Livarot is situated at the junction of the D4 and D579 roads. The nearest city is Caen, approximately to the north-west.
Toponymy
The place is attested late in the form Livarrot in 1155, and Livarou in 1156 or 1157. The etymological explanation of this place name has no unanimity among toponymists:
Albert Dauzat and Charles Rostaing, based on a false attestation of Livaron from 1137, described it as "obscure", while evoking a derivision of ivos, an assumed Gallic word designating if, and declaring it unlikely. They perhaps resume in these previous assumptions. In reality, the term *ivos or *īvos is not attested and should include an asterisk.
Ernest Nègre, reasoning from this same erroneous form, considered that it might be from the Germanic name Liubwar, which is followed by the suffix -o /-onem and that the final would be modified by attraction of names in -ot. However, François de Beaurepaire notes that a Germanic name is never used with this suffix.
Dominique Fournier refuted Livaron and based it on the actual form Livarou, stemming from the Chronicle of Robert of Torigni, to advance the hypothesis of a Gallo-Roman person named Libarius followed by the suffix of Gallic origin -avo which explains most of the words ending in -ou of Normandy.
History
Battle of Normandy
On 17 July 1944, the pharmacist and Mayor of Livarot brought first aid to Rommel following the strafing of his car by an Allied aircraft, not far away, between the villages of Sainte-Foy-de-Montgommery and Vimoutiers. He was then evacuated, the same day, to the German military hospital in Bernay. Livarot was liberated on 19 August. Following Operation Paddle, the British 7th Armoured Division was on the banks of the. The division then faced a strong resistance by the 272nd Division of the German infantry, but also suffered losses to friendly fire from Allied aircraft. On 19 August, British artillery heavily bombed the area. The British arrived to seize a bridge, which hadn't been destroyed, across the river to Saint-Michel-de-Livet, north of Livarot. The French Resistance then learned that the Germans had abandoned Livarot and that the first British soldiers had entered the same day.
Heraldry
Politics and administration
The municipal council is composed of 23 members, including the mayor and six assistants.
Demographics
In 2012, the municipality had 2,183 inhabitants. Since 2004, censuses in municipalities of less than 10,000 inhabitants are held every five years and legal municipal population are estimations in other years. Livarot counted 2,654 inhabitants in 1975.
The Étoile Sportive Livarotaise evolved two football teams in. The cycling section of the club has trained many riders such as father and son François and Romain Lemarchand, and also. Stage 7 of the 2015 Tour de France is also planned to start in Livarot.
