I’m good at getting my friends into crazy adventures, and Saturday’s La Chasse aux Tresors [Paris treasure hunt set up by the Mairie de Paris] did just that. I signed up for the 20th arrondisement, wanting to explore a side of Paris I don’t get to often (part of the goal of the event). I must admit the most challenging part – besides testing our treasure hunting skills en francais – was finding the actual place to pick up the maps. But hey, it’s France, so you can expect to have to run around in circles a bit.
After getting a bit hung up on the third clue, we eventually found our way (and so did others). This clue told us to find the funny birds.
Along the way we discovered lots of new places we never would have known about otherwise. (I want to go back to this restaurant now).
And charming little streets tucked away.
But before we got too comfortable neck and neck with other teams and feeding off each other, there were “road blocks” along the way which we had to participate in in order to get clues that would lead us to the final destination. At this stop we went to a marionette theater where we each got to try our skills out. It was great – I totally felt like I was on The Amazing Race.
The scenery around us constantly changed.
And we got to interact with locals in the area. (Here one of the clues took us to a hair salon where we had to guess the song to get our next special clue).
A lot of the time we didn’t even feel like we were in Paris at all.
This is my team – Sarah, Lindsey, Marisa and Cedric as we entered Pere Lachaise cemetery for the final rounds.
Due to the massive storms in the morning, we got a late start and ended up finishing about 15 minutes after the deadline. Still it was great fun by all and we had a different adventure in the city for the day. Behind this wall there was a little party waiting for us all to celebrate the end of the chase.