Two Fossiliferous Weeks In France

[jpc]

Hi All-

In September/Oct my girlfriend (for the purpose of this report, we’ll call her Becky) and I spent a wonderful two weeks in France on a Fossil Hunting Adventure. It all started when my lil sis told me a few years ago that she and her family were going to spend a semester on sabbatical in Toulouse (SW France). Free place to stay… sounds like a good time to go to France and find some fossils. This is a long report with lots of photos. Enjoy.

I left Wyoming on Sept 26^th and we had 4 inches of new snow. Shoveling can wait… I’m off to Toulouse. Becky and I flew out of Denver. We stayed at my sister’s long enough to rent a car, spend the night, hang out with her two little boys, and promise to return in ten days or so. After breakfast with the family we took off to visit TFF’s very own Coco in Angers (NW France)… starting with dinner at Coco’s that evening. A full day’s drive away. We tried to visit the caves of Lascaux on the way. We got there a bit before noon and they said there were no tours until they re-opened after lunch... At 2PM… which would have landed us at Coco’s well after dinner time. So we stopped at a local restaurant and had a most delicious lunch in a restaurant full of wandering cats. Cats in restaurants…Toto, we’re not in the Kansas anymore. The meal took two hours, so we could have made it to the next tour of the caves, but the road and Coco kept us going. We decided we would try again on the way back through. We got to Coco’s a bit after sunset, and just in time for a superb hone-cooked meal and a few good local flavors of aperitif. Coco and her neighbor and partner in clowning, Anhuta, were great hosts. Of course we got a tour of Coco’s cabinet full of cool fossils, mostly sea urchins. The following day we had plans to hit a trilobite spot in the area. Coco showed us a picture of her last trip to the site. The photo showed someone holding a rock the size of a banana. Coco said, “There is a trilobite“. I asked, “somewhere in that rock?” “No… it is that rock. You’ll see tomorrow”. This was promising to be a good start. Here are Anhuta, Becky, Coco and me after a few digestifs. (Notice coco’s T shirt).

The next day began our fossiling. We met a friend of Coco’s about an hour from her place, where he let us into an abandoned quarry; he had the keys. Collecting involved a lot of digging just to get to the productive layer. The quarrying for Ordovician trilobites was dirty, hard work, and I was a bit worried Becky would think… “what have I signed myself up for… two weeks of this?” And it was on and off drizzling all day. But she loved it, especially when a trilobite exposed itself. Most of the critters were incomplete, but big, and three dimensional. And they are all distorted, mostly stretched, a few scrunched. Here is a picture of coco holding a trilobite.

Coco probably has the most colorful fossil hunting sweater in the world. And here is a pile of trilobites.

I have not been to too many trilobite sites over the years, but even the small ones here are by far the biggest I have ever collected. Here are a couple pix after cleaning: My only complete one

and a rather small guy.

After heading back to Angers, we went to see the Chateau d’Angers. It had already closed for the day, so all we could do was outside viewing… rather impressive. It has 17 of these towers on the perimeter.

Back to Coco’s for dinner and a good night’s sleep before heading into the Miocene and Pliocene the next day. Anhuta joined us for this day’s outing. She avoided the trilobite site because she prefers sites where you can just pick things up, rather than mining for fossils. The day’s first site was very yellow. Some sort of quarry pit, of yellow rock full of fossils. Many bits and pieces, and some complete fossils. The main goal, from Coco’s point of view, are little sea urchins called Arbacina. Here are two fossilers on the spoils pile where the fossils are hiding… very yellow.

And one of the little urchins and a slug that Becky found.

We Rocky Mountain folks rarely see slugs, so this was cool. And here is a sampling of the stuff I found here, including (these are unprepped so some have lots of matrix on them)… top row: bryozoans, second row left side: brachiopods, third row left side: one scallop and a bunch of little echinoids, second row right side: two sand dollars, bottom row: sponges. Grid on paper is 10 squares to the inch, or 2.5 mm per square.

