  A classical tool for approximating integrals is the Laplace method. The
first-order, as well as the higher-order Laplace formula is most often written
in coordinates without any geometrical interpretation. In this article,
motivated by a situation arising, among others, in optimal transport, we give a
geometric formulation of the first-order term of the Laplace method. The
central tool is the Kim-McCann Riemannian metric which was introduced in the
field of optimal transportation. Our main result expresses the first-order term
with standard geometric objects such as volume forms, Laplacians, covariant
derivatives and scalar curvatures of two different metrics arising naturally in
the Kim-McCann framework. Passing by, we give an explicitly quantified version
of the Laplace formula, as well as examples of applications.
