This paper was published in a volume is themed around the interdependent relationship between humans and the environment, an important topic in the work of Corrie Bakels. How do environmental constraints and opportunities influence human behaviour and what is the human impact on the ecology and appearance of the landscape? The cave site Les Cottés (Central France), famous for its occupation by both Neanderthal and anatomically modern humans and its Les Cottés Interstadial, is located in the steep side of the incised Gartempe River valley at about 5.5 m above the present floodplain. So far, little is known about the landscape at the time of occupation, about 48‑37 ka. The erosional nature of this type of fluvial landscape complicates such a research – when no traces are left, it is difficult to assess how such a landscape looked like. We were able to study the present floodplain through a series of hand cores. A coring transect stretching from the front of the cave towards the present river course showed that the flood deposits covered an older terrace remnant and an abandoned channel, just in front of the cave. The channel fill of this palaeochannel contained a thin layer of peat at the base that has been studied by means of pollen analysis. It pointed to an open landscape, dominated by Pinus, Betula and Artemisia. Two additional radiocarbon dates dated the channel fill to 11,286‑11,094 yrs cal BC and 11,140‑10,849 yrs cal BC, respectively, which fits with the results of the pollen analysis. It showed that the channel became inactive in the Weichselian Lateglacial, leading to a minimum age of Weichselian Pleniglacial for the underlying terrace, which postdates the time of occupation of the cave site. Another important discovery was the presence of a terrace remnant, covered by flood and slope deposits, in between the site and the underlying floodplain. This terrace could not be dated, but it is likely that this terrace already existed as an inactive terrace at the time of occupation, since the height of this terrace is only 5 m lower than the cave site, in which no flood deposits have been found. We therefore conclude that the terrace located in the subsurface of the present floodplain probably represents the active river at the time of occupation, when the site was located 5 m above a small plateau that was still flooded regularly, and 7.5 m above the active river. The study has shown that the Gartempe River valley underwent considerable changes during the Last Glacial. The small terrace remnant in front of the cave site is part of a former floodplain that was eroded. This erosion likely occurred during the time of occupation, as well, and shows that the river was much more active then than it is nowadays.