St. Marie aux Mines - without pictures!!!

[Marlow]

Without pictures!!!!

Yes - course I forgot the akku - but full power after I returned from the show!!!

My first St. Marie aux Mines - I love it!!

We arrived very early in the morning ( me and a friend of mine who will start a shop - but I am still not in the trade!!). Very fast car ( Nissan GTR) and german highways - wroooomm!! St Marie is a charming larger village - a small town...nice stores, fine food - outside the offer excellent food - sausages, super bread and ( unfortunately ) a lot of "foie gras"! I don't buy this - poor animals - butmy opinion.

There was a gem area and a mineral area - you have to walk a few hundred meter or wait for the shuttle bus - open like the ones for children in a Disney Land.
Thursday and Friday are only for trade person ( but is it not Germany - you understand ) - a one day ticket 25 EUR - four days 36 EUR. Open at 09:00 am.
Some vendors have tents outside - we had fantastic weather - and there is a larger hall with most gem dealers. GREAT you have daylight.

Is St Marie a show for PSer???

No - if you expect top quality and larger Mahenge, Paraiba or fine corundum in a larger amount. But you find some...

No - if you are chinese and want to spend a lot of money - course the prices are still fair and quite low.

We found a top colored top cut loupeclean Tsavorite ( the same older german vendor like my Zimbabwe alex) around 85 EUR - fresh green like the ones in the Yavorski Garnet book - def. a PSer stone quality ( PS quality means no grey or brown, no window, no extinction worth to offer on LT). Around 0,80-0,90 ct. My friend got it - he found a Taaffeite for me. A pad colored 1 ct burmese spinel around 1 ct - from a lot with orange, pink and pad colored spinel for 40 pct!! O.K. - some with windows but many with PS quality.

YES - if you love rare stones, collector stones ( around 50 Taaffeites) and good deals. It is smaller so you see everything and don't overlook
so much like in Munich show.

YES course it is a friendly show...

What is new ...

We bought two cut stones and 3 rough pieces of a new mexican opal - colored buy uranium - the a straw yellow in incandescent light but in daylight VIIIIIVIIIID yellowgreen and in LW fluor strong green like the fluor color of some diamonds.
Not many rough stones.

It is very important to wait till you buy - the prices differ from o.k. to very good. D Gravier offered fine Taaffeite from Sri Lanka around 1000 pct - I got the same qualityfor 600 pct.

We have seen a lot of people buying - better then some Munich Show I visited.

Some fine ( neon ) Chrysoberyll for 200 pct - for me to expensive but a great 1,5 ct round - again a PS quality. But no money left....

Worth to travel?? For european PS like you, Minoubijoux or Acinom, yes - Strassburg is very close and St. Marie is easy to reach.

Overseas - if you are on holiday in europe why not. Only for the show I think not enough offered for what PSer are usually looking for.

Vendors - many from France and Germany - some Sri Lanka ( careful - still often bad cutting and unknown treatments) and Columbian emerald dealer - very interesting. As usually fine opal. No diamond dealer, no larger highend dealer like Baselshow.

I like this show - will be there again!!

And Minousbijoux - send Uli Zeisberg an email with a not on PS posted pic of your alex and you get the catalog!!

 

[minousbijoux]

Well, for providing us no photos - a major faux pas - you did pretty well in providing us a look at the show. Thank you! As an aside, I couldn't agree more about foie gras! The only time I ever had it was when we were in New Caledonia visiting our extended French family and I was pregnant with much morning sickness. They all said "this is such a luxury and it goes so well with a good sauternes - here, try it!" Never could eat it again. To this day, it makes me nauseous to think about!

ETA: did you mean uranium? Did it have any radioactivity?

 

[dk168]

Ooo, it is doable for me too, and we could have an European PS meet in future!

Looking forward to the pics.

DK

 

[Marlow]

Minousbijoux,

I love Sauternes!!!

I don't know whether this kind of opal is or is not radioactive. It is quite new. Will find out...

DK168

Why not a PS meeting... you will like it and you will see many tents

 

[chrono]

Thanks for the write-up. I think even if it isn't a typical PSer-type show, it gives one the opportunity to see other gem types that aren't common in the US gem shows.

 

[Marlow]

Thanks for the write-up. I think even if it isn't a typical PSer-type show, it gives one the opportunity to see other gem types that aren't common in the US gem shows.

You see them in US shows to but ( me too) we have a limited amount of money and some vendors we check first - so maybe you overlook something really interesting or well priced.

I bought some little round afghanites - the new bright blue and clean material. I spent 500 EUR pct - an US vendor wants 1500$ pct for a similar quality ( round, clean and bright blue).

You can still save a lot of money.