Geography France is about 80% the size of Texas. In theAlps near the Italian and Swiss borders is western Europe's highestpoint—Mont Blanc (15,781 ft; 4,810 m). The forest-covered VosgesMountains are in the northeast, and the Pyrénées are alongthe Spanish border. Except for extreme northern France, the country may bedescribed as four river basins and a plateau. Three of the streams flowwest—the Seine into the English Channel, the Loire into theAtlantic, and the Garonne into the Bay of Biscay. The Rhône flowssouth into the Mediterranean. For about 100 mi (161 km) , the Rhine isFrance's eastern border. In the Mediterranean, about 115 mi (185 km) east-southeast of Nice, is the island of Corsica (3,367 sq mi; 8,721 sqkm).HistoryArcheological excavations indicate that Francehas been continuously settled since Paleolithic times. The Celts, who werelater calledGaulsby the Romans, migrated from the Rhine valleyinto what is now France. In about 600B.C.,Greeks and Phoenicians established settlements along the Mediterranean,most notably at Marseille. Julius Caesar conquered part of Gaul in57–52B.C., and it remained Roman untilFranks invaded in the 5th centuryA.D.The Treaty of Verdun (843) divided theterritories corresponding roughly to France, Germany, and Italy among thethree grandsons of Charlemagne. Charles the Bald inheritedFranciaOccidentalis,which became an increasingly feudalized kingdom. By 987,the crown passed to Hugh Capet, a princeling who controlled only theIle-de-France, the region surrounding Paris. For 350 years, an unbrokenCapetian line added to its domain and consolidated royal authority untilthe accession in 1328 of Philip VI, first of the Valois line. France wasthen the most powerful nation in Europe, with a population of 15million.
