Laval Audio Guided Walking Tour 1h15 and 17 Audio Comments

The park is also very popular for the magnificent view it offers of the city and valley from its lookout. On the left, the massive tower of the Old Castle still dominates the Mayenne, at the foot of which the roofs of the old center pile up.

You are on the Place de la Tremille, facing a clear facade that hangs light. Forget the old fortified castle next door: here stands its youngest, the Château-Neuf. So why build a new one, so close to the old one?

You are on the Place du 11 novembre, in front of the Laval City Inn. This building, with its regular and monumental facade, tells the story of a city that wanted to modernize.

You're in front of the Halles de Laval. This brand new building is the latest in a much older history: since the Middle Ages, the city has lived to the rhythm of its fairs and markets. Here we traded cattle, butter, eggs, milk... everything that made the countryside rich.

You are now in the Rue des Serruriers, one of the most beautiful medieval streets of Laval, with its many old wooden-framed houses. It is the perfect place to understand how we lived in the city intramural in the Middle Ages.

You are in front of Porte Beucheresse, the last fortified gate that survives from the medieval ramparts of Laval. Imagine: in the 13th century, the city was surrounded by an enclosure more than a kilometer long, flanked by twenty-seven towers and pierced by three large gates.

You now take the Promenade Anne d’Alègre. This shaded driveway follows the line of the old medieval ramparts and offers a beautiful view of the Old Laval. Take the time to look up, it is one of the best places to admire the walls that rise powerfully and punctuated by round towers.

You've reached the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity. At first glance, its façade may surprise because it does not resemble the large Gothic cathedrals you are used to seeing. And for good reason: it has been transformed and expanded for nearly a thousand years.

Look up: in the niches, two female figures draped in antique represent Painting and Sculpture, a nod to the original vocation of the place, conceived at the end of the 19th century as a Museum of Fine Arts under the impetus of the painter Charles Landelle, a native of Laval.

You arrive in front of Perrine Park, the large public garden of Laval. It is a free place open to all, between landscaped park and botanical garden, perched on a promontory overlooking the Mayenne.

If this entrance to Parc de la Perrine is closed, please retrace your steps to take the main entrance. Then go up the rue des Éperons and you will find the route on your right, at the place des Quatre-Docteurs-Bucquet.

Let’s stop for a moment to talk about the municipal Shower Baths you see on your left. It is impossible to miss their sober and geometric facade, so typical of the 1920s. This building, built between 1925 and 1927 by the Laval architect Léon Henri Guinebretière, is a small Art Deco jewel placed on the bank of the Mayenne.

Look across the river: this strange floating house is a wash boat. Laval retains the last two authentic municipal wash boats in France.

With such a name, it’s hard not to stop: here’s the House of Flying Power. Don’t worry, nothing like a fantastic insect that started flying in the Middle Ages!

There are not only reflections of the medieval era in Laval! Here you are in front of one of the most beautiful Renaissance homes in the city. The Maison du Grand Veneur was built in 1553 by a wealthy canvas merchant, Jacques Marest and clearly displays the ambition and success of the 16th century Laval bourgeoisie.

Here you are in front of the Old Castle, the beating heart of Laval’s history. It is here that it all begins, around the year 1020, when a lord, Guy de Dénéré, decides to install a castral lump to control the passage of the Mayenne.

The three beautiful arches that span the Mayenne belong to the oldest bridge in Laval, which everyone here simply calls the Pont Vieux.