The history of France
A guided tour, 15,000 BCE – 1944 CE, in 10 stops.
From the painted caves of Lascaux to kings, revolution and Napoleon: the moments that made France.
The stops
Lascaux (15,000 BCE)
About 17,000 years ago, people painted horses, bulls and deer deep inside a cave in the Dordogne. It was found by teenagers in 1940.
Alesia (52 BCE)
Julius Caesar conquered Gaul. In 52 BCE he besieged the Gaulish leader Vercingetorix at Alesia and beat off a huge relief army. Gaul became Roman.
Charlemagne (800 CE)
King of the Franks, Charlemagne conquered most of western Europe and was crowned emperor by the pope on Christmas Day 800.
Joan of Arc (1429 CE)
During the Hundred Years’ War with England, a teenage farm girl, Joan of Arc, helped lift the siege of Orléans in 1429. She was burned as a heretic two years later.
Versailles (1682 CE)
Louis XIV, the Sun King, ruled alone for 54 years and turned a hunting lodge outside Paris into the vast palace of Versailles.
Revolution (1789 CE)
On 14 July 1789 a Paris crowd stormed the Bastille fortress. The Revolution that followed abolished the monarchy and executed the king.
Napoleon (1804 CE)
In 1804 Napoleon crowned himself emperor in Notre-Dame. His armies conquered much of Europe before his defeat at Waterloo in 1815.
Impressionism (1872 CE)
Monet painted the harbour at Le Havre at sunrise. A critic mocked its title, Impression, and gave a whole movement its name.
Verdun (1916 CE)
In 1916 French and German armies fought around Verdun for ten months. Some 700,000 were killed or wounded.
D-Day (1944 CE)
On 6 June 1944 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy. Paris was liberated in August.