Sentiers du Patrimoine ®
Le Perchay
Poursuivre jusqu’à la ferme du château.
Prochain point : Lat. 49.10883, Long.1.93276
At the beginning of the 19th century, far fewer buildings surrounded this square. The Café de la Mairie, visible in old postcards, occupied a building erected in 1842 on the site of a former garden. Like the restaurant at 12 Grande Rue, it also sold everyday groceries and haberdashery items to local residents.
The Café de la Mairie, however, offered something unique: a ballroom. It was the village's principal social venue, where people gathered to dance, celebrate and meet one another.
Another essential village business stood at No. 1 on the square: the farrier's forge. As paved streets became more common during the 19th and early 20th centuries, horses' hooves wore down more quickly, increasing the demand for skilled farriers. Their role was to shoe horses, protecting their hooves with iron horseshoes. Because they were accomplished metalworkers, farriers also worked as locksmiths and produced a wide range of agricultural tools and cutting implements.
During the 1880s, new legislation required every French commune to provide a public, secular school and a town hall. Le Perchay responded by constructing its present-day mairie (town hall) in 1882, just a short distance from the village square.
The building originally housed the municipal offices, the schoolteacher's living quarters and a classroom located at the rear. Set back from the street, with its large windows and double-pitched roof, it resembles an elegant middle-class residence rather than a public building.
The town hall was originally surrounded by the schoolteacher's garden, which served both as a vegetable plot and as an outdoor classroom where pupils learned the principles of agriculture. By the end of the 19th century, the schoolteacher was also organising evening lectures and community gatherings for adults—events that he reported were greatly appreciated by the villagers.
