Échauffour is a commune in the Orne department in north-western France.

Geography

The commune is on the borders of the country of Ouche and the campaign of Alençon. Its village is 4.5 km northwest of Sainte-Gauburge-Sainte-Colombe, 9 km north-east of Merlerault, 11 km south-east of Gacé and 20 km west of L'Aigle. Covering 3,314 hectares, the territory of Échauffour is the largest in the canton of Merlerault. The Commune is one of 30 communes that make up the Natura 2000 protected area of Bocages et vergers du sud Pays d'Auge.

Name

The name of the locality is attested in the forms Escalfo in 1050 and Scalfou around 1053. The toponym would be linked to the presence of lime kilns: ès chaufours (former French: "in the lime kilns"). It can also be derived from the old French cracked ("split, burst") crazy ("beech"). The residents are called Échauffouriens.

Population

Politics

The current mayor is Luc Féret who replaced Claude Burin in 2008.

Places and monuments

Churches St. Andrew (fifteenth century), former Benedictine priory, and St. Germain (fifteenth century). Both buildings house many works classified as objects to the Historical Monuments.

Sports

The Échauffour Sports Union has made a football team evolve into a district division until 2012.

Personalities linked to the commune

In 1763, following a first scandal, the case Jeanne Testard, the Marquis de Sade is under house arrest for four months at the castle d'Échauffour, property of his father-in-law, Claude-René de Montreuil, president of the court of the aides of Paris. The Marquise de Sade, Renée-Pélagie de Montreuil, after her separation from the Marquis in 1790, resided in the castle with her daughter for most of the year until her death in 1810. One can still read their names engraved on the tombstone, in the small cemetery of the village.