Although it is the second largest city of Manche after Cherbourg , it remains the prefecture of the department. The commune has 18, inhabitants [ Note 1 ] who are called Saint-Lois es. The names of Laudois es , Laudien ne s or Laudinien ne s are also cited. This historic heart of the city became L'Enclos , a site well suited to passive defence.
It has an average annual rainfall of to mm 31 to 35 in per year. Rainfall is quite frequent throughout the year but most abundant in autumn and winter, in connection with the disturbances coming from the Atlantic Ocean. Rarely intense, they often fall in the form of drizzle. There are between 30 and 40 days of frost per year. A bypass road was commissioned in the s to allow the decongestion of the city from the south. To open up the port of Cherbourg , the region and the department decided the construction of a dual carriageway , RN [ fr ].
It is a part of the European route E03 and enables direct connection to Rennes and Europe from the south, through the interchange at Guilberville. The commissioning of the northern section, which is currently under construction, will meanwhile allow access to Cherbourg and England via the Route nationale The construction of the dual carriageway allowed the extension of the small South ring road heading west and its mutation into genuine urban bypass.
It has also enabled the creation and expansion of new business zones which contribute strongly to the current growth of the agglomeration. It is in the majority of services for travellers in the direction of Caen via Lison or in the direction of Coutances.
A few trains, two daily return trips, serve as far as Rennes via Avranches. This service was not sustained due to a lack of sufficient number of passengers.
