The Perche

                        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. Perche is dominated by four topographical-featured:

• 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.