Then we went to a Pliocene site… this time white rock, and white shells. Coco said this site has yielded a stunning variety of shell species… 250 species. At this site Coco and I sifted while Becky and Anhuta scoured the puny outcrop for fossils. And then Becky took a nap in the car. Here is a sampling of the shells I found; much smaller stuff here.

Anhuta found a small shark tooth (no photo) that she gave to Becky. Coco and Anhuta introduced us to rillettes for lunch, a delicious canned meat made of duck or pork or ? With a delicious French bread… Life Is Good. We did a bit of sightseeing this afternoon, including going to see an old windmill. This one is just part of someone’s farmhouse compound.

There are quite a few in the area. They are old and folks are trying to keep them from rotting away, but it takes money. Money that most of these folks don’t have to throw at their windmills. There is a bit of a push to have them restored or at least declared worthy of restoring. Merci tellement Coco, Anhuta, Jean-Marc et Phillou.

Coco had also arranged for us to meet another fossiling friend of hers who shares my name. As an American with a French name, I can count on my one hand the number of people named Jean-Pierre I have met in the States, but they seem to be everywhere in France (I read the credits in French movies… there’s at least one in every French flick). I am always happy to meet another Jean-Pierre. He had very generously invited us to come over and do some collecting in his garage. This was a lot of fun… too much even, we had to control ourselves. We still had a week plus of collecting and needed to keep in mind the luggage on the way home. He did have a rather large ammonite in the garage (not available for our collecting).

We also sampled a nice elderberry wine he had made with the fruits from one of the trees in his backyard. Yum….Merci Jean-Pierre

Our next fossiling date was with Hervé in Provence (SE France), which was a long drive from Coco’s, so rather than stay another night we hit the road and did some driving into the night. We found a nice hotel with a touch screen mirror… touch the mirror and the built in lights came on… cool.

Hit the road early enough the next morning to make it to Hervé’s place by dinnertime. France is a small country by USA standards, but it still takes 8 hours to drive across it diagonally. Gas is about twice what we pay in the states. And their equivalent of Interstates are toll roads, so you pay to cross the country quickly. Which means, not much traffic out there and I was pleased to see several wildlife overpasses in our transect. And the rest areas have really good food. Except for a sausage called andouillette that Becky ordered. Turns out it was a tripe sausage, and she was not pleased. I had to eat it for her while she ate my steak. This was my first taste of tripe. Now I can say that I have indeed tried tripe. It might be tougher to say that I liked it.

We were warmly welcomed at Hervé’s. He and his wife prepared us another delicious meal… this time à la Provençal… chicken, eggplant, peppers with local wine and a cheese platter afterwards followed by desert of plum torte… plums from the backyard. And then we toured his collection of local ammonites… Very nice. In the morning we met his friend Martine, also a fan of the local Hauterivian (early Cretaceous) ammonites. The four of us took off for the day, past Roman ruins, vineyards, olive farms, quince, pear and apricot orchards and mountains. Up on the side of one of these mountains is where the ammonites were to be found under a very pretty cliff. The idea was to break open rocks in the talus slope at the base of the cliff. And find ammonites we did. Third day of fossiling and it was obvious by the middle of the day that at least one of the two of us would be shipping fossils home. Here is Becky examining a piece of the productive rock.

And here is a pile of rocks with ammonites. Spot the ammonites.

And here is a small Crioceratites I have since prepped.

And a pile of yet to be prepped ammonites as seen here at my house.

We had stopped at a nice little deli of sorts to buy lunch fixins on the way to the site and had local bread, cheese and salami with red wine for lunch in addition to a can of chicken rillette and a garlic and parsley omelet, two kinds of cheese, and apples. After lunch we walked across the street and down section to a site that had little pyritized ammonites and a cool species of flattened belemnite. The oddest thing (from my point of view) was the abundance of ammonite aptychi laying about. Here are Becky and Herve and Millou collecting aptychi and ammonites and belemnites.

Here is a picture of some of my prepped (quick sandblasting) finds from the lower layer

On the way back to Herve’s we stopped to look at the Roman ruins at Vaison la Romaine. This was one of the places Roman upper crusts used to spend their vacations… millenia ago. Merci, Hervé et Valéri, et Martine.

to be continued...

