Walking on eggshells

'EGGS EN PROVENCE': FRANCE'S 75-MILLION-YEAR-OLD DINOSAUR FIND

- Aix-en-Provence

At the foot of Sainte Victoire, the mountain in Provence immortalised by Impressionist painter Paul Cezanne, a palaeontologist brushes meticulously through a mound of red clay looking for fossils.

These are not any old fossils, but 75-million-year-old dinosaur eggs. Little luck or skill is needed to find them: scientists believe that there are more dinosaur eggs here than at any other place on earth.

The area, closed to the public, is nicknamed "Eggs en Provence", due to its proximity to the southeastern city of Aix-en-Provence.

"There's no other place like it," said Thierry Tortosa, a palaeontologist and conservationist at the Sainte Victoire Nature Reserve.

"You only need to look down to find fragments. We're literally walking on eggshells here."