This book deals with the landscapes of France. This chapter outlines the chronological basis for the three phases involved in the formation landscapes. The three are distinct. First is the character and formation of the rocks underlying the landscape. In the French context this involves timescales of up to at least 500 million years. The second is the structure, how the rock units have been organised in three dimensions by tectonic processes. In the French case this involves timescales primarily of up to 70 million years, but extends back about 300 million years. These two phases are “geological”. The third phase (Geomorphological), deals with how erosional (and to some extent depositional) processes have produced the shape and relief of the modern landscape, primarily over the last perhaps 20 million years, but more particularly over the last maybe 100 thousand years or so.