things i've taken out of claude gavard's book so far are that he reckons:
(i) the roman empire wound down essentially because of a demographic crisis;
(ii) aspects of roman civilization/culture were kept alive in france (longer in the south) through the opening of the so-called dark ages by christian bishops but that after a while they too let the flame die out (for a bit).
(iii) peasants in 13th century france had a better and more plentiful diet than their 18th century descendants...
Bien fait ! Passages marqués clairement, chronologies, cartes et textes insérés ou en annexe sont très utiles et le texte lui-même est bien écrit et digérable. Plus qu'à prier pour avoir une bonne note.