Edited December 18, 2013 by jpc

[jpc]

We had a date with a friend of a friend in central France next. He had even set up a hotel for us and I needed to touch base with him that evening. So for the first time I checked in to the internet for an email… no email from François, but… I was saddened to hear that my favorite pizza place, called The Pizza Place, in Lusk, Wyoming had burned a few days ago and was all done making pizza. No one was hurt, but my trips to Lusk (where I do a lot of collecting) will be a little bit less delicious from now on. Three months later, and I just heard today they hope to re-open on the 4^th of July. Guess where you’ll find me on the fourth. If you are in the neighborhood, Lusk also does a great small town fireworks display. But wait... this is a post about France. Becky and I ended up driving from Hervé’s that evening through some slow-you-down rain. (Hervé also left as soon as we got back to his place to go mushroom picking in the mountains for the weekend). Before the rain we had a pizza in a beautiful little town in Provence, in honor of The Pizza Place… a great combination you would never find in the States… potatoes, ham, raclette and emmenthal cheeses… on thin crunchy crust. I have found over the years that Europeans are very creative with their pizzas and you can always find some crazy yummy toppings. We stopped at several rest areas to try to call François… and finally reached him and decided on where to meet him.

We arrived in Gannat at midnight. He met us at the fountain in the center of town

and gave us the key to our hotel room… the front desk had closed a few hours ago, and he had picked up the key for us when it was obvious we wouldn't be in until after closing time. We arranged to meet for breakfast and take it from there. There was some rain in the forecast, so some of the sites he had lined up for us might be uncollectable. And, he was called to go to Italy the next day to do some business with some Russians. But he would have one of his helpers help us out. This was variraptor from TFF. I had been in touch with him and had originally planned to do some collecting with him in his part of France, about three hours west of where we were, but our schedules would not line up. Becky and I did not have enough time to collect with variraptor, and he needed to be in Gannat at the same time we were there.

Francois is a fossil seller and has a big warehouse/lab in town. We started our visit there. Large and impressive. And then a bunch of us went to lunch at a little restaurant in Gannat. Another delicious meal, with wine, of course. In the afternoon, Julien (variraptor) took us and a fellow named [removed for personal protection] to a Miocene site known to produce bird bones. We spent about two hours there. It took about an hour before I found a bird bone… a tarsometatarsus likely of the Miocene flamingo. I had just doubled the size of my collection of fossil bird bones. That was on one end of the quarry. After we scoured that end pretty well with only a few bird bones turning up, we went to the other end, where we found more bird bones and even some eggshell. A fine afternoon indeed. We dropped Julian’s friend off at his house; he had lost his license due to getting too many tickets for driving while cell phoning. Which is still perfectly legal in Wyoming (no txting, though). That evening we had another wonderful meal, this time at Francois’ house. (Francois had returned from Italy). His wife had made potatoes au gratin with crème fraiche, and by gum, they were the best potatoes au gratin I have ever had… Wow. Becky agreed. Then there was of course the fossil collection tour. Amazing collection.

The next morning we returned to the Miocene site and did some more hunting, finding a lot more bird bones and eggshell pieces. Here is a photo of the quarry with Julien finding something down grand in there.

There are certain layers that are chock full of eggshells. I was also tickled to find a pair of bat jaws (my first and second). In these two outings to this site, I radically increased my collection of both bat and bird fossils. Becky came along, but she decided to start the outing by napping in the car. Julian and I returned with our pockets full after two hours to find Becky just waking up. Her 15 minute nap had been extended and she felt great. Here are the more identifiable bird bones from this site.

And my two bat jaws

After our muddy outing we had to look for a place to eat. It was after 2PM and everything was closed, but we found a local classic car show. We asked if they had a food stand that might still be serving food, and yes, they did and they were. They made us pay the admission to the car show to eat, so we did and after lunch we toured around. Cool to see old cars that you just simply don’t see at car shows in the states. This was my fave by far.. A 58 (?) VW ragtop bug.

