In April, Bob and I went with Crystal and Erica Skye to Nice, France where Crystal presented a paper at a combined conference of the American and European Geophysical Society (over 10,000 scientists strong)!  There were wonderful sounding lectures on volcanoes, glaciers, earthquakes, weather, climate, etc; too much to hope to cover.  But we did enjoy Crystal’s talk.

The absolute highlight of our stay on the Riviera was a visit to the fabulous Centre de Geologie near the town of Digne Aux Bains at the top of a scenic Chemin der fer "railroad."  The train trip took three hours each way.  It started out raining, and then turned to snow as we got higher in the mountains.  At Digne we were able to hire a taxi with a very amiable young taxi driver who drove us out of town to see the astonishing open-air cliff of wagon wheel sized ammonites and then on to the wonderful Geologic Park.  Our chauffeur was very proud of the geological treasures of his community, but was worried about leaving us in a blinding snow storm and refused to let us pay then saying he would be back for us in a couple of hours.  We walked the winding trail, high above the heavily braided Bleone River, up to the museum past sculptures by world-famous Andy Goldworthy and man-made waterfalls.  The museum itself is amazingly laid out as a giant ammonite.  The visitor climbs a circular causeway with rooms off to the sides that are arranged by geological periods with staggeringly large invertebrate fossils.  At the very top is a massive saltwater aquarium with lovely sea creatures, but most interesting were real, live, chambered nautiluses gently rising and falling.  At the end of our week in Nice, we visited the tiny country of Monaco and the closely packed city of Monte Carlo.  It’s a great place to visit but hardly a restful place to live and is a true tourist trap with blocks of gift shops with very expensive Euro prices. Most interesting is the monumental Marine Institute of Biology Museum that contains the lifetime treasures of Prince Albert, Prince Rainier’s grandfather.  The Prince was devoted to the study of jellyfish and other sea creatures.  Here again were huge seawater aquariums devoted to beautiful fish and more living chambered nautiluses. In a back street we found a tiny café where the workers and staff eat.  We had a delicious lunch for very few Euros.  A very polite pigeon wandered in from the street, obviously used to getting handouts, but the café owner, with a dramatic bow and flourish, ushered the pigeon back out.

May has the same mineral commitments every year.  The first weekend in May is the New England Gem and Mineral Show at the Topsfield Fair Grounds.  For a change we were blessed with lovely cool weather and record attendance.  The next weekend is the Augusta Mineral Symposium, and it was even better than last year (I say that every year)! I don’t know how Woody Thomson and his crew do it.  He is also involved in the Newry Mineral Park that will be a fabulous achievement if

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Saco Valley Gem and Mineral Club : 3^rd Thursday of each month at the Albany, NH Town Hall – 7:00 PM

Southeastern NH Mineral Club: 2^nd Wednesday of each month, St John’s Methodist Church, 28 Cataract Ave., Dover, NH – 7:00 PM