Perche

thumb|right|Bellême, one of Perche's capitals thumb|Location of Perche in France thumb|17th-century map of Grand Perche and Perche Gouet 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: , before the 6th century, and in the 6th century, no date and , in the 11th century, in 1045, in 1160–1174 and in 1308, in1238, in1246, where the names starting by or denote , the terms and mean forest, Saltus designates a wooded mountainous region, frontier, wildlife refuge, means country, and refers to a tall-treed forest.