On the way home we stopped to visit a castle… Le Chateau de Billy. The name alone made it worthwhile. Billy. It is in a small town named Billy. (pronounced Biy-yi in French). I had promised Becky that we would visit a castle while we were here, and here we were. It was small and un-restored. The cool thing about it was that it had basically been decommissioned when cannons were invented. One wall had been seriously compromised by a cannon attack in the [XXX] century, and it was still in that condition. The local ruler decided to move all his castle dwellers to one central location and fortify that one instead of fortifying many small garrisons. But like in many small towns in the area, the castle still stands above the town. To us Americans, this stuff is seriously old. Even to those of us who collect fossils. Here is a view of the well kept courtyard inside the Chateau de Billy,

and the cannon-destroyed wall.

Here is a view from the top of it. This is Billy.

That evening we treated our guide Julien to dinner at the hotel. More deliciousness and wine.

The next day we went to a little plot of land that François had bought for the Permian fossils on it. He and his partner (the guy who introduced me to him) plan to open this site up to the public someday… I hope so. We spend a couple hours there, and I did manage to find a little partial amphibian skeleton. Here is the site

and the little guy as found. This is part and counterpart.

I spent about 8 hours prepping the skull and am still working on the body piece:

In the afternoon we visited the local paleo museum in Gannat… Paleopolis. Francois found a Miocene rhino in the local quarry many years ago and that was the start of this museum. I missed the details of the tale. Julien and Becky and I went to the museum. The highlight for me after finding nice bird bones was a mounted skeleton of Palaelodus, the flamingo that some of my bones are certainly from. Becky and I had a great stay in Gannat. Merci François, Madame François and Julian.

We had arranged to meet Dominique (caterpillar on TFF) and collect with him for a few days. We met him at a McDonald’s in Castelnaudary the next morning... early enough that we almost beat the serious rush hour leaving Toulouse. Almost. We left our rental rig in the parking lot for the day and rode with Dominique. Today would be a crab day. We spent the morning at an Eocene site caterpillar had found with many small crab carapaces in a hard yellow limestone. The goal is to find a good one or two… or twenty. I found three species there, plus caliannassid claws, and Dominique donated a specimen of a fourth, much less common species. This is the site.

Becky noticed there were lots of snails around. That’s me collecting; the outcrop is to my right side. Not much of an outcrop, but rich in small crabs. The biggest one we found that day is about an inch long. Here are some pix of three species seen through the microscope.

Retropluma gallica

Goniocypoda edwardsi

Glyphithyreus wetherelli

Then off to a second site in an old vineyard for Eocene Xanthopsis crabs. These were in a softer marl and were found just by digging. There was no outcrop, no previous pit. I was left to wonder how the heck Dominique found this site, but he had done his homework, and it paid off. He has done a lot of homework, footwork and digging over the years. Here are Dominique and I searching for crabs in an old vineyard.

We left with numerous crabs… no complete ones, but some nice carapaces, nice claws and one specimen with a bit of both. Here is a picture of a one of the nicer claw I have prepped.

By the time we returned to Mickey D’s to pick up the car and head to my sister’s, it was open and we needed some coffee for the drive into Toulouse. French McD’s has the worse coffee in the country. At least from the small sample involved in this study. We ended up throwing it out and stopping for some good stuff at the rest area. On the way we passed the ancient town of Carcassone. This is one of France’s nicest restored medieval towns. Even passing by on the highway, it just looks like every kid’s drawing of a castle. (I soon found out that my sis has been there twice with her family and the boys absolutely love it… it is their favorite thing in France). No time to stop... that would have been a half or full day visit. It was at this point that Becky said with a smile, “Next time we do this, I have a say in what we do”. OK sez I. I must backtrack a bit and say that I had this trip mostly planned when... a) Becky and I became serious enough for me to invite her along and I realized that she could actually take vacation time during the school year (she works in the schools in CO). So I invited her to join me on a fossil hunting trip, knowing full well, that castles would be a luxury. She was actually a great sport during the trip and had a great time (maybe a bit fossiled out). Indeed, the next time we will plan the trip together. (I wonder if I can squeeze in some birding next time).

