Crumbs from the Table

The indigenous population of what we call France were the Gauls, a Celtic people with their own Celtic language, Gaulish (of which there are approx. 800 extant written texts). Gaulish would have sounded something like modern-day Welsh.  When Roman rule expanded to include Gaul in 50 BC, it brought with it the Latin language, which co-existed with Gaulish for several centuries until Vulgar Latin finally prevailed; Gaulish died out by the 500s.  Vulgar Latin was Latin as spoken by the people. The Latin spoken in France evolved over time and due to exposure to the influence of other languages.  Around the year 500, tribes who had previously settled lands to the north of Gaul, the Franks, took control of what had been Roman Gaul. Their ruler was Clovis (466-511), who converted to Christianity and was crowned King of the Franks by the Christian church. The language of the Franks was Frankish, a Germanic language.  Under Frankish rule, in areas with existing Gallo-Roman populations, for seve

The French people trace their roots back to a tribe called the Franks who, as the Roman Empire waned, lived on its northern frontier around the area of what would now be called Belgium/western Germany. From the early 400s they made incursions from the north into the Roman Gaul; the local population, under Roman rule, were a Celtic people called the Gauls. Meanwhile, the Frankish language was a Germanic language (like modern-day English and German).  The Franks did not have a single leader. Clovis, one of the Frankish leaders at the end of the 400s, married a Christian wife called Clothilde whose background was from another Germanic people, the Burgundians (based in what would now be southern France). Facing defeat in battle against the Alamans (yet another Germanic tribe) in 496, Clovis called on the Christian God. Sometime between 498 and 508 he was then baptised, and recognised as King of the Franks. Thus began the Merovingian dynasty that lasted for over 200 years. Clovis and his su