Landepéreuse

Landepéreuse is a commune in the Eure department in Haute-Normandie in northern France.

Etymology

The origin of the name of Landepereuse is easy to find. It derives of the Norman way to pronounce "lande pierreuse" (stony land). The word "lande" comes from Gallic and indicates a dry ground where just few plants grow. Stony is due to the abundance and the size of the stones, sometimes multi metric that are presents in abundance. So this commune did not have been a paradise for the first inhabitants: it was probably difficult to clear and to cultivate at this time when tractors did not exist and metal or iron tools were expensive and rare.

Geography

Landepéreuse is a small rural village of Pays d'Ouche located in the south western Eure, in Normandy. Its surface is 892 ha. With uneven maximum of 48 m (altitude ranging between 187 m in the South-West and 139 m in the North-East; town hall at 170 m), this commune slightly undulating, is representative of the territories of Pays d'Ouche who announce already the hills of the Perche country in the south and the Pays d'Auge to a few kilometres in the West. It is constituted of fields, pastures, orchards and woods. These are sometimes separated by hedges, in which the principal species are: Hawthorn, the blackthorn (Sloe). The territory of the commune is crossed by two dry valleys.