Landepéreuse

Landepéreuse is a former commune in the Eure department in Normandy in northern France. On 1 January 2016, it was merged into the new commune of Mesnil-en-Ouche.[2]

Landepéreuse
Part of Mesnil-en-Ouche
Location of Landepéreuse
Landepéreuse Landepéreuse
Coordinates: 49°00′19″N 0°38′21″E
Country	France
Region	Normandy
Department	Eure
Arrondissement	Bernay
Canton	Bernay
Commune	Mesnil-en-Ouche
Area ^1	8.92 km^2 (3.44 sq mi)
Population  (2017)[1]	390
• Density	44/km^2 (110/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal code	27410
Elevation	139–192 m (456–630 ft) (avg. 188 m or 617 ft)
^1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km^2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

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.

• The first, most important, topographically, crosses a small zone of the territory, between the Borough and Hiette in North and Dupinière and Nobletière in the South. Its uneven in this zone, on the northern slope abrupt, reached 20 Mr.
• The second, known in the past under the name of Valley of Theil in Ouche (chart of Cassini 18th century), the most developed in surface, gives the axis (south-western/north-eastern) biggest length of the commune. It starts in Pontaurey between 186 and 187 m of altitude, pass below Long Pierre in the old territory of Theil in Ouche at about 175 m of altitude, crosses the small northern diverticulum of the commune of Epinay (locality Sbirée). We find it between Pasnière and Fortinière in North and Hamel in South, at about 168 Mr. It passes in north of the borough, below the church, at about 165 m (few years ago, a small bridge edified to span it, along the communal way n°13 could be saw). Lastly, it leaves the commune in the North of Boulaye at the altitude of 158 Mr. Its topography is always rather little marked, but the total uneven observed is about 30 Mr. Since the middle of the 1980s an underground drain follows the middle of this valley.

The valley runs in January 2008

Regularly, each year, during strong rain, these two valleys run during few hours to few days (see below the longest valley in January 2008). During the important wet episode in the beginning of 2001 (floods in the Somme), those more in the east ran during a few months.

Geology

Landepereuse geological maps.
Five-pointed stars represent sandstones those to three-pointed branches, the "bétous" (Superficial Karst).
LP : limon
C : colluvions
RS : residual formations

The geological basement of the commun consists of the geological strates commonly encountered in the Paris Bassin ("o.b..") from the latter primary to the Holocene. Only rare rocks and formations are, or have been accessible to humans. The oldest are of upper Cretaceous.

They are formed of marly chalk exploited formerly in underground quarries, for a long time abandoned. We can see in the landscape, the old fallen down wells access and the cave-in, locally known as bétous (or boitous): (bétoire s in the French version) (see left side, the geological map).

On the surface, we see in abundance in some areas of the commune sandstones of Cenozoic age (see map) geological). They can grow to a plurimetric size. No fossil (macro or micro) have been observed. So their age may not be precisely specified. For some authors their appear to be sandstones of Paleocene age, such as those visible at the top of the surrounding chalk cliffs of Dieppe or the Tréport and nearly of Bosc Renoult for example. For another, their appear to be sandstone of Oligocène age, such as those well known of the Fontainebleau forest to the South of Paris or Séran mound in the French Vexin. From a scientific study, many thin blades have been cut to try to remove this ambiguity. They have only shown one cristallized charophyte oogone ( reproductive seaweed cells) (currently living in freshwater) not datable.
Around valleys we can observe heterogeneous rocks (flint, pure sandstone, more or less strongly ferruginated sandstone...), heterometric (centimetric to pluridecimetric), relatively well rolled. This geological set reminds alluvium, inheritance of the passed valleys activity, with a relatively high current speed (such as the Charentonne today) (RS on the geological map).
The other parts of the commune is coated with limon (see geological map), not very thick compared to that we can encounter in the Lieuvin or in the Campagne d'Evreux. This layer provides a fertility relative to the ground of the commune.
Because of the sandstone and cailloutis abundance, Landepereuse would not have been a paradise for its first inhabitants: it was probably difficult to clear and cultivate its ground at a time when tractors didn't exist and iron or at least metal tools were rare or expensive. By the finness of the limon, this commune was, before the advent of organic fertilizers, a land of extensive farms and survival food. Therefore, geology is the origin of the landscape of this typical bocaged village of the Pays d'Ouche. Limons, here of brown color, decalcified and clay concentrated by the paedogenesis (lehm) could however be used in this commune for bricks manufacture.

Population

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% 1846 493 —     1851 515 +4.5% 1856 503 −2.3% 1861 500 −0.6% 1866 421 −15.8% 1872 398 −5.5% 1876 398 +0.0% 1881 378 −5.0% 1886 365 −3.4% 1891 330 −9.6% 1896 315 −4.5% 1901 331 +5.1% 1906 315 −4.8% 1911 330 +4.8%

Year Pop. ±% 1921 268 −18.8% 1926 268 +0.0% 1931 260 −3.0% 1936 261 +0.4% 1946 284 +8.8% 1954 278 −2.1% 1962 252 −9.4% 1968 263 +4.4% 1975 253 −3.8% 1982 243 −4.0% 1990 233 −4.1% 1999 248 +6.4% 2008 304 +22.6%

See also

• Communes of the Eure department

References

1. Téléchargement du fichier d'ensemble des populations légales en 2017, INSEE
2. Arrêté préfectoral 9 December 2015 (in French)