RECENT CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE CLIMATOLOGY OF THE LAST GLACIAL INTERGLACIAL CYCLE BASED ON FRENCH POLLEN SEQUENCES

New pollen data derived from three long French sequences and methodological improvements in the methods used to reconstruct past climates are summarized here, after a short presentation of the study sites and pollen diagrams. Estimated climate parameters during the major episodes of the last 140,000 years are shown to be coherent between sites. Analysis of the seasonality variations provides much additional information. In particular it is shown that the advection from the ocean has governed the last climatic cycle on the European continent.