A point $({\xi }_1,{\xi }_2)$ with coordinates in a subfield of $ℝ$ of transcendence degree one over $\mathbb{Q}$, with $1,{\xi }_1,{\xi }_2$ linearly independent over $\mathbb{Q}$, may have a uniform exponent of approximation by elements of ${\mathbb{Q}}^2$ that is strictly larger than the lower bound $1/2$ given by Dirichlet’s box principle. This appeared as a surprise, in connection to work of Davenport and Schmidt, for points of the parabola $\{(\xi ,{\xi }^2);\xi \in ℝ\}$. The goal of this paper is to show that this phenomenon extends to all real conics defined over $\mathbb{Q}$, and that the largest exponent of...