Laval

commune in Mayenne, France

AI overview

Laval is a city located in the Mayenne department of northwestern France. It serves as an important regional center in the Pays de la Loire area of France.

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Place details

Locality: Laval
Region: Pays de la Loire
Country: France
Population: 50,489

via OpenStreetMap · GeoNames

Wikidata facts

Official name: Laval
Population: 49657
Area: 34.22
Elevation: 82
Official website: www.laval.fr/accueil
Image: Château Vieux Laval 2.JPG
Licence plate code: 53

Show 13 more facts

postal code: 53000
Commons category: Laval (Mayenne)
Commons gallery: Laval (Mayenne)
male population: 23583
female population: 26145
social media followers: 6612
P8168: Helmut Weiss
email address: mailto:[email protected]
contact page URL: www.laval.fr/laval-la-ville/nous-contacter
phone number: +33-2-43-49-43-00
fax number: +33-2-43-49-43-26
P12749: Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe
number of viewers/listeners: 574586

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via Wikidata · CC0

Travel guide

Understand

Although a separately-administered city and a separate tourist region from Montreal, Laval is a suburb of the city of Montreal. Much of Laval consists of bedroom communities, shopping malls and big-box stores that need cheaper land than is available in downtown Montreal, making it car-friendly and of limited interest for tourists. There are hotels in Laval which are considerably cheaper than downtown Montreal, although if staying at one of these hotels, a car would be very useful.

See

250px|thumb|Sainte-Rose-de-Lima church

Buy

Laval has many suburban shopping malls, such as Carrefour Laval (the largest), Centre Laval, and Centropolis. Prices are a little cheaper than downtown Montreal, although the cost of gas to travel there tends to negate the price advantage.

Eat

Laval boasts one of the highest concentrations of ethnic Greek populations in the country. As a result, there are plenty of good Greek food options, especially in southern neighbourhoods such as Îles-Laval and Chomedy. Recent waves of Middle Eastern and African immigrants have also contributed to the culinary diversity offered by the city, though it is still often overlooked in favour of the food scene in Montreal.

Travel guide from Wikivoyage (CC BY-SA 4.0)

~30 min read

Article

Laval ( French pronunciation: [laval] ) is a town in western France, about 300 km (190 mi) west-southwest of Paris, and the capital of the Mayenne department. Its inhabitants are called Lavallois. The commune of Laval proper, without the metropolitan area, is the 9th most populous in the Pays de la Loire region.

A part of the traditional province of Maine before the French Revolution, which now split between two departments, Mayenne and Sarthe, Laval also lies on the threshold of Brittany and is not far from Normandy and Anjou. It was thus an important stronghold in northwestern France during the Middle Ages. Laval became a city during the 11th century, and was the cradle of the House of Laval, one of the most powerful families in Maine and Brittany. The counts of Laval developed a textile industry around 1300 and made Laval a significant centre for the French Renaissance a century later. The linen industry remained the principal activity in Laval until the 20th century, when milk processing became more profitable.