Finding Sea Glass in Europe was surprisingly easy, however, many were not of the quality I was hoping for. We just came back from three and a half weeks in Europe. It was mostly a trip to visit family, but we were lucky enough to stumble onto some beaches full of sea glass. Finding really quality pieces was not easy because it mostly greens and browns with somewhat rough edges. We spent a week on the coast of the French Riviera in Les Issembres. It’s not far from St. Tropez. We had the good fortune to be staying near a beach full of sea glass, called Plage de la Gaillarde. We searched a bunch of different beaches, and found different colors on each beach, however, none were too rare. I came there expecting to add to my seashell collection, but there were surprisingly few shells. The beaches are mostly pebble and rock with spectacularly clear water.
Sea Glass Hunting
My daughter Corla and I went down to the beach every day and collected pounds of sea glass. It ended up being about 11 pounds, and it took a while to sort. Now this is not the kind of jewelry quality sea glass that you can sell, but it’s fun to put it into vases or make craft projects using it. Plus, the joy of finding sea glass…any kind of sea glass, is indescribable.
When we left Les Issembres, we spent a week on the island of Majorca in Spain. They also had tons of sea glass. In both places, I did find some diamonds in the rough here and there, but again it was mostly the greens and browns.
While we were wading in the water, we came across several pieces of “black glass“. They are estimated to be about 400 years old. When you hold them up to a flashlight, you see that they’re a dark olive green, but in regular light, they appear black. We also found some beautiful light gray pieces while digging a hole on the beach. So you never know, sometimes you find sea glass in some unlikely places.
