History of the Saint-Paul

1851: Arrival of the first tourists thanks to the Paris-Nantes trainline : Noirmoutier is not at the end of the world anymore!

1875: This time, it was the Paris-Pornic trainline that was created, with more and more Parisian tourists arriving each year : Monsieur Rousseau, as a good businessman, rented out the spare rooms and prepared a few meals for his visiting guests : the Saint Paul boarding house was born, the first on the island..

Monday, July 3rd, 1890, baptism of the Villa Saint Paul, a property recently built by Mr. and Mrs. Paul Rousseau in Bois de la Chaise.

1909: Paul Rousseau, always dynamic and ambitious, decides to transform his boarding house into a grand hotel.
Joining forces with Jules Perraud (the husband of his wife's niece), as Paul Rousseau had no children of his own, he enlisted the help of a local contractor and two Parisian architects to bring a modern touch to the project.

1912: with the work completed, the Hôtel Saint Paul is firmly anchored in the Bois de
la Chaise and here to stay.

This hotel is a great success: during the holidays, mothers and their children come down to Plage des Dames. The women chatted while the children played on the beach or went for donkey rides.

Expansion work is undertaken by Jules, who has taken over from Paul, who is already too old. And activity continues in the establishment where, on some evenings, Jules serves up to 300 meals in the evening and 150 breakfasts in the morning.

But then, once again, came the War. On July 11, 1942, the Germans landed on the island and Noirmoutier was declared a forbidden zone.

Almost all the villas were requisitioned to house German troops. Only the Hotel Saint Paul was not requisitioned, as it was the only one capable of elegantly accommodating officers wishing to have lunch on the island.