Jul 7, 2013
La Chasse aux Trésors de Paris 2013
A city-wide trasure hunt – why not?
The Mairie de Paris hosted its 8th edition of Chasse aux Trésors on Saturday 6 July and for once, I was around to play! It is a brilliant initiative to discover Paris better, as each hunt is set to cover the streets, parks, shops and other nooks and corners of participating arrondissements. A total of 13 arrondissements were up for adventures this year, and there were also 2 inter-arrondissement challenges to be had. Intimate knowledge of the arrondissements is not necessary. In fact, it’s even better if you don’t know it well already!
The clue sheets were to be collected between 10am and 1pm, and the hunt completed by 3.30pm. No other time limitation imposed otherwise. Teamed together with Anne and Chloé, we signed up to discover one of the inter-arrondissement trails. We had no idea before hand on where we were going, just that we should retrieve our treasure hunting clues at the Mairie of the 3rd arrondissement. This year, we were to help Erasme recover the name of his long-lost lover, guided by the Oracle. I just want to share some photos from our hunt, and hover over them for descriptions extracted from our clue sheets.
Among the descriptions of the photos, I’ve tried my best to translate them while still maintaining the essence of the clues that we’ve received. There were so many clever little hints that we’ve received, e.g. the direction of the “Egyptian elephant” (il me demanderait de rejoindre le Nil à dos d’éléphant), and following instruction, we’ve also collected a series of letters from different signs, statues and names that we’ve seen, in order to construct the name of Erasme’s darling.
On arrival at our finish point, we each received a coupon to write our names and contact details down in order to put into a lucky draw for a prize later that day. As we also successfully figured out the name Erasme was searching for (Romance) we got an additional coupon to put into the box. However, since we had not heard anything yet up to now, I guess that means we didn’t get too lucky that day afterall…
The bonus side: not only I get to know Paris in the 3rd, 4th and 11th arrondissements better that morning, I also got to work on my French. Trying to read quickly on-the-go while deciphering the different clues was certainly a very interesting exercise! Oh how I wish then I have the clue sheets from all the different arrondissements, so that I can trace their trails in my own time and practice a little bit more… I had tons of fun, and definitely looking forward to next year’s edition!
Ps: Anglophones who wish to play – there are clue sheets in English available from certain arrondissements, so next year, no excuses ;)
interesting hunt and the tulips are not that hard too heheheh ;)
Huh, tulips?
clues or direction in a treasure hunt are also called ‘tulips’
aaaah… i’m learning something new ;)