Parcé-sur-Sarthe

Commune in Pays de la Loire, France

(2020–2026) Michel Gendry^[1]Area38.99 km² (15.05 sq mi)Population2,046 • Density52/km² (140/sq mi)Demonym(s)Parcéen, ParcéenneTime zoneUTC+01:00 (CET) • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)INSEE/Postal codeElevation26–57 m (85–187 ft)¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Parcé-sur-Sarthe (French pronunciation: [paʁse syʁ saʁt], literally Parcé on Sarthe) is a commune in the Sarthe department in the region of Pays de la Loire in north-western France.

Population

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
1968	1,160	—
1975	1,190	+0.37%
1982	1,432	+2.68%
1990	1,640	+1.71%
1999	1,810	+1.10%
2007	2,023	+1.40%
2012	2,141	+1.14%
2017	2,100	−0.39%
Source: INSEE[3]

Personalities linked to the commune

• François Villon (1431-1463), poet, briefly imprisoned there as testified by a plaque.
• Claude Chappe (1763-1805), inventor of the semaphore telegraph. He made his first attempts passing messages between Brûlon and Parcé.
• Joseph-René Verdier (born 1819 in Parcé-sur-Sarthe - 1904), watercolourist and student of Auguste and Rosa Bonheur. His works include Étang au crépuscule, Petite Fille jouant avec un chien et Un Matin dans la lande (Musée du Mans).
• Marcel Pagnol (1895-1974), novelist, playwright and filmmaker, bought the Ignière mill in 1930, where he stayed, and which he sold twenty years later. Le Gendre de Monsieur Poirier was partly filmed in the region.
• François Dufeu (born in 1943 in Parcé), writer.

See also

• Communes of the Sarthe department

References