In Focus - Discover France: Experience the Best of France - page 704

Prehistory
The first people to settle in France in significant numbers were small tribes of
hunter-gatherers, who arrived around 50,000 to 35,000 years ago. These nomadic
tribes lived seasonally from the land while pursuing game such as mammoth,
aurochs, bison and deer. They often used natural caves as temporary shelters,
leaving behind many sophisticated artworks, such as those in the Vézère Valley.
The next great wave of settlers arrived after the end of the last Ice Age, from
around 7500 BC to 2500 BC. These Neolithic people were responsible for the con-
struction of France's many megalithic monuments, including dolmens, burial tombs,
stone circles and the massive stone alignments of Carnac. During this era, warmer
weather allowed the development of farming and animal domestication, and hu-
mans increasingly established themselves in settled communities, often protected
by defensive forts.
Gauls & Romans
Many of these communities were further developed from around 1500 BC to 500
BC by the Gauls, a Celtic people who migrated westwards from present-day Ger-
many and Eastern Europe. But the Gauls' reign was shortlived; over the next few
centuries their territories were gradually conquered or subjugated by the Romans.
After decades of sporadic warfare, the Gauls were finally defeated in 52 BC when
Caesar's legions crushed a revolt led by the Celtic chief Vercingetorix.
France flourished under Roman rule. With typical industriousness, the Romans
set about constructing roads, temples, forts and other civic infrastructure, laying the
foundations for many modern French cities (including Paris) and (more importantly
in the opinion of many) planting the country's first vineyards, notably around Bur-
gundy and Bordeaux.
The Rise of the Kings
Following the collapse of the Roman Empire,
control of France passed to the Frankish dyn-
asties, who ruled from the 5th to the 10th
century, and effectively founded France's first
royal dynasty. Charlemagne (742-814) was
crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 800,
around the same time that Scandinavian Vikings (also called Norsemen, thus Nor-