Parcé-sur-Sarthe (, literally ''Parcé on

Sarthe Sarthe () is a department of the French region of Pays de la Loire, and the province of Maine, situated in the '' Grand-Ouest'' of the country. It is named after the river Sarthe, which flows from east of Le Mans to just north of Angers. It ha ...

'') is a commune in the

department in the

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

Pays de la Loire Pays de la Loire (; but can also mean 'Lower Loire') is one of the eighteen administrative regions of France, located on the country's Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. It was created in the 1950s to serve as a zone of influence for its capital an ...

in north-western

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Population

Personalities linked to the commune

François Villon François Villon (; Modern French: ; ; – after 1463) is the best known French poet of the Late Middle Ages. He was involved in criminal behavior and had multiple encounters with law enforcement authorities. Villon wrote about some of these e ...

(1431-1463), poet, briefly imprisoned there as testified by a plaque. *

Claude Chappe Claude Chappe (; 25 December 1763 – 23 January 1805) was a French inventor who in 1792 demonstrated a practical semaphore line, semaphore system that eventually spanned all of France. His system consisted of a series of towers, each within l ...

(1763-1805), inventor of the

semaphore telegraph Semaphore (; ) is the use of an apparatus to create a visual signal transmitted over distance. A semaphore can be performed with devices including: fire, lights, flags, sunlight, and moving arms. Semaphores can be used for telegraphy when arra ...

. He made his first attempts passing messages between

Brûlon Brûlon () is a commune in the Sarthe department in the region of Pays de la Loire in north-western France. Geography The river Vègre forms all of the commune's south-eastern border. See also *Communes of the Sarthe department The followin ...

and Parcé. * Joseph-René Verdier (born 1819 in Parcé-sur-Sarthe - 1904), watercolourist and student of Auguste and

Rosa Bonheur Rosa Bonheur (born Marie-Rosalie Bonheur; 16 March 1822 – 25 May 1899) was a French artist known best as a painter of animals (animalière). She also made sculptures in a Realism (arts), realist style. Her paintings include ''Ploughing in the N ...

. His works include ''Étang au crépuscule'', ''Petite Fille jouant avec un chien'' et ''Un Matin dans la lande'' (Musée du Mans). *

Marcel Pagnol Marcel Paul Pagnol (, also ; ; 28 February 1895 – 18 April 1974) was a French novelist, playwright, and filmmaker. Regarded as an auteur, in 1946, he became the first filmmaker elected to the . Pagnol is generally regarded as one of France's ...

(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.