Villeneuve Abbey, dedicated to Our Lady, was a Cistercian monastery at the present-day Les Sorinières, near Nantes in Pays de la Loire (formerly in Brittany), France, founded in 1201 and dissolved in 1790, during the French Revolution.

[5] Constance died in September 1201, perhaps following the birth of another daughter, and her body was intombed later that month in the oratory of her new abbey, the church of which had not yet been built.

[3] The abbey's church was consecrated on 25 October 1223, when the bodies of Constance, her last husband Guy of Thouars (died 1213), and their daughter Alix (died 1221), were transferred into it, with Étienne de La Bruère, Bishop of Nantes, officiating, supported by Guillaume de Beaumont, Bishop of Angers, in the presence of several important noblemen, including Aimery VII of Thouars and Amaury of Craon, Viscount of Beaumont, Seneschal of Angers.

[7] In 1789, during the French Revolution, with only eight monks remaining, Claude-François Lysarde de Radonvilliers, the last commendatory abbot, died, and the abbey was immediately nationalized and sold.

[8] However, Blanchard was soon disturbed by the War in the Vendée, when Villeneuve was turned into a stronghold of the Whites and was attacked by the Blues, its buildings burned out, and the trees surrounding the property cut down.

[1] Blanchard returned after the war and restored the hostelry, dating from the early 18th century, renaming it "château de Villeneuve".