Lalaye (French pronunciation: [lalɛ]; German: Lach) is a commune in the southwest of the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France.

The inhabitants are known as Lachenois.

Lalaye is positioned approximately fifteen kilometres (nine miles) to the west-north-west of Sélestat on the departmental road D39, one of a number of minor roads that twists across the Vosges Mountains into Lorraine. It is three kilometres (two miles) upstream of the town Villé and on the left bank of a branch of the Giessen river which tumbles down from Urbeis to the west-south-west. To the north the commune is bounded by the Honel ridge which continues at an altitude of around 600 meters to the Blanc-Noyer peak (822 meters) which dominates the area. To the south a line of lower peaks running from the Kohlberg (500 meters) to the Goutte Henri (610 meters) a separates the Urbeis Giessen from the "Giessen proper".

The village itself is positioned at the lower end of the valley, having an average elevation of just 310 meters, shortly before the Charbes stream and the Urbeis Giessen converge. The houses are stretched along the south facing side of the narrow Charbes valley.

The commune contains significant mineral deposits and has a long mining tradition: the oldest evidence of exploitation is in place known as La Hollée. The principal mineral here, galena (lead ore) was being extracted on a daily basis at the end of the Middle Ages. Along the route to the hamlet of Charbes is another mine known by the local language name of "Haus Osterreich" and which was worked during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Both these sites have been subjected to several modern investigatory excavations, during the course of which an ancient well was discovered which was equipped with a water wheel and a two chamber water pump.

Seams of antimony at Wolfsloch were mined during the same period, for a century between 1648 and 1748. More important was the coal mining, which provided high quality coal, principally used in forges. After lapsing for several years, mining returned to the village during the German occupation in 1901. Other mines, some better documented than others, include those at Sachelingoutte (sixteenth century), Pransureux, Le Beheu and Ruisseau.

An old mylonite quarry which was still being exploited after the Second World War is located at Molloch, on a part of the same site as the old lead mine at La Hollée. The rock extracted here was chiefly used as an underlay rock for road construction.

The name Lalaye comes from the German and local dialect name "Lach" and from the Latinate patois equivalent "Lela". A range of spelling variants turns up through the centuries. The Germanic name "Lach" is recorded in 1303 and again in 1561. Following the French occupation of Alsace, francophone versions gain currency: La Ley in 1768, Lallay on Cassini's eighteenth century maps, Lalay in 1758 and finally Lalaye. As in the rest of Alsace, periods of German occupation between 1871 and 1918, and again between 1940 and 1944, saw a return to German versions of the name.