the route in advance.

The sisters produce natural cosmetics here in partnership with a Trappist monastery in Czech Republic. This craft tradition connects monastic communities across borders.