From about 18,000 until 10,000 BC,
long before Stonehenge and the pyramids,
back when mammoths and saber-toothed cats
still roamed the earth,
prehistoric people painted
deep inside caves in this part of Europe.
These weren't just crude doodles,
but huge and sophisticated projects
executed by artists
and supported by an impressive culture --
the Magdalenians.
The region's limestone cliffs,
honeycombed with painted caves,
are unique on this planet.
Tourists gather nearby at Lascaux,
home of the region's -- and the world's --
most famous cave paintings.
These caves were discovered accidentally in 1940
by four kids and their dog.
Over the next couple of decades,
about a million visitors climbed through
the prehistoric wonderland, inadvertently
tracking in fungus on their shoes
and changing the humidity and the temperature
with their breathing.
In just 15 years, the precious art
deteriorated more
than in the 15,000 years before that.
The caves were closed to the public.
Visitors can now experience the wonder of Lascaux
by touring an adjacent replica.
When their time comes, visitors are called
to meet their guide for a look
at the precisely copied cave
called Lascaux II.
Guide: Then we are in the oxen room --
the most spectacular room of Lascaux.
It's a sacred place.
We don't live in a church.
They never lived in the caves.
And it's a huge composition.
It's a calculated composition,
because they have taken advantage
of the strip of rock
to relate in a circle
two groups of bulls
facing each other.
And in the center of this composition,
they have united
the three principal animals of Lascaux --
horse, ox, and deer.
Rick: Is this a hunting scene?
Guide: No, it's not a hunting scene,
because on the walls,
the hunter doesn't exist.
They never tell the everyday life.
The meaning is more complex.
Rick: What is the biggest animal?
Guide: It's this bull.
He's the largest painting
in the cave art.
16 feet from the top of the horn
to the tip of the tail.
-The guide explains
that this 600-animal, multi-cave composition
was the work of a complex society,
the Magdalenians.
Their culture allowed for skilled artists
to work over an extended period of time
in this sacred place.
Guide: They fix, maybe, on the walls,
a dream, a myth,
on the ledge, and the image will be able
to cross generations.
The image becomes the memory of the society.
The art of Lascaux is supposed to be
around 17,000 years old.
But compared to the beginning of the humanity,
which was born in Africa 3 million years ago,
Lascaux, it was yesterday.
They were like us.
-The region has many more examples
of prehistoric cave painting.
And the nearby National Museum of Prehistory
provides an instructive background.
This modern museum houses over 18,000 bones,
stones, and fascinating little doodads,
all uncovered locally.
Artifacts are originals,
and show that, while the Magdalenian people
lived 15,000 years ago, they were far more advanced
than your textbook cavemen.
Skeletons were discovered draped in delicate jewelry.
Stag teeth and tiny shells were, it seems,
lovingly drilled to be strung
into necklaces.
These barbed spearheads and fishhooks
would work well today.
Finely carved spear throwers show impressive realism
for something three times as old
as the oldest pyramids.
Imagine flickering flames
from these oil lamps
lighting those art-covered caverns.
Today, as we ponder the prehistoric caves
and the artifacts of the Magdalenian people
here in the Dordogne, we can marvel
at how much we actually have in common with these people
and how sophisticated their culture was, so long ago.
While its cities are packed with important sights,
Provencal life feels rooted in its countryside,
small towns and vibrant markets.
Its famous fields of lavender and sunflowers inspire painters.
Its howling mistral wind can, as they say,
blow the ears off a donkey,
and its coveted Cotes du Rhone wines
showcase this region's confident mastery of good living.
And around here, good living is never far from nature.
Where else can you canoe through such charming scenery
and then under a nearly 2,000-year-old aqueduct?
This region's evocative Roman ruins
make history part of the picnic.
The Pont du Gard reminds us
that throughout the ancient world,
aqueducts were stone flags
heralding the greatness of Rome.
They still proclaim the wonders of that age.
This perfectly preserved Roman bridge supported a canal,
or aqueduct, on the very top.
It was a critical link, helping keep a steady river of water
flowing cross-country to Nîmes,
one of the Roman Empire's largest cities.
Remarkably, the water dropped only one inch
for every 350 feet.
Let's go inside.
This is what Roman aqueducts were all about.
This is part of a 30-mile-long channel.
A man-made river flowed through this for 400 years.
