Welcome to the 2001 Sainte-Marie aux Mines Show!
 
 

 
June 23rd - Day 6

This was the opening of the show to the general public.  Anyone could attend.  Actually, anyone who wanted to be at the show has attended the past several days...

Today, however, with most of my aquistions already in hand or secured, Colleen and I decided to take the morning and afternoon "off" and venture out into the region.  It should be stressed that the Alsace region of France extends quite a ways and it is not even remotely possible to see it all in one day.  It would probably takes months to visit all of the towns and cities in this region and that kind of time was obviously not available to us.   It is also interesting to note the place names.   The large majority of them have clear German roots.  Names such as Strasbourg, Colmar, Turkheim, Mulhouse, etc are not derived from the French language.

So to start our day we got out our Michelen guide book and set our sites on the town of Kayserburg which is located about 7 km down the road from where we are staying in Lapoutroie.  It is at the edge of the Voges Mountains and the Rhine River valley.  This area is literally blanketed with millions of grape vines.  I mean it!  Millions!  Kayserberg was founded in the 13th century and a castle was built overlooking the townsite.   Dr. Albert Schwitzer, the famous humanitarian, was born in Kayserburg.  There is a museum set up at the home of his birth.   Most of the roads in the old part of town are cobble stone and, as is typical, quite narrow.  Happily, most of the traffic is only foot and not vehicle.

We parked the car at one of the many designated parking areas and headed off into the old town.  One of the first sites we saw was this large tower with a nest of storks apparently with a few youngsters on board.
 
 

Storks are commonly found throughout the Rhine Valley and they are known to build lare nests on the top of buildings in the towns around the region.  From the looks of it, it appears that several homes encourage the construction of the storks nests, which are thought to bring good luck, by providing platforms for them to build on.   We saw only two active nests in the town of Kayserburg - the one above and this one below but there are likely more.

We then headed off to the center of town and saw several crafts shops including one with some carved wooden birds.  These were extraordinary with vivid life-like appearances.

The town has a very German feel to it with its architecture and people of this area are in love with geraniums.  Thousands of buildings have these window boxes filled with bright red geraniums.  Many of the villages have a sign saying that we are entering a "ville de fleur" and they are not embellishing the truth at all!

Looking up we could see the old remnants of one of the hundreds of old castles which are found all over the region.  This one was constructed in the 13th century. It has a refurbished tower which you can climb to the top of so we did.  From there we had a fabulous view of the town of Kayserburg and the area to east which was essentially a sea of grapes!

At the top of the hill, so to speak, we kept hearing this rather pathetic wailing of some animal.  Looking over the edge of the castle wall I saw the source of this hideous noise - a peacock.  This is definitely a bird which should be seen and not heard as it really sounds like someone is being seriously harmed when it yells out.

Climbing the tower was an interesting experience as there is really not much in the way of lighting on the walk up.  There are a couple of VERY dim lights but it necessary to hold on to the rail as you climb or descend the narrow and curving stairway.  I tried out my new "night shot" or infrared capability on my new camera and this is what I came up with for the stairway...

From the top of the tower you have a splendid view of the next village (Kienzheim) and only a minescule fraction of the grape vine sea.

We also noticed a trail leading from the castle to Kientzheim so decided to make a loop and venture off into the grape vine sea.    The production of grapes is VERY serious business in this part of the world.  The Alsace region is noted for its very high quality production of white wines such as Rieslings and Muscat.   The people of this region do not make a bad wine period.

So off we headed towards the village of Kientzheim and with our slightly elevated position we were able to see where the thousands of geraniums decorating the village come from - this nursery.   On the return trip back we took the bike route which you see below and had a first hand look at the place.

Looking back we were offered a splendid view of Kayserburg with its castle.

About half way to Kientzheim I indulged my mpg kick and created three.  One of a 360 sweep (look for Colleen in the pink shirt),

As we neared the end of the trail I snapped these two pictures of the town of Kientzheim and one where you can see the grape vine sea extending over the next hill and beyond.

We wandered into Kientzheim and had something to drink then walked back to Kayserberg.   The weather was perfect with temperatures around 75 to 80 degrees F.

Later in the afternoon I went back to the Show to tie up a few loose ends and pcik up specimens.  I spent more time talking with Ian Bruce about Tsumeb and what they are finally producing.   We can all expect to see a lot of new material flowing from the mine in the months to come.  Here are a couple of items that were found at the mine in the past 2 weeks.  The cerussite was shot by Jeff Scovil for his What's New report for the Mineralogical Record.

Aside from these Ian showed me some sample specimens of dioptase which were found in the past 10 days also.  They expect to produce a fair quantity of specimen and jewelry grade dioptase in the near future.  He also described a specimen which he left in Britain before the show of dioptase crystals on crystallized quartz!  I have not seen anything like that from Tsumeb before!

Lastly just before leaving I saw some specimens of a new find of pyromorphite from Aveyron, France being offered by Merveilles de la Terre.   Below is a typical example  (6 cm across) of one of these somewhat mamillary formed specimens.   I picked up three specimens including this one.

Tomorrow is the last day of the show and I expect to be there for most of the day.

More to come!
 

Click here to see the 2000 Saint-Marie aux Mines show report The Official Sainte-Marie aux Mines Show Website