Welcome to the 2001 Sainte-Marie aux Mines Show!
 
 

 
June 24th - 26th - The last days

I arrived at the show around 10:00 AM after my 20 minute drive from Lapoutroie.  There is a small pass (Col de Bagenelles) to cross over on the way to Sainte-Marie.  At the top you have a nice view of the Valle du Weiss (Wheat Valley) on one side and the Le Liepvrette Valley on the other.    Looking at the picture on the right it is clear that past glaciation played a large roll in shaping the landscape around this part of the world.  The Le Liepvrette valley has a classic linear "U" shape to it.

The name Valle du Weiss is no joke as this time of year all of the open areas are mowed for feed.
This old guy was flying across the hill with his mower. The flattened grass is then raked and bundled up.

Once at the show Colleen and I were attracted to a crowd watching a couple of young men engaged in break dancing.   This mpg catches about 15 seconds of the action.   We also heard drums around a couple of corners and went on to watch this group apparently from Brazil performing some very rythmic and catchy drum sets with a Carnaval dancer. 

Moving on through the crowds

we came to a large metal sculpture of a T-Rex.  Apparently life size but completely comprised of welded metal.

Also on display "from the past" was a fellow wearing the traditional miner's garb.  I felt pity for this guy in this buttoned up dark suit as it was pretty warm this day.

One of the features of Shows everywhere is an educational display.   This year the Sainte-Marie aux Mines show had a section featuring archaeology.  They had people performing traditional crafts such as flint knaping to make spear points, knife artists, and also a "school" where you could get some hands on training by professional archaeologists.  Below is a shot of class in session and also of a future archaeologist by the grid.

At around 1:30 pm we went on over to the mess hall.   The show organizers have done a great job of ensuring that high quality food is available for the show patrons.  Salads, sandwiches, various beverages, sausages, and pommes frites (french fries) are just a point away as Colleen demonstrates.   The woman behind the counter has the look of someone who has served a lot of meals over a long period.   A large tent is not the most pleasant place to be when it is about 90 degrees F outside... Anyway, getting the food was the easy part.  Finding a place to set and enjoy it was entirely another...

As the day wore on I took a few more shots of the show from various points.   The main strip in front of the Theatre was busy all day long.  There was always a crowd setting on the steps of the Theatre.  The shot on the right is taken from the steps of the Lycee (School) towards several of the booths.
 
 

Another popular place at the show - especially on day like today - one of the several beverage tents set up.  They are located under red umbrellas and there were always crowds around them.  The people behind the counter worked pretty hard all day long during the course of the show.

Finally, I got a little smarter and went for the Theatre.  In the lobby several prominent publication companies were set up.  The two most prominent were Lapis and le Regne Mineral.   Lapis is a mineral journal published in German and le Regne Mineral is a journal published in French.  The shot below is of le Regne Mineral with the Directeur de Publication - Louis Dominique Bayle in the left side of the photo.   I picked up 10 copies of the special issue on Chamonix to offer with the 20 or so specimens of pink and red fluorite from Chamonix that I will be placing online after July 4th.   It is written entirely in French but the pictures are universally understood and magnificent!

Between the end of the show and the day we left I found time to snap a picture of the current price of gasoline here in France.  I must convey to you that NO ONE in Europe feels much pity for the people of the United States when it comes to energy costs!!!   Gasoline here is measure in liters and there are about 3.8 liters per gallon of gasoline.  Hence, using the current exchange rates of 7.6 french francs per US Dollar the price of a gallon of unleaded gasoline here in France is $3.60 for average and $3.50 for regular unleaded!   For premo it is $3.80!!   We all might as well appreciate how good we have it from a global perspective or start thinking about driving smaller and more efficient cars as the people in Europe do.

Back to rocks.   After the show was over I found some time to shoot a few of the specimens that I found for my websites when I return .   The following are just a potpurri of specimens:

This is a fine emerald specimen from Paksitan.  The crystal is 3 cm long.
The specimen was shot for an issue in Lapis.
 
 

This is 1 cm chrome andradite or at least this is what Francois Lietard describes it as from Pakistan.
 
