Les hôtels particuliers

Economic development

The commune of Vue underwent a number of architectural changes during its economic expansion in the 17th and 18th centuries.
At that time, the Tenu, which was still navigable, provided a link between the city of Nantes and the communes of the Pays de Retz. As a result, all trade passed through Vue.
Goods were continuously transported along the Tenu towards the south of the Pays de Retz or towards Nantes. Vue, being located close to the Loire estuary and the port of Nantes, had privileged access to the river.


The merchants

This passage for merchants and people meant that Vue became an important trading centre, as evidenced by the rich residences of the past.
Wealthy merchants from major trading towns soon settled in Vue, which was a very prosperous town at the time. They bought land and had mansions built. These were imposing, luxurious houses built in the very heart of the village for the same family.

They were generally people who had made their fortune in Nantes by trading in products and goods such as sugar, cloth and spices.


Family buildings

Private mansions are distinguished from other houses by their architecture and positioning. They are set back from the street between a courtyard and a garden.

However, the construction of the Buzay canal and then the Basse-Loire maritime canal brought this economic expansion to a halt. With river trade no longer passing through the Tenu, Vue became a rural community over the years.


Some of these buildings, which bear witness to Vue's economic importance at one time, can still be seen in the village today:


2 place Sainte-Anne: this bourgeois house was built at the end of the 18th century by Claude Aubinais, from a family of merchants in Nantes, Vue, Paimboeuf and Saint-Domingue. The owner had three other brothers, merchants in Vue, and all of them built middle-class houses in the village of Vue. In 1911, one of his descendants rented half of the house to the Post and Telegraph Administration until 1965.
2 rue de la Tannerie: before the Revolution, the presbytery occupied the premises. The estate, a former tenant farm, was sold as a national asset and several buyers shared the property. Dominique Hannel, a former monk from Buzay Abbey, was appointed constitutional priest of Vue and bought the gardens. Charles Aubinais bought the former presbytery. Two other families owned various pieces of land belonging to the parish and the tenant farm. Aubinais bought back the gardens in 1795 and extended the residence with a new building. In 1804, he sold the entire property (garden and presbytery) to a family that had produced several generations of doctors. The property was used as a doctor's surgery until the 1980s. More recently, after extensive renovation work, a bed and breakfast opened in the former doctor's surgery in 2017.
43 route de Paimboeuf: this 18th-century house was the second home of the Marionneau family, shipowners from Paimboeuf. Its pediment bears the following inscription: "1790, Brunes et le Vilains. A Republican detachment occupied it during the Revolution. It remained in the same family until 1991.
15 route de Nantes: this house dates from the late 18th century and was built by one of the four Aubinais fathers. It has only windows on the street side. A porch preserves the privacy of the L-shaped house, which opens onto parklands. The outbuildings are made of stone and brick.
5 rue Royale: this building is a former 18th century coaching inn.



Sources: Le Patrimoine des communes de la Loire Atlantique (published by Flohic, 1999), Association Vue sur le marais.