Vianne (French pronunciation: [vjan]; Gascon: Viana) is a commune in the Lot-et-Garonne department in southwestern France.

The territories of Aquitania and Gascony were highly desirable lands and in order to protect and also control the people living there a series of fortified villages, “bastides” were founded from about 1229.

Vianne had a sad life, was married twice without producing any children and in 1281 in a convents she had founded in Condom she would die.

To continue the policy of fortifying the area it was decided in 1284 to construct a bastide on the lands at Vilalonga and it was named after Vianne de Gontaud Biron.

They were expected to provide soldiers for the English monarchy and its overseas wars and also enjoy a lavish lifestyle.

Farmers didn't make a lot of money, and mostly grew grain and raised enough cattle to live on, with only a little left over.

Lords needed another way to finance their lavish lifestyles and the crusades, plus whatever demands the church also made for financial support.

Frequently the pareage was between the local lord, in this case Jourdain de l'Isle and a sovereign power, Edward 1 of England.

The laws of the bastide said that trade could only take place in the market square, and the purpose of the covered central area was to protect the weighing and measuring devices of the lord's representative and tax collector.

Over an inside area of about 10 hectares, only part of the land was allotted to the first inhabitants and the space in the village was far from being wholly occupied by housing.

Again retaken by the English it changed hands several times over the next hundred years before it was finally relinquished to the French crown in 1442.

The old railway station is the workshop for a glass blowing craftsman and other craftspeople work in the village, e.g. a leather worker, a furniture restorer and a potter.

The Albret valley, a tourist area with Nérac as its capital, is crossed by the Tenarèze - an ancient Roman road - and boasts a fortified mill, castles dating from the 13th, 14th and 17th centuries, other bastides and Romanesque churches scattered over hilly countryside partly covered by the Buzet vineyards.

Vianne has fine restaurants and small shops and is a popular tourist stopover particularly in the summer with its evening market.