Architecture and colours
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A red house in Trentemoult
Photo: Wikimedia CommonsFisherman’s house
A lane in Trentemoult
Photo: Wikimedia CommonsLate 18th century, a single bay, three storeys, tiled roof, outside stairs. The houses line up parallel to the Loire, a blank gable to the west against the wind, the front to the south.
Dormer and balcony house
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A house on quai Marcel Boissard
Photo: Wikimedia CommonsMid-19th century, with the building of the quays: moulded cornices, pulley hooks, rings for tying horses. The height of the stairs showed how optimistic the owner was about the floods.
Captain’s house
Rue Viau in Trentemoult
Photo: Wikimedia CommonsFirst terraced, then (1880-1900) detached houses with a hipped slate roof, two chimneys, wrought-iron gates and an exotic garden, rue de la Californie and rue Roiné.
Seaside villa
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An old shopfront on quai Marcel Boissard
Photo: Wikimedia Commons1880-1914, when Trentemoult becomes a holiday place: bay windows, ceramics, decorated roofs.
Contemporary architecture
Colourful façades in a Trentemoult lane
Photo: Wikimedia CommonsThe Cap-Horniers building (Dominique Perrault, 1986), the Maison des Isles (2001), the Jean-Jaurès school extended in 2008 with its copper façade, houses by Annie Lebeaupin.
Where do the colours come from?
No, they are not leftover boat paint – that is a pretty legend. Until the 1990s the façades stayed eggshell. In 1998 the architect Annie Lebeaupin, daughter of a village shipyard owner, painted her house bright red, explaining that Virginia creeper already turns the walls red every autumn. The town hall, which had already tried colour elsewhere in Rezé and launched the “Rezé les couleurs” festival, let it happen. New residents followed, also inspired by the sets of the film La Reine Blanche.
Exotic gardens
Palms, tulip trees, camellias, magnolias, lemon trees… brought back by sailors. An order of 1726 required captains to return with plants and seeds. The palm stood for crossing the equator.
Sources: Rezé Histoire no. 97 (April 2026), “3 walks to understand Trentemoult”, Rezé Histoire association – rezehistoire.fr. Texts rewritten by trentemoult.com; for more, get the magazine.