Courses
We want to help people to live differently, to have less impact on the planet and to be happier. That’s why we’re delighted to be able to offer permaculture, meditation, vegan cooking, fermentation and foraging courses.
Upcoming courses - but not until September 2025!
September 2025
Introduction to Permaculture, Fermentation and Foraging
October 2025
Introduction to Permaculture and Vegan Cooking
November 2025
Introduction to Permaculture and Meditation
December 2025
Introduction to Permaculture, Fermentation and Foraging
We're taking a sabbatical
Our main building is going to be upgraded over the next 12 months and we won't have sufficient bedrooms to host course participants, so we're going to take a sabbatical until September 2025.
WWOOFing and one-day permaculture courses
We will still offer WWOOFing opportunities and one-day introductions to permaculture for groups during the building works. Please contact us if you would like more information.
Find out about our permaculture teaching, the style of meditation we practise and our vegan cookery courses
Course details
Pricing
Our permaculture, meditation and vegan cooking courses are free! Instead of asking for money before a course, we give participants the chance to make a donation afterwards if they want someone else to benefit from a weekend with us.
Donations
This concept is called Dāna, which means generosity, charity or alms in Sanskrit. The idea is simple: if you feel you’ve learnt something during your time with us, then you donate so that someone else can benefit.
Other courses
Applied Permaculture
We also propose five-day Applied Permaculture courses structured around classes and practical workshops. It’s the ideal way to follow on from a weekend introduction course. Please contact us via info@lagranderaisandiere.fr for the programme and prices.
Permaculture for Groups
We offer one-day Introduction to Permaculture courses for groups. The day consists of a tour of the farm, an introduction to the principles behind permaculture, a vegan lunch and practical permaculture workshops. Please contact us via info@lagranderaisandiere.fr for more information.
WWOOFing
We also offer WWOOFing possibilities. WWOOF stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. It’s an exchange of services: the organic farmer promises to lodge, feed and, most importantly, teach the WWOOFer and the WWOOFer works 5-6 hours a day in return.
We accept WWOOFers from 1 March to 31 July and from 1 September to 30 November.
To WWOOF with us you need to sign up via WWOOF France.
Book a course at The Big Raise today
If you’d like to book a weekend course at The Big Raise, then please send us an email to info@lagranderaisandiere.fr and include your first name, surname, email, mobile phone number, dates of the desired course and mode of transport (e.g. Paris, train).
If you have any questions, please consult our FAQs here.
Why study at The Big Raise with Alexis & Blanche?
Alexis studied for his Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) with the late great Patrick
Whitefield, author of The Earth Care Manual, and has completed two permaculture courses (Forest Gardens & Micro Farms) with Charles and Perrine Hervé-Gruyer at France’s foremost permaculture farm, Bec Hellouin. He has also studied nut growing with Martin Crawford, author of Creating a Forest Garden. Martin is a nut tree specialist who is widely recognised as having created Europe’s finest forest garden.
Before moving to Paris in 2015, Alexis taught Introduction to Permaculture courses in London. He has completed five Vipassana courses (10-day silent meditation retreats) and has been vegan since his first silent retreat in May 2017. He’s taken numerous cooking courses, including at Leith’s School of Food & Wine in London and La Bastide des Saveurs in the Bandol region of southern France. More recently he has participated in vegan cooking courses at Sol Semilla restaurant and La Parenthèse Végétale cooking school, which are both in Paris. Alexis loves to cook and Blanche loves his cooking!
Blanche is a teacher in Paris. She incorporates permaculture thinking into many of her classes. She has also completed a 10–day silent meditation retreat (Vipassana). Blanche turned vegan in 2023 after watching the documentary Dominion, which graphically describes the brutality of factory farming and which shows that being vegetarian, in terms of animal suffering, is no better than being omnivorous.
Don’t take our word for it
Here are a few testimonials from some of the lovely people who’ve already taken one of our courses