Then we were off, back to my sister’s in Toulouse. We had a busy morning in Gannat before leaving. I had organized to meet Capt Nemo to trade some fossils, and today was the day. He lives nearby and happened to be coming to Gannat with his girlfriend that morning. My luck. I gave him a little sampler of late Cretaceous fossils from around here and he gave me a few blocks of rock loaded with Oligocene bird eggshell pieces, from different places than where we had been collecting. Seems central France is full of bird egg sites. Here are two pieces... one as I got it from Capt Nemo and one prepped (light touch with bicarb).

We spent the rest of the morning in Gannat doing laundry and shopping and such. Guess what; by the time we drove by the Caves of Lascaux, they were closed for the day… So, we will have to come back. Back to my sister’s in time for dinner again.

to be continued again...

Edited December 19, 2013 by jpc

[jpc]

Our last fossil outing was again with Dominique the next day to a site he found in the hills of Aude in a hard Cretaceous rock full of shells, including some large snails the size of a baseball. Shark and mosasaur teeth and mosasaur bones are rare finds here, and for me the mosasaur material was the goal. This turned out to be Becky’s favorite spot.

“I could stay here all day” she said, and we more or less did and had to drag her away kicking and screaming at the end. We left with bags full of fossils, including sponges, clams, snails, corals, a shark tooth each and a mosasaur tooth each. Dominique donated one to the cause and I found a few mosasaur bones. Fairly hard work, but fun collecting. Here is Becky smiling as she examiners a something. And here is a shot of a few finds from here.

Including the mosasur tooth I got from Dominique. Merci.

To close off the fossiling part of the trip, Dominique took us to his place for the fossil collection tour. Another great collection. He has a lot of it online on his web site (see his profile). Merci Dominique.

Returning to Toulouse, we spent the majority of the last day in France buying gifts for our pet sitters and shipping fossils home. I sent three boxes and Becky sent one, at about 100 USD per box. They all arrived in Wyoming within days. One of them was crushed, but not badly…nothing was broken or missing. Packages from France... this is like Christmas.

France has nice prepaid packages for shipping. I putt extra packing tape on them which proved to be a good move. Only two fossils were hurt in the mailing…a nice sand dollar Coco gave us, and my best chunk of bird eggshell. We had dinner out with my sis and the family and got to spend some time with them in the evenings in Toulouse. Merci Sonia, Bob, Luc et Caleb.

A great trip, full of great people, great food and great fossils. Thanks to my sister whose spell in Toulouse will be over after New Year‘s, to all the French folks who made it possible, and to The Fossil Forum for making the making possible possible. Merci Beaucoup a tous les nouveaus amis fossiliferiques francais.

Joyeux Noel a tous.

A+

Edited December 18, 2013 by jpc

[cowsharks]

Wow. That was awesome. For some reason I'm now hungry for cheese, deli meats, pizza, and red wine. It's awesome that you were able to spend time with new friends and family, soo so many cool spots, go fossil collecting, sample so many food types, and your girlfriend had a good time!

Daryl.

[caldigger]

"I'm sorry you had such an unproductive trip. You probably could have spent the same amount of money and gone to Disneyland for one day".

France is a very beautiful country and everyone I had ever run into there were so nice and friendly (I don't know were the reputation for French people hating Americans came about). It was a great story and you brought the reader along for the ride. It almost felt like I had some fossils of my own to unpack from the trip.

[Auspex]

You deserve a Paleo Pulitzer for this write-up (and with no glaring typos!!! ).

What a trip; I'll be out of breath for hours...

[Wrangellian]

Great trip indeed! The report made it seem so. Too much food description, I was going to say the same thing as Daryl! It's dinnertime around here, and that's torture. So are the fossils, actually. I am continually surprised how many productive sites still exist over there, considering how quickly my local sites are depleted and few new ones come to light - I would have thought Europe has been collected much longer and therefore harder to find stuff. Guess it helps having generous fellow Forum members to show you around..

[Uncle Siphuncle]

That's it! I'm ready for another European paleo odyssey! Looks like you had a blast, met some cool people, and found some great stuff.

