Perche-The Daily Ledger

Perche () (French: le Perche) is a former province of France, known historically for its forests and, for the past two centuries, for the Percheron draft horse breed. Until the French Revolution, Perche was bounded by four ancient territories of northwestern France: the provinces of Maine, Normandy, and Orléanais, and the region of Beauce. Afterwards it was absorbed into the present-day departments of Orne and Eure-et-Loir, with small parts in the neighboring departments of Eure, Loir-et-Cher, and Sarthe.

Toponymy

Perche is known by the following ancient Latin and French toponymic designations: saltus Particus, silva Perticus before the 6th century, pagus quem Pert[ic]ensem vocant and pagus pertensis in the 6th century, pagus Perticus no date and c. 815, Particus saltus in the 11th century, silva Perticus in 1045, [le] Perche in 1160 - 1174 and in 1308, Perche in1238, foresta de Pertico in1246, where the names starting by Pert or Part denote Perche, the terms silva and foresta mean forest, Saltus designates a wooded mountainous region, frontier, wildlife refuge, pagus means country, and silva pertica refers to a tall-treed forest.

Perche

An hypothesis put forth by the linguist Guy Villette based on the name Perche having initially designated the forest region, and not the province, would have Perche represent the pre-Celtic name of indo-european origin *perkʷ-ik-ā « (forest) with long trees », dissimilated into *pertika, and transmitted as such in the Gallic language, even though the initial p- was foreign to this language. The indo-european radical *perkʷu-, "large tree: oak, pine, fir, beech . . ." is also the origin of the Latin word quercus « oak » and the common Germanic word *furhu-, source of the English and German words fir and Föhre « pine ».

Perche

Until about the 11th or 12th century, such terms as pagus Perticus or pagus Pertecensis used in connection with Perche's ancient forest are accordingly understood to refer to a frontier region without precise geographical limits and thus not to a clearly defined political or administrative territory.

Perche

Geography

Before the French Revolution, Perche was bounded by the following ancient provinces: Normandy to the north and west, Maine to the west, Beauce to the east and Orléanais to the south.

Perche is dominated by four topographical-featured arcs:<ref>René Musset (1920). [https://www.persee.fr/doc/geo_0003-4010_1920_num_29_158_9178 Le relief du Perche], p. 99</ref> An outer arc marked by the high edge of a flat high plateau to the west and south of the Perche's eastern and northern limits An inner arc, concentric to the high plateau edge arc, defined by the Huisne River, a tributary of the Sarthe River, situated in Perche's irregular lowlands. Forest arcs in les collines du Perche'' (the Perche hills) on either side of the Huisne, consisting of a main forest arc off the Huisne's left bank stretching from Moulins-la-Marche to Montmirail and a secondary forest arc off the Huisne's right bank from Pervenchères to Le Thiel.

Within the Huisne watershed lie the three unofficial Perche capitals: Nogent-le-Rotrou (economic capital), Mortagne-au-Perche (administrative capital) and Bellême (historical capital).

The Perche hills are the source of numerous small tributaries of the Seine River watershed via the Eure, Avre, Iton and Risle rivers and the Loire River watershed via the Huisne, Loir and Sarthe rivers.

Perche's principal towns

The following table lists the principal towns in Perche province along with the distance of any given town to Condé-sur-Huisne, situated near Perche's geographic center:

Peripheral towns

Nearby towns in the four ancient provinces along the periphery of Perche province include (starting from the north, clockwise): L'Aigle, Dreux, Chartres, Châteaudun, Le Mans, Mamers, Alençon and Sées.

Economy

Agriculture and tourism constitute the economic focus of Perche's natural region, the largest parts of which are located within the departments of Orne and Eure-et-Loir, in the regions of Normandy and Centre-Val de Loire, respectively.

The Percheron breed of draft horses originated in Perche's Huisne river valley and is identified throughout the world as the Perche's most well known symbol. Apples (for hard cider) and pears are grown throughout the Perche territory.