Laval, in the Mayenne département of France, is one of the country’s designated “towns of art and history,” and certainly has the credentials to merit the accolade.  The naïve painter Henri Rousseau was born here, and the town has an impressive 12th century château built on a rocky spur in its centre. The Cathédrale de la Trinité de Laval and the Basilique Notre-Dame d’Avesnières are also fine examples of ecclesiastical architecture with more than 1000 years of history.  Wander its winding streets lined with half-timbered houses in faded ice-cream colours; today some are filled with quirky antiques and clothes shops.  Laval is also a prime dairy production area – there are two cows to every person in the Mayenne – and this is reflected in the variety of cheeses and other dairy products available in fromageries and restaurants.  From this Saturday (November 30) to January 7, the town will host its annual Christmas illuminations, with lights laced in a canopy over the Aristide-Briand bridge. Illuminated fountains, up to 12 metres in height, will dance in the river Mayenne below.  Rail Europe (0844 848 5848, raileurope.co.uk) has standard returns from London to Laval from £99pp. Hire car from Avis (avis.fr) or Hertz (00 33 2 43 56 39 92; hertz.fr) both of which have branches opposite the train station.  Château Le Bas du Gast (1) ((00 33 2 43 49 22 79; chateaulebasdugast.fr) has four guest rooms in Louis XV and XVI style, including one suite that can accommodate up to four people. Despite its central Laval location, the townhouse-turned-guesthouse has beautiful gardens and offers walled privacy. Rooms from €120 (£100), breakfast €11 (£9).  Château de La Villatte is a restored 19th-century pile about six miles from Laval’s centre, and offers guests the chance to stay in immaculately-furnished, spacious château rooms at rates that offer excellent value for money. En-suite rooms come with local antiques and meals (dinners are available at extra cost) are presented on beautiful blue and white china. Rooms from €78 (£65), including breakfast. (Route de l’Huisserie, 53970 Montigné-le-Brillant; 00 33 2 43 68 23 76; lavillatte.com). Read a full review  Marin' hotel, near Laval train station and a 15-minute walk from the old town centre, is a two-star property that trades on being “a hotel that doesn’t just pretend to be nice” and “an address that you would pass on to a friend.” King-size beds (in superior rooms), free Wi-Fi and sound-proofed accommodation mean that what it lacks in designer furnishings, it adds in practicality and value for money. Rooms from €49.90 (£42); breakfast €7.50 (£6.30) extra. (00 33 2 43 53 09 68; marin-hotel.fr).  Admire the festive lights displayed across the Quai Gambetta and the Aristide-Briand bridge (2), from 5pm until midnight between November 30 and January 7. Illuminated images are also reflected against the Renaissance buildings on Place de la Trémoille, but those across the river are arguably more impressive.  Take a dinner cruise down the Mayenne in the boat Vallis Guidonis, sailing between the lights reflecting off the water. Eat a menu prepared by the Maison Marsollier, a local restaurant known for its veal, duck, and seafood. Adults from €43 (£36), children from €27(£23) (00 33 2 43 49 46 46; laval-tourisme.com).  Old medieval bridge and Château de Laval  If your visit coincides with a Tuesday or a Saturday, head to the food market in the car park opposite Rue Charles Landelle (3) (8am-1pm). Seasonal produce – apples, girolles, pumpkin and nuts – are on sale next to snails, cheeses and honey.  In the 12th-century Old Château (4), tour the Naïve Art Museum (Place de la Trémoille; 00 33 2 43 53 39 89, laval-tourisme.com; adults €1, under 18s and students free; 10am-12 midday and 2pm-6pm daily except Mondays). Henri Rousseau, a major proponent of the movement, was born in the town and is buried in the public Jardin de la Perrine (see day two). The museum’s collection also includes works by Henri Trouillard and André Bauchant.  Take a guided tour of the Old Château’s low chapel, used as a prison from the French Revolution until 1905, and the dungeon tower, where 60 per cent of the lower supporting timbers said to be are originals; there are fine views from here over Laval’s old bridge. Ask your guide to point out the graffiti scrawled during the revolution that reads “vive le roi”. In the low chapel, a lead sarcophagus was discovered 26 years ago, housing the skeleton of a former Countess of Laval, Anne d’Alègre. The lead case and the sheath in which her heart was buried are still here, although the skeleton is not.  Guided tours – the only way the low chapel and dungeon are open to the public– leave daily Tuesday-Saturday at 11am, 2.30pm and 4.30pm, Sundays and school holidays 2.30pm, 3.30pm and 4.30pm. Tours in English are possible if the majority of the group are Anglophone. Entry: €2 for adults (€1 if you have already paid for entry to the Naïve Art Museum), under 18s and students free. (Vieux Château, Place de la Trémoille, 00 33 2 43 53 39 89, laval.fr)  Lunch at modern restaurant L’Esprit Cuisine (5) for light French cooking with international twists: dishes include pan-fried veal with quinoa and chorizo jus and poached pineapple with hibiscus flower infusion. (8 rue Mazagran, 00 33 2 43 56 78 51, lespritcuisine.fr).  Visit the odd but intriguing Lactopôle museum (18, rue Adolphe Beck; 00 33 2 43 59 51 90; lactopole.com; tours €10), an enormous former cheese factory now home to a collection of 4,000 objects charting the history of the dairy production industry through the Lactilis empire, which manufactures Président products among hundreds of other brands. See everything from butter moulds and churns to Camembert production utensils and an array of 20th-century packaging and advertising material – and there is a cheese tasting at the end. By guided tour only (Monday to Friday at 2.30pm).  Stroll round the shops in the narrow lanes (6) surrounding the Place de la Trémoille: look out for the 170-year-old Pineau hat shop at 33 rue des Déportés, Franck Renault’s cheese shop at number three on the same street, and the brocante Antik Ici et La at 17, Grande Rue.  Stop for a drink at Le Marais Café (7) (21 Bis Rue des Serruriers, 00 33 2 43 49 10 93) or Chez Martine (8) (22 rue du Pin Doré), both with pleasant outdoors seating near the Porte Beucheresse gateway in the old town walls.  Dine at L’épicurien (7 rue du Marchis, 00 33 2 43 49 90 00, hotel-perier-du-bignon.fr), the gourmet restaurant at the Hotel Perier du Bignon (9). Service in the hotel itself leaves something to be desired, but the restaurant serves excellent food with all the pomp one might expect from a French eatery: think amuse-bouches, suited waiters and a spirits sideboard. Reservations obligatory.  Walk around the public Jardin de la Perrine (10), with detailed plant labelling and a small menagerie housing goats and budgies. Variegated holly drips with red berries and Jolie Môme roses pucker pink against the surrounding greenery.  Visit the Cathédrale de la Trinité de Laval (11), with rich tapestries by the Manufacture de Felletin atelier and a triptych of St John the Baptist by Dutch painter Pierre Aertzen.  1. Buy Trappe cheese, a mild but rich local product made by nuns at the Abbaye de la Coudre (00 33 2 43 02 85 85, abbaye-coudre.com) on the outskirts of Laval.  2. From Thursday December 12 to Sunday December 15, a Christmas fair takes place on the Place de la Trémoille with 70 chalet-style market stalls.  3. More information is available from tourisme-mayenne.com.
From the fromageries to the annual Christmas illuminations, there are many reasons to stop at historic Laval in France's Pays de la Loire, says Lizzie Porter