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Perche (French pronunciation:[pɛʁʃ]ⓘ) (French:le Perche) is a formerprovince of France, known historically for its forests and, for the past two centuries, for thePercherondraft horse breed. Until theFrench Revolution, Perche was bounded by four ancient territories of northwestern France: the provinces ofMaine,Normandy, andOrléanais, and the region ofBeauce.[a] Afterwards it was absorbed into the present-daydepartments ofOrne andEure-et-Loir, with small parts in the neighboring departments ofEure,Loir-et-Cher, andSarthe.[2]
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 andpagus pertensis in the 6th century,pagus Perticus no date andc. 815,Particus saltus in the 11th century,silva Perticus in 1045,[le] Perche in 1160–1174 and in 1308,Perche in 1238,foresta de Pertico in 1246,[3][4] where the names starting byPert orPart denotePerche,[b] the termssilva andforesta mean forest,[c]Saltus designates a wooded mountainous region, frontier, wildlife refuge,[d][e]pagus means country, andsilva pertica refers to a tall-treed forest.[f]
A hypothesis put forth by the linguist Guy Villette based on the namePerche having initially designated the forest region, and not the province, would havePerche 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 initialp- was foreign to this language.[5] The indo-european radical *perkʷu-, "large tree: oak, pine, fir, beech . . ." is also the origin of the Latin wordquercus "oak" and the common Germanic word *furhu-, source of the English and German wordsfir andFöhre (pine family), respectively.[5]
Until about the 11th or 12th century, such terms aspagus Perticus orpagus 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.[6]
Before theFrench Revolution, Perche was bounded by the following ancient provinces:Normandy to the north and west, Maine to the west,Beauce to the east andOrléanais to the south.
Perche is dominated by four topographical-featured arcs:[7]
Within the Huisne watershed lie the three unofficial Perche capitals:Nogent-le-Rotrou (economic capital),Mortagne-au-Perche[8] (administrative capital) andBellême[9] (historical capital).[10]
The Perche hills[g] are the source of numerous small tributaries of theSeine River watershed via theEure,Avre, Iton andRisle rivers and theLoire River watershed via theHuisne,Loir andSarthe rivers.
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:
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 andSées.
Agriculture and tourism constitute the economic focus of Perche's natural region, the largest parts of which are located within the departments ofOrne andEure-et-Loir, in the regions of Normandy andCentre-Val de Loire, respectively.
ThePercheron breed ofdraft horses originated in Perche'sHuisne river valley and is identified throughout the world as the Perche's most well known symbol. Apples (forhard cider) and pears are grown throughout the Perche territory.
Perche's prehistory is manifested bymegaliths (dolmens,menhirs) and prehistoric tools of flint, bronze, and iron.[11]
Perche was essentially a region between other regions:
". . . the Perche was not based on an existing administratative unit, such as its neighbors, the counties of Maine andChartres, nor was it coterminous with an ecclesiastical jurisdiction. It grew up at the margins of several larger units, and there was no major population focus nor great religious centre such as a cathedral or ancient abbey within it. It owed its existence to the ambition and energy of successive members of a lineage of warrior elite."[2]
The Romans found possession of the Perche forests was necessary for the conquest of the vastArmorique and Normandy territories extending from theLoire estuary off the Atlantic coast toDieppe off theEnglish Channel.[12]
Until the Viking or Norman invasions in the 9th century, Perche was a relatively remote area bounded on all sides by the followingGaul-Roman territories andCeltic peoples: to the east and south theCarnutes people in Chartrain territory based inChartres; to the northeast theAulerques Eburoviques people in Évreux territory based inÉvreux; to the southwest theAulerques Cénomans people in Maine territory based inLe Mans; and to the northwest the Hyesmois (Essuins) people in Exmes territory based inSéez.[13] These territories eventually became first Romancivitates, to then become the dioceses ofChartres,Evreux,Le Mans andSéez. that did not change significantly in terms of geographical limits until the Revolution.[14][15][16] Thus Perche has traditionally been shared between three of these four dioceses as follows:[17]
In theMiddle Ages, the County of Perche was controlled by an independent line of counts. By the 12th century, two large families contended for control of the Perche region: the Talvas ofBellême family and theRotrou family of Nogent-le-Rotrou. In 1114, Rotrou III annexed Bellême. In 1226,Count Geoffroy V would have been a leader of theFourth Crusade had he not died before its departure to the Near East. This end of the Rotrou dynasty led to the region's annexation to theCrown of France (by inheritance). At this time, the crown divided part of the region to create the county ofAlençon. After 1325, both counties were generally held by a member or members of acadet branch of theHouse of Valois. During theHundred Years War, partisans of England plundered Perche, destroyed its nobility, and burned many castles and abbeys. In 1449, free from English domination, Perche began reconstruction. Upon the death of Alençon's last duke (1525), rule returned to and remained under the French crown, and was granted only sporadically thereafter.[2][11][12]
In the three decades starting in 1632, a large proportion of immigrants toNew France came from Perche, in what has been called the Percheron immigration movement.[18] Many Percherons were thus recruited to work inseigneuries being establishing along theSaint Lawrence valley. TheBeauport seigneurie, New France's first agricultural-oriented seigneurie, was granted in 1634 toRobert Giffard de Moncel by theCompany of Hundred Associates. While the total number of emigrants was small, Perche had a much higher rate of emigration to New France than most other regions of France. Nearly allFrench Canadians have some ancestors from the villages of Perche.[11] Prominent last names from Perche who came to Canada starting just before the end ofSamuel de Champlain's tenure include: Côté, Boucher,Cloutier,Guyon (Dion), Tremblay andParadis.[19]
After the French Revolution, Perche was divided into four departments: Orne, Eure-et-Loir, Sarthe, and Loir-et-Cher. At this time, national law replacedFR:coûtume du Perche or local, customary law.[11]
In 1998, the government of France created the Perche Regional Nature Park (Parc naturel régional du Perche – seeFR:Perche (région naturelle)).[20] The park is forested mostly by beech, birch, chestnut, oak (especially sessile and pedunculate species), as well as conifers (especially Douglas fir and pine species)[21] populated by wildlife including boar, buzzard, deer, squirrel, woodcock and woodpecker species.[22][23]
Réseau hydrographique, Nom du cours d'eau - la Chippe [Mortagne-au-Perche is located at the source of this tributary of the Huisne River]
Réseau hydrographique, Nom du cours d'eau - la Même [Bellême is located at the source of this tributary of the Huisne River]
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