Vadé published a series of fables that, without reaching the height of La Fontaine, said very good things in a nice form with graceful and charming amorous poems.

He soon became famous, but having had the misfortune to become a little too close to the anti-philosophe Fréron, Voltaire never forgave him and never missed an opportunity to taunt and heap scorn on "this prank Vadé" (as he called him in a letter sent 7 September 1774 to Marie Du Deffand).

These attempts proved fruitless when Les Visites du jour de l’An, which premiered on 3 January 1749 at the Comédie-Française, was presented only once, or La Canadienne was never performed at all.

Vadé depicted characters of a healthy and robust nature, with merits and defects, without the vain ornaments or ridiculous cosmetics with which they were burdened at the time.

Sternly criticized by Grimm, La Harpe and Collé who declared the poissard style "below nothing," Vadé had supporters and admirers, who called him the Teniers, the Callot of French poetry or the Corneille of Les Halles.