You can still see the original stones,
a thin layer of mortar that waterproofed the channel
and, after centuries of use, a thick mineral buildup.
The Pont du Gard's main arch
is the largest the Romans ever built: 80 feet across.
The bridge itself has no mortar,
just ingeniously stacked stones.
Taking full advantage of the round arch the Romans invented,
it's made strong by gravity.
The Pont du Gard Museum shows that a steady supply of water
was an essential part of the Roman art of living.
You'll see some very old plumbing,
walk through a rock quarry
and learn how they moved those huge blocks into place
and constructed those massive arches.
All this work was designed
to bring water into the still grand Roman city of Nîmes.
The water finally gushed out here,
into this modest-looking distribution tank,
from where it served the thirsty city's needs.
Imagine the jubilation on that day in AD 50
when suddenly the system was operational.
This is the very end of the aqueduct,
and water would tumble out of this hole and fill this pool.
Now, the system was designed to prioritize
according to how much water was available.
If the water level was high,
these holes would send water to the homes of the wealthy,
to decorative fountains and to public baths.
But if the water level was very low, well,
these holes would still send water
to the essential neighborhood wells.
Today the town's many Roman ruins
testify to Nîmes' former importance.
The Maison Carree
rivals Rome's Pantheon as the most complete building
surviving from the Roman Empire.
The temple survived in part
because it's been in constant use
for the last thousand years.
The lettering across the front is long gone.
But the remaining nail holes presented archeologists
with a fun challenge:
Match the pattern of the nail holes
to the letter it once held.
And they solved the puzzle.
They determined that the temple was built
to honor Caius and Lucius,
the grandsons of Emperor Augustus.
And from that information,
they dated the temple to the year 4 AD.
Nîmes' arena, which is still in use,
is considered the best preserved from ancient Rome.
It's another fine example of Roman engineering
and Roman propaganda.
In the spirit of "give the masses bread and circuses,"
admission was free.
The emperor's agenda was to create a populous
that was thoroughly Roman,
enjoying the same activities and the same entertainment,
all thinking as one.
To be all alone with your own personal Roman ruin,
take a quick detour to the Aqueduct of Barbegal.
These are the scant remains of an ancient Roman power station,
channeling a river to turn their mills.
The Romans ingeniously harnessed maximum power
from the water flow.
They built a series of terraced pools,
allowing the water to cascade down,
powering eight separate grinding mills.
Romans grew wheat on these vast fields
and brought the grain here to the mega water mill.
Cutting through this bluff,
the water from this aqueduct provided power
to produce enough flour each day
to feed 12,000 hungry Romans.
The mill served the nearby Roman town of Arles,
and that's where we're heading.
By helping Julius Caesar defeat Marseille,
the people of Arles earned the imperial nod
and their city was made an important river port.
With its strategic bridge over the Rhône River,
Arles was a key stop on the Roman road from Italy to Spain.
After being a trading center for centuries,
Arles became a sleepy town of little importance in the 1700s.
Allied bombs destroyed much of the city in World War II.
But today Arles thrives again.
The most dramatic remnant of Roman Arles is its arena.
Imagine the roar of the fans packing this place
near 2,000 years ago
as gladiators battled wild animals.
The floor was covered with sand to absorb all the blood.
The word "arena" actually means "sand."
While the grand city of Rome could afford exotic beasts
like tigers and lions from faraway places,
smaller towns like Arles made do
with snarly local beasts like wild boar, bears, and so on.
Like in Nîmes, the arena in Arles
is still used for concerts, bullfights,
and other spectacles.
In tumultuous medieval times, locals bricked up the arches,
turning the stadium into a fortified town.
Over a hundred humble homes
were crammed within its circular defenses.
Three of its medieval towers survive.
A park showcases the city's archeological treasures.
Its impressive ancient Roman theaters
make the importance of Lyon as a Gallo-Roman capital clear.
You hear the term Gallo-Roman a lot here in France.
The Gauls were the original French tribe.
Two thousand years ago, the Romans conquered them
and they were assimilated into the vast Roman Empire.
In many ways, the France we know today
grew from that Gallo-Roman civilization.
Guide: In the first century, the Roman city of Lyon
had a population of 50,000 people --
which is four times as big as Roman Paris.
So the city was a critical hub for transportation
and it became the economic, religious
and administrative capital of Roman Gaul.