South of present-day Paris and London, traces of early peoples' activities are well preserved since the glaciers never descended this far. In these areas, modern studies of fossil pollen, geological sediments, and animal bones have yielded a clear picture of continual environmental change. When the glaciers reached their maximum, climate in southern Europe was cold and dry. Broad expanses of rich grasslands, always with at least some trees, covered much of unglaciated Europe. At no time during the past 200,000 years was widespread arctic tundra such as that seen here, a dominant feature of the European landscape.