On October 11, 2026, a team from Village Mosaïque traveled to Chardonne, in the hills overlooking Lake Geneva, to meet with La Grande Tablée, a community that embodies the values of solidarity, environmentalism, and spirituality in its daily life. With a warm welcome, new discoveries, and inspiring conversations, this visit helped forge bonds centered on a shared aspiration: to care for others, nature, and all living things.
"A spiritual reserve within a nature reserve"
On October 11, a group of us from Village Mosaïque went to visit our sister community, La Grande Tablée.
La Grande Tablée is an organization dedicated to promoting a lifestyle based on solidarity, environmental stewardship, and sustainability. It aims to provide a setting that fosters community life, prayer, hospitality, and service.
Several families, couples, and singles have taken over the former abbey of the Poor Clares, carrying on its ecumenical vision, characterized by great spiritual openness and a close connection to nature.
They work the land, share their life experiences and knowledge, welcome visitors, and pray together, grounding spirituality in the material world.
We were warmly welcomed by Vanessa, Flavie, Sibelly, Antoine, Maude, and Jean-David, the community’s baker and vegetable farmer.
They welcomed us with a delicious squash soup, sage tea they had just picked from their garden, and a delicious apple crumble for dessert.
Learning about each person’s life journey and spiritual aspirations was at the heart of our conversations, and we already felt like part of their family.
They then gave us a tour of the grounds, including their library of priceless antique books, their enormous vegetable garden, their sheep, their chickens, their winter squash supply, and their magnificent stone chapel nestled among the trees.
All this with a breathtaking view of Lake Geneva and the mountains of Valais and France.
Their philosophy of life is based on four pillars: hospitality, community, service and ecology, and spirituality.
The La Grande Tablée association is helping to achieve the following objectives at the Grant Part site:
Assistance for Vulnerable People
Preservation of ecosystems and their biodiversity
The conservation and restoration of historic buildings
Promoting a lifestyle based on solidarity, environmental responsibility, and sustainability
And here’s some good news: they’re currently looking for members to join their fun-loving team!
For Village Mosaïque, it’s a blessing to have a natural setting right next to Lausanne where we can put certain aspects of our EcoChurch commitment into practice.
Our next visit to La Grande Tablée is planned for early spring, so we can join the community’s annual participatory gardening workshop and get our hands in the soil—and our hearts in the work!
To conclude, we’d like to share this remarkably sensitive piece, written by one of the last sisters who lived on the estate:
A path winds its way alongside a stream, winding through bushes and shrubs.
Enter the realm filled with the rustling of trees and the calls of birds.
To move forward in this harmony as a step toward the depths of one’s own origin, into the secret of the body.
To walk there in silence. To experience there the connection with the origin of all the elements of creation, just as every human being does.
Find your way to yourself by pausing. Pause at the invitation of the sequoia planted at the center, at the crossroads of the paths: toward the house, toward the farm, and, straight ahead, the path up to the chapel.
With its doors open, it draws every believer.
She takes him into her shadow and guides him toward the radiant Christ in the stained-glass window.
There he is, holding a globe of the Earth in one of his hands.
The silence is punctuated by the sound of a drop of water.
The entire estate is nourished by a single source: the gift of water, the fertility of that gift, and the invitation to step into the heart of harmony.
There, at the Grant Part, one can see and experience a parable: humankind receives all of creation as a gift.
Thus, everything becomes harmony and peace when relationships are in balance.
This Grant Part is “a spiritual reserve within a nature reserve.”
Sister Marie-Gabrielle (2016)
The community regularly organizes events and workshops.
Volunteering: Every Monday from 2:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., with the option to share a dinner on-site until 7:00 p.m.
To learn more:
Website: www.lagrandetablee.ch
Contact: lagrandetablee@outlook.com
Address: La Grant Part, 13 Chemin des Crosettes, Chardonne (VD).
Press Articles: Press | The Big Table
After monastic experience and extensive travel between Angola, Sweden and the United States, Claudio has deepened his understanding of cultures, religions and spiritual approaches. Life Coach and certified preacher at the United Methodist Church in Princeton (USA), he is currently pursuing pastoral training at the University of Geneva and within the Swiss United Methodist Church. Father of two, he joined the co-creation of Village Mosaïque in 2022.
