We have a house in Belleme, a small fortified hilltop town in the Orne department of Normandy. It is the kind of place where the Thursday market has been running since the Middle Ages and the baker still closes on Mondays.

The Perche is not on the usual tourist circuit and that is precisely the point. Rolling farmland, dense oak forests, stone manoirs half-hidden behind hedgerows, and a food culture that takes itself seriously without any of the performance. Parisian chefs have opened restaurants in converted barns. Antique dealers have set up in village squares. The cider is excellent.

We started Du Perche Mode as a personal reference. A place to keep track of which vide-grenier is worth the drive this Sunday, where to eat on a Thursday evening, and when the next brocante is happening nearby. The kind of things we were always looking up and never finding in English.

Over time it became something we thought others might find useful too. If you are visiting Le Perche, thinking about buying a house here, or just curious about this part of France, we hope there is something here for you. We are not a tourism board and we do not pretend to cover everything. This is simply what we know and like, and we are happy to share it.

And the name? Yes, it is a nod to Depeche Mode. No, we are not fans. We just liked how it sounded.