Laval is a town in western
France, about southwest of
Paris, and the capital of the
Mayenne department. Laval was before the
French Revolution part of the
province of
Maine, now split between two departments, Mayenne and
Sarthe. Its inhabitants are called
Lavallois. The
commune of Laval proper, without the metropolitan area, is the 13th most populous in northwestern France and the 119th in France.