Abbaye de la Coudre, Trappistine abbey in Laval, France.

The Abbaye de la Coudre is a Trappistine convent in Laval with multiple buildings housing about 45 Cistercian nuns. The monastery functions as a working community where religious practice and artisanal production are woven together.

The community came from Darfeld in Westphalia and in 1816 took over the restored monastery of Sainte-Catherine near Laval, under the superior Elisabeth Piette; it became a priory in 1819 and an abbey in 1826. In 1859 the nuns moved to a new building at La Coudre, south of Laval, because the Paris-Brest railway line cut through their land. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and again in the First World War they turned the monastery into a hospital.

The nuns sell their cheeses under the brand Véritable Trappe, made from cow's milk with a washed rind using a method passed on by the monks of Port-du-Salut when the dairy was set up in 1868, and ripened in the abbey's vaulted cellars. A shop attached to the monastery sells these cheeses alongside the flan powders and leatherwork made in-house.

The monastery is located on Rue Saint Benoit in Laval and visitors can access an on-site shop run by the nuns. You can purchase handmade products including cheese, baked goods, chocolates, and religious items directly from the community.

The flan powder was launched in 1974 by a nun using a recipe and equipment inherited from a friend of the monastery; she mixed about ten kilos by hand and bagged it herself. Commercial success led to a larger mixer in 1977 and a bagging machine in 1989, reaching 500,000 sachets of 50 grams in six flavours. Pistachio and salted butter caramel joined in 2013 in 45-gram sachets.