Le Perche is classified as a région naturelle in France, as are, for example, la Sologne and la Brenne, both of which are closer to Saint-Aignan. Le Perche is known not for wine, but for horses and manor houses. Since it's in Normandy, I suppose it is also known for rain. I looked it up — the region gets about 100 millimeters more precipitation annually than the Saint-Aignan area gets.
That's about four inches, which might not seem significant... but when you consider that the rain falls mostly as mist or drizzle, it means that a lot more days are gris and triste in le Perche than in la Touraine. That's why we decided not to go live in Normandy back in 2002, when we were getting ready to pick up and move to France from San Francisco, which is also known for drizzle, mist, and fog.
You have to admit that all that light rain makes le Perche very green. Above is the town of Bellême seen from the road that runs through the region. My late friend Charles-Henry I were driving from Paris to the big town Alençon on a rainy May day in 2015. It takes about two hours if you don't do too much sight-seeing. More tomorrow...
Is that a church, with all of those pointy peaks? Very unsual!
ReplyDeleteHere's a link to the Monumentum page about the Église Saint-Jouin in the village called Perche-en-Nocé..
DeleteThose horses are the kind my dad rode as a child as they pulled the plow. He was paid a nickel a day. That was back in the early 1900s.
ReplyDeleteDo you think they are Percherons?
DeleteThey are big horses but not Percherons who have really big feet. Maybe distant relatives
DeletePretty green rolling hills. Could be upstate NY, except for the architecture.
ReplyDeleteYep. Beautiful countryside that end of May day 11 years ago.
DeleteC'est moi Anonymous.
ReplyDelete