
Imagine 20,000 years ago, Lyon, Chambéry and Grenoble are drowned in an ocean of ice. Corsica and Great Britain are no longer islands because the level of the oceans is 100 m lower, and our ancestors hunt ibex and the European bison around Marseilles. Here, ice more than 1,000 m thick crushes you. Over the previous 2 million years, the periods of advancement and glacial retreat alternate every 100,000 years to the rhythm of the changing climate.