Paleolithic artifacts were discovered by chance at Chelles by the pioneering nineteenth-century anthropologist Louis Laurent Gabriel de Mortillet (1821–1898); he named the corresponding cultural stage of the Paleolithic after the commune: «Chellean» or «Chellian», nowadays known as «Oldowan».

At the Merovingian villa of Calae the abbey of Notre-Dame-des-Chelles was founded by Balthild, a seventh-century queen of the Franks.
It was largely demolished at the time of the French Revolution.
Paleolithic artifacts were discovered by chance at Chelles by the pioneering nineteenth-century anthropologist Louis Laurent Gabriel de Mortillet (1821–1898); he named the corresponding cultural stage of the Paleolithic after the commune: «Chellean» or «Chellian», nowadays known as «Oldowan».
At the Merovingian villa of Calae the abbey of Notre-Dame-des-Chelles was founded by Balthild, a seventh-century queen of the Franks. It was largely demolished at the time of the French Revolution.
Chelles, Seine-et-Marne