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chris
Site Admin
Joined: 12 Jul 2007
Posts: 538
Location: Grenoble
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 Posted: Aug 09, 2010 13:11 Post subject: Chamonix 2010 |
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Each first week-end of August, collectors from France, Italy and Switzerland meet at Chamonix, a small town nested below Europe's highest mountain : the Mont Blanc. Here for 2 days, you can meet friends, enjoy exhibits, and of course, buy some minerals from both the area or from a bit far away.
The show is organized by the mineralogical club of the city. Amongst other things the club is also involved as adviser for the purchase of the specimens hosted by the museum. This year the museum hosts a temporary exhibit about Napoleon's Quartz. Unfortunately as I only stayed one day, I didn't have time to visit the museum. If you are interested in by this exhibit, you can have a look at the museum's web site :
https://www.chamonix.com/espace-tairraz-musee-des-cristaux,museums-and-exhibitions,48-8-3129-sitraPCU369956,en.html
(link normalized by FMF)
Before getting in, a look at the mountains above us. Some of them host specimens the valley is famous for : smoky quartz & fluorite
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| Mont-Blanc with the Bossons' glacier ice fall. |
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| The "Plan de l'aiguille" between l'Aiguille du Midi on the right side and "Le Montenvers" on the left side. |
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| L'Aiguille Verte. This is in this area that were collected the fluorite specimens displayed later on, in the exhibit part of this report. |
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| Amongst the many dealers salling international specimens I spotted these 3 from Peru. The first one is a Quartz & Hubnerite specimen. |
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| An unexpected one : scheelite on high temperature quartz. Quite unusual. |
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| Or this one. A large cabinet specimen having transparent quartz with green fluorite. |
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chris
Site Admin
Joined: 12 Jul 2007
Posts: 538
Location: Grenoble
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| Posted: Aug 09, 2010 13:19 Post subject: Re: Chamonix 2010 |
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But the main reason of attending this show remains the specialties of the area : smoky quartz & fluorite.
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| Plenty of choice with prices ranging from a few euros to several thousands |
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| A large (very large) group of smoky quartz. Look at the lonely crystal on the right side to get the scale. From memory it was of about 5 cm. |
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| Another smoky quartz group |
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| Beautiful Gwindel from the Aiguille Verte area. The kind every collector would like to have in his/her collection. |
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chris
Site Admin
Joined: 12 Jul 2007
Posts: 538
Location: Grenoble
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| Posted: Aug 09, 2010 13:30 Post subject: Re: Chamonix 2010 |
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Despite good conditions in the mountains above until July 20th, nothing really new was offered for sale this year. So I've had more time to take some pictures of the prestige exhibits.
This year the prestige exhibits consisted in :
- A recent discovery in the "Bassin de l'Argentière" (Argentière Basin) area : "sucres", Gwindel, Tourmaline, Green fluorite.
- Mineral from Switzerland
- Pyromorphite from Les Farges
- And of course specimens from both private collections / strahlers and from the club.
1- Argentière Basin's discovery :
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| "Sucre", Tourmaline needles |
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chris
Site Admin
Joined: 12 Jul 2007
Posts: 538
Location: Grenoble
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| Posted: Aug 09, 2010 13:39 Post subject: Re: Chamonix 2010 |
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2- Private Collections and specimens from the club :
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| Fluorite and smoky quartz from the Aiguille Verte's area... |
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| The best specimen from the Aiguille Verte displayed this year (from my point of view) |
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| A closer look at the smoky group |
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| Interesting specimen from the Italian side of the Mont-Blanc. |
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| Back to France with this great faden quartz |
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chris
Site Admin
Joined: 12 Jul 2007
Posts: 538
Location: Grenoble
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| Posted: Aug 09, 2010 13:42 Post subject: Re: Chamonix 2010 |
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| Another specimen from Italy. One Italian strahler was salling specimens like this one during the last Ste Marie show. |
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chris
Site Admin
Joined: 12 Jul 2007
Posts: 538
Location: Grenoble
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| Posted: Aug 09, 2010 13:50 Post subject: Re: Chamonix 2010 |
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3- Switzerland exhibit : have a look at some specimens. They are really impressive. Please note the Phenacite from Fiesch or the "sucres" from Guivgletscher, Grisons.
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| Original specimen : why did the chlorite only covered half of the fluorites and not all of them ? |
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chris
Site Admin
Joined: 12 Jul 2007
Posts: 538
Location: Grenoble
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| Posted: Aug 09, 2010 13:57 Post subject: Re: Chamonix 2010 |
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| Window Quartz and Amethyst |
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| Note the Hematite rosette, differents from the Cavradi equivalent on the following picture. |
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chris
Site Admin
Joined: 12 Jul 2007
Posts: 538
Location: Grenoble
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| Posted: Aug 09, 2010 13:58 Post subject: Re: Chamonix 2010 |
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| Impressive Phenacite specimen from Switzerland. |
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chris
Site Admin
Joined: 12 Jul 2007
Posts: 538
Location: Grenoble
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| Posted: Aug 09, 2010 14:01 Post subject: Re: Chamonix 2010 |
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4- And to complete this report, a few pictures of pyromorpĥite from Les Farges, France and one from Chaillac (brown pyro).
Christophe
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Pete Richards
Site Admin
Joined: 29 Dec 2008
Posts: 846
Location: Northeast Ohio
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| Posted: Aug 09, 2010 14:08 Post subject: Re: Chamonix 2010 |
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Please explain the terms "sucre" and "old sugar". I presume they are related. I can't tell from context whether they refer to gwindels, closed gwindels, quartz in general, or
pretty rocks.
_________________
Collecting and studying crystals with interesting habits, twinning, and epitaxy |
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chris
Site Admin
Joined: 12 Jul 2007
Posts: 538
Location: Grenoble
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| Posted: Aug 10, 2010 01:53 Post subject: Re: Chamonix 2010 |
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I do not know the accurate English translation of the term "sucre", sugar in English (maybe Jordi knows it), but it refers to closed Gwindel.
Christophe
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Matt_Zukowski
Site Admin
Joined: 10 Apr 2009
Posts: 738
Location: Alaska
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| Posted: Aug 10, 2010 02:40 Post subject: Re: Chamonix 2010 |
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| Nice picts - thanks for sharing
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Jordi Fabre
Overall coordinator of the Forum
Joined: 07 Aug 2006
Posts: 5111
Location: Barcelona
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| Posted: Aug 10, 2010 03:41 Post subject: Re: Chamonix 2010 |
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| chris wrote: | | I do not know the accurate English translation of the term "sucre", sugar in English (maybe Jordi knows it), but it refers to closed Gwindel. |
Correct, "sucre" is a local French name for a closed gwindel without direct translation to English language, so "sucre" = closed gwindel.
BTW great reportage Chris, thank you for it.
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Pete Richards
Site Admin
Joined: 29 Dec 2008
Posts: 846
Location: Northeast Ohio
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| Posted: Aug 10, 2010 11:02 Post subject: Re: Chamonix 2010 |
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Well, it's an appropriate term - those closed gwindels are really sweet!
_________________
Collecting and studying crystals with interesting habits, twinning, and epitaxy |
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chris
Site Admin
Joined: 12 Jul 2007
Posts: 538
Location: Grenoble
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| Posted: Aug 13, 2010 11:30 Post subject: Re: Chamonix 2010 |
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A few more pictures of the prestige exhibits are available on the French Mineralogical Form, Geoforum at the following address :
https://www.geoforum.fr/index.php?showtopic=17111&st=54
(link normalized by FMF)
Christophe
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