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So for the last two and a half weeks I’ve been camping in the Ardèche region in southern France. After a long, exhausting trip of 13 hours we finally arrived. We put up the tent, read a book and went to sleep so we would be fit for our first real day of our vacation. At the first day, we did visit the museum I showed in this topic: After that, the real work started. This big pile of rock was just dumped at the edge of the road. After a few minutes we found our first complete ammonite. Spot the ammonite The whole region is filled with these small piles of rocks, so as long as you just keep walking, you’ll find them… The region itself is beautiful too. Anyway, except two beautiful little ammonites, the first day didn’t really work out. The next day I walked a little further from the camping (like little as in 10km). Totally worth it! I found an amazing spot were marls eroded away and just left tiny ammonites. When I found them I immediately thought of an old topic by @Max-fossils who went to Carniol some time ago. At first, I thought it was identical, except this spot was a lot smaller, not as rich and with a couple of different species. I think I spent about 40 hours at this spot, and I think I found about 150 tiny ammonites, from at least 8-9 different species (but I’m far from an ammonite expert). I think these are lower Cretaceous, but I am not sure on a more precise date. How most of the place looks. Covered with tiny ammonites that resurface after heavy rains (which occurred three times during my stay, so I could keep searching at the same spot) The spot, kind a steep wall (me for scale). Anyways, time for some of the finds (my good camera broke down so I do this with my phone): I think these are Aconeceras nisus, the most common species.

So for the past few weeks I’ve been camping in the Ardèche region in southern France. There was a nice little museum just a couple of miles from where I was staying. Le Muséum de l’Ardèche is the located in the small village Balazuc (which is also worth a visit). Most of the pieces were collected by Bernard Riou, a French Palaeontologist. Some pictures: Fossil insects from the Plateau du Coiron. Fossils from this location (about an hour away from Balazuc) are amazing. My favourite insect at the Museum: Nice Millipede Fossil frogs and toads from the same location Fishes, also from the same location. There also is an antelope skull on the wall, and they even have a complete skeleton of one. Very nice to see. Skeleton of a boar-like animal. How much better does it get? Well, much better: Of course, there are many more fossils from this location, including turtles, snakes, birds, leaves, pine cones… On to the next part...