  Arcades of flare loops form as a consequence of magnetic reconnection
powering solar flares and eruptions. We analyse the morphology and evolution of
flare arcades that formed during five well-known eruptive flares. We show that
the arcades have a common saddle-like shape. The saddles occur despite the fact
that the flares were of different classes (C to X), occurred in different
magnetic environments, and were observed in various projections. The saddles
are related to the presence of longer, relatively-higher, and inclined flare
loops, consistently observed at the ends of the arcades, which we term
`cantles'. Our observations indicate that cantles typically join straight
portions of flare ribbons with hooked extensions of the conjugate ribbons. The
origin of the cantles is investigated in stereoscopic observations of the 2011
May 9 eruptive flare carried out by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) and
Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUVI). The mutual separation of the instruments led
to ideal observational conditions allowing for simultaneous analysis of the
evolving cantle and the underlying ribbon hook. Based on our analysis we
suggest that the formation of one of the cantles can be explained by magnetic
reconnection between the erupting structure and its overlying arcades. We
propose that the morphology of flare arcades can provide information about the
reconnection geometries in which the individual flare loops originate.
