The sisters of Notre-Dame-des-Neiges in south-east France are prepared to move more than heaven and earth to save their mountain abbey and pay soaring electricity bills.

A dozen Cistercian order nuns are making ends meet by selling cleaning products made from their own spring water and essential oils on the internet and in local shops.

The nuns moved in to the abbey in the Ardèche, surrounded by more than 445 hectares (1,100 acres) of mostly woodland, 18 months ago after the Trappist monks who had previously occupied it for 170 years left because of dwindling numbers and a lack of new recruits.

The abbey’s most famous guest was the Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson, who stopped there in September 1878 aged 28 as part of his 12-day 120-mile solo hiking journey through the Cévennes mountains recounted in Travels with a Donkey in the Cevénnes published the following year.

Today, the original eight sisters who arrived in December 2022 have been joined by four new recruits bringing the average age in the order to 41 years.

The brothers had dedicated their lives to contemplation in silence and solitude. The sisters have taken another road; dedicating themselves to prayer and soap production and documenting their daily lives on social media. The order produces 400 bottles of cleaning fluids sold in the abbey shop or online.

“The electricity bill alone is running at €5,000 a month even though we’re extremely careful to be as economical as possible,” said Sister Marine in an interview with TF1 television.

In order to become energy self-sufficient by next year, the sisters have also launched a €100,000 crowdfunder to pay for solar panels on the abbey roof, generators in the streams that cross the grounds and are looking into geothermal energy for their electricity.

The Cistercian way of life is traditionally devoted to three occupations: the performance of the liturgy, manual labour and reading, with work being an important aspect of the order’s daily routine.

Videos show the nuns promoting their products, sold under the name Air des Neiges, with the slogan “a breath of nature in the home”, making snowmen and tobogganing.

Sister Marine says the approach is aimed at changing the image of monastic life.

“People often have a very austere vision of the monastic life, but that doesn’t prevent us from experiencing real joy, freshness and simplicity; it’s a way of saying to young people: we exist, if you’re interested in this life, it’s possible.”