[DE&i]

Absolutely fantastic report / trip...i had to put the kettle on twice to make a brew while reading, id forgot id been in the kitchen i was that absorbed.

Regards,

Darren.

[old dead things]

Sounds to me like you spent as much time drinking wine as you did collecting fossils. I liked all the pictures.

[MarcoSr]

Jean-Pierre

Wow, what an awesome trip! Great specimens! Great photos! Great company! You sure found a wide diversity of fossils. I love the bat jaws and the bird material. There are some old quarries in France that I hope to get to when I go to Europe next year to visit with Patrick. But my main interest in France is finding certain species of ray and shark not found in the US.

Marco Sr.

[caterpillar]

Thank you for your visit

[elcoincoin]

now u need another trip for northen part

[PFOOLEY]

Fantastic write up! Thanks so much for taking the time.

[Jeffrey P]

Very nice, very entertainig trip report. Thanks for sharing. Sounds like the food, the wine, and the people was as much the attraction as the fossils themselves, but you certainly had some great finds. Congratulations. Love those trilobites, ammonites, and bat jaws, but the partial amphibian was definately a highlight. As a collector, I think you got to meet more people and see more of the country than tourists typically do. Bon chance.

[Coco]

Hi,

What a nice report !

We had a marvelous time with you ! I was glad to meet you both, and can't wait to see you again !

I think your trilobite is Neseuretus tristani, and Miocene little sea urchins are Arbacina monilis.

You know that french people kiss their friends. So, Bizzzzzzzz !

Coco

[jpc]

Yes, this was a great trip.

elcoincoin---yes I need to do northern France...

caterpillar---la porte est toujour ouverte ici quand tu decide de venir.

coco---toi aussi.... bizzzzzzz

caldigger--- Darn, I hadn't even thought of that as a possible vacation spot. I am going to a coference in Gainesville in Feb...maybe...or maybe not

and yes, food and wine are so much a part of French culture that I couldn't NOT write about it. (Notice that I made no mention of the meal at the car show).

[masonboro37]

Goodness! That is a trip to dream of! Thank you for sharing and for posting such great pic's! Just about like a travel along. The fossils pic's are great as well as the chataeu's. Loving the crab carapace! Awesome report!!

Libby

[siteseer]

JP,

Thanks for that story well told with the bonus of FF members getting together. I hope those windmills are preserved. If word gets to the right people, I'm sure the money will be found.

That "bird site" is certainly unusual for its multiple layers of bird material. It's great when you can sample beds of various ages. What kind of rock encases the distorted trilobites?

Jess

[Coco]

Hi,

North of France isn't so far from the West side !

Coco

[taj]

nice trip !

Looks like there is a furry illegal alien trying to smuggle into the US on the last pic of post #3?

[Everhardus]

Cool tripreport ! I see you didn't make it to the Aveyron, what a shame ! Still, nice lots of nice finds.....greets,Marcel

[jpc]

nice trip !

Looks like there is a furry illegal alien trying to smuggle into the US on the last pic of post #3?

yes ... and his buddy is waiting in line. Actually that is at home.. so they are helping me unpack.

everhardus... no. The time was short. I had the papers you sent me in case we had the time, but no. There is so much to investigate there.

jess... yeah the bird site is cool. I know a lot has been published from there. The rock with trilobites is slate of some sort. There might be more in this months Fossil of the Month as someone has posted a trilobite from there as their entry.

here is a bonus photo of the Permian amphibian. This is looking straight into his Chesire Cat grin... look at all those little teeth. I'm really pleased with how this came out, even though a few teeth were lost in the collectiong process.

[taj]

Ah yes ! You're right, I didn't see him lurking in the background.

By the way if you do this again , these colissimo prepaid offers are pretty overpriced. Regular, homemade packages with a tracking option are way cheaper for the same result.Of course french post office doesn't advertise about them, so few people in France know about it !

[jpc]

taj... thanks for the tip, but we tried that. We had a wine box filled with fossils and we gave it to the clerk in the Post Office in Toulouse and it was a lot more expensive than the Collisimo box. So we repacked everything right there in the PO. We were there for two hours. We even gave the clerk and extra ammonite.