Laval

Administrative centre of the département of Mayenne in northwest France, on the River Mayenne, 72 km/45 mi east of Rennes; population (1999) 51,000. The old feudal city is on the right bank of the river and the new town is on the left. Industries include textiles, shoes, electronic equipment, printing, and cheese making.

Lavel was the birthplace of pioneering surgeon Ambroise Paré, around 1509, and of the painter Henri Rousseau in 1844.

Laval

City in southern Québec, Canada, occupying the Ile Jésus (area 245 sq km/95 sq mi), just northwest of the Ile de Montréal; population (1991) 314,400. A residential suburb, it also has widely diversified manufacturing; research facilities; institutions including the Collège Montmorency and the St Vincent de Paul penitentiary; and a large amount of protected market gardening land.

History The island was granted to Jesuits in the 17th century, and settled slowly by farmers. The 20th century brought expansion pressure from Montréal, but by the 1940s the Ile Jesus was still a predominantly agricultural community with a population just over 20,000. Growth accelerated rapidly thereafter. In 1965 six cities and eight towns on the island were merged to form the city of Laval, now Québec's second most populous.