The first proper long weekend of the year lands on Thursday, May 14. In France, Ascension is a national holiday, which means the villages stay full, the boulangeries open until lunch, and a quiet stretch of Le Perche turns briefly busier than it has been since Easter. Four days, two brocantes worth the drive, half a dozen restaurants worth booking. Here is what we are doing.
Thursday: Ascension itself
The day to be out early. Two events are worth planning around, both within an hour of Bellême, both starting before nine.
Belhomert-Guéhouville, on the eastern edge of the Eure-et-Loir, is hosting a proper brocante. Dealers rather than households, which means the prices are firmer but so is the quality. This is where to go if you are looking for furniture in good condition, mid-century lamps, or a serious mirror. Bring a tape measure and the dimensions of the wall you have in mind. About forty minutes from Bellême.
La Croix-du-Perche, twenty minutes closer, is running a vide-grenier the same morning. A village of three hundred people clearing out their attics around the church square. Not a curated event. Bring small notes and an empty bag.
For lunch, Cafe Chez Amis in Boissy-Maugis is the picks-itself answer if you have booked. Patricia and Arnaud's daily-changing menu, a Negroni on the terrace, and you are a fifteen-minute drive from anywhere else you might want to go in the afternoon. If they are full, Resto Perche in Mortagne is the practical alternative, and it is properly local in a way that the smarter places are not.
In the afternoon, the Forêt de Bellême is at its best in mid-May. The Étang de la Herse loop is the obvious one, around an hour and a half at a relaxed pace. Pierre Procureuse is the option for anyone who wants the same forest with fewer cars at the trailhead.
Friday: the slower day
Friday is for not driving very far. For anyone who plays, the morning is for Golf de Bellême, the 18-hole championship course set inside the Forêt de Bellême itself. A layout that runs through oak and pine, quiet enough on a Friday morning in May that you should not need to wait at the tee. Tee off early and you are still in time for lunch at La Maison d'Horbe in La Perrière, twenty minutes south of Bellême and the village to spend the rest of the day in. The galleries open late morning, the lunch service runs into the afternoon if you let it, and the village rewards a second walk in the afternoon light.
If the weather holds, this is also the day for the longer forest walk, or a slow drive through one of the Routes Tranquilles circuits. We tend to take the Circuit des Manoirs et Traditions, which passes through several of the small villages it is genuinely hard to find a reason to be in otherwise.
For dinner, D'Une Île in Rémalard is the booking to have made several weeks ago. Bertrand Grébaut and Théophile Pourriat brought a version of Septime to a restored 17th-century hamlet, and the room fills accordingly. Cafe Chez Amis is the walk-in alternative if you have not been already, or La Planque en Perche in Bellou-le-Trichard for traditional cooking with quiet Asian notes.
Saturday: Mortagne
Mortagne does its weekly market on Saturday morning, on the cobbled square outside the Église Notre-Dame. This is not a Provençal market for tourists. It is a working town's market with serious produce: cheese from the surrounding farms, charcuterie that owes everything to the boudin tradition, vegetables from growers who know exactly where the soil is good.
Le Silo Cave, run by Marie Verlhac and Valentin Le Cron, is the wine bar to drift into afterwards. Natural and biodynamic only, coffee from Noiram roastery. La Vie en Rouge, two minutes' walk away, is for saucisson, cheese, and a glass of something Lou will recommend before you ask.
The afternoon is for wandering. The boudin shops on Rue Sainte-Croix, the chocolatier, a slow hour in the Jardin Public. If you have not yet been inside the Église Notre-Dame, this is the visit.
Sunday: the last vide-grenier
Sunday's vide-grenier in Saint-Jouin-de-Blavou is the closest of the weekend, just over ten kilometres from Bellême. Two hundred residents, a single road that fills up early, the kind of vide-grenier where the volunteer tent doing coffee and tarts is half the reason to come. Pace yourself. We tend to walk it twice, once at speed and once properly.
For lunch, Villa Fol Avril in Moutiers-au-Perche is the pick. Slate menus, a cider on the terrace if the weather has held, an unhurried service. After: home, or a long way around through Saint-Cyr-la-Rosière and the Écomusée du Perche if you have not already.
What to book now
D'Une Île for Friday or Saturday dinner: do this immediately, the room has filled for less.
Maison Céronne, between Bellême and Mortagne, if you want a room rather than a drive home each evening. Two heated pools, sauna, hammam, and the kind of designer furniture that makes you want to extend by a day.
Les Prés in Saint-Hilaire-le-Châtel is the alternative if Maison Céronne is full. Former hunting lodge and convent, nine rooms, gardens to the river.
Cafe Chez Amis for any lunch or dinner: book ahead but they will sometimes take a walk-in.
Most else in Le Perche is walk-in friendly, especially if you arrive before twelve or after two.
One last thing
The Ascension long weekend is the moment in May when Le Perche briefly wakes up. The orchards are finally in leaf, the markets are thicker, and the brocantes are getting serious again after a quiet winter. None of it is loud. None of it is signposted. But if you spend four days here doing more or less what we have outlined above, you will go home with a small piece of furniture you did not plan to buy, three or four restaurants you want to come back to, and a quiet conviction that you have been somewhere most people have not yet found.
Check the events calendar for anything that might be added closer to the date. Book the rooms now if you are coming.
