Grann Kaz - One of Seychelles’ Last Standing Plantation House

The plantation house of L’Union Estate, known as Grann Kaz, was built in more or less its present French colonial style in 1818 by the corsair Jean-Francois Hodoul (1755-1833) who was originally from La Ciotat in France. It’s a wooden house with a thatched roof (which may have originally been covered wooden roof shingles (bardeaux) and is the oldest plantation house in Seychelles.

It was declared a National Monument in 1984. Several families subsequently owned and lived in Grann Kaz. The first owner of L’Union Estate was the Mellon family and the others were the Nageon de L’Estang, Moulinié, Hossen and Mittermeyer families. They all lived in the plantation house which remains one of the central attractions on the Estate. L’Union Estate is now owned by the Government of Seychelles.

The house was used as the set for part of the French film ‘Goodbye Emmanuelle” in 1977. Most French visitors asks for ‘La Maison d’Emmanuelle’ when they visit the Estate and the staff Social Club of L’Union Estate is called ‘Emmanuelle Club’.