 

This is a large blue spinel specimen with a 2.2 cm crystal! - also from Pakisyan.
 
 

This is a very gemmy purple scapolite crystal from Tajikistan.  The crystal measures 2.3 cm in length!
 

This is a 4.5 cm fully terminated crystal of beryllonite from Pakistan.
 

This is one of over 30 specimens of Chamonix fluorite that I found here at the show.  It is a 7.5 cm
cluster of smoky quartz crystals with numerous light pink octahedral crystals of fluorite.
 
 

This is another of the fine specimens of Chamonix fluorite that I found here at Sainte-Marie.  This one has this very
aesthetic group of three clusters with the darker - nearly red color that is typical of Chamonix.
The largest crystal group is 1.4 cm across.

After all is said and done the 2001 Sainte-Marie aux Mines Show will be remembered in mineral circles for the great Chevkinite-Ce specimens and also for the superb carrollite specimens  that found their way here.   I am personally gratified at being able to drum up some very good specimens from Chamonix.  I had my doubts going in but have come away with over 30 specimens.    Other noteable items that I found at the show and managed to get for updates in the near future are proustites from Germany, a new find of kongsbergite from Germany, several interesting specimens from Langban including native lead, barysilite and a few others, rare species such as valentinite, a few very good roselite specimens which were more frequent and of higher quality this year than at any other time in the past, some nice pegmatite specimens from Pakistan and Afghanistan, a new find of babingtonite from Norway, and some rather interesting specimens of apatite from a new find in Sweden.   Plenty of new material to keep the website busy for several weeks to come.

Of course, after a show like this there is the "aftermath".  I took a few hours two days after the show was over to record images of Sainte-Marie immediately post-show.   The following pictures are what Sainte-Marie looks like two days after the show...
 
 

 

 

 
 

It is hard to predict what the economic climate will be like a year from now but there were more people from the United States - both dealers and collectors than anyone has seen here before.  In this time the exchange rate is clearly in the favor of people holding US Dollars.   Next January France and the rest of the countries in the European Union will all be switching over to the Euro as the monetary standard.   This will/should make life simpler for everyone and clearly benefit Europe in the long term.   Various citizens of European countires that we talked to have some pretty strong feelings about the coming monetary change and most of the people are not exactly what I would call enthusiastic about it.  Most people feel pretty nationalistic about what makes them Italian or French or Spanish, etc.   And their current monetary systems are all a part of their nationalistic fabric.   They intuitively know that this large change will benefit them as a continent in the long term but the next couple of years will likey be pretty rocky as they all adjust to a new way of relating to merchandise.  At this time a dollar is worth about 1.15 Euros and about 2,350 Lira, about 2.3 German Marks, about 7.6 French Francs etc.  Imagine what it will be like for the Italian bank account holder to go to bed a millionaire one night and wake up with two less zeros in the account balance... All pyscological but a genuine affect none the less.  It should be interesting and it is a very stimulating topic of discussion with people from Europe.
 

Regardless, I know that Colleen and I will be here again next year for the 2002 Show as we've only scratched the surface of the Voges and seen only a small fraction of the towns and villages here in the Alsace region of France.  Again, I tip my cap to the show organizer Michel Schwab who was moving constantly before, during and after the show.   For people like me who rely on shows to keep the shevles stocked I thank you.  We will be back again!  Au Revoir!

John & Colleen
 

 

Follow the links below to catch up on the latest from what I consider to be one of the friendliest mineral shows in the world!

June 19th Report	June 20th Report	June 21st Report	June 22nd Report	June 23rd Report	June 24th Report
Elba Island Minerals	Chamonix Fluorite	Morroco 1 Morocco 2	Carrollite	Chevkinte-Ce &  other Rare Species	Europe 1 Europe 2
Hauyne	Uranium Minerals	Chinese Minerals	Paky-Afghan 1 Paky-Afghan 2	Sainte-Marie aux Mines Auction	Main Show Page
Trinity Mineral Co	Rare Minerals	Mineral Books	Tsumeb	Benitoite	Email Trinity Mineral Co

 

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

All text, photos, and original graphics by John Veevaert and are copyrighted © 2001. All Rights Reserved.