Caches In French

[+mbhhholm]

We are going to visit Montreal from the states later this month and would like to do some ccahes. However we do not read or speak french which seems to be the preffered language of the listings on geocacvhing.com. Is there a way to translate on line?

[+Renegade Knight]

Babelfish I believe can do it. Do a search of "French to English translations" and you should find what you need.

 

Keep in mind that machine translations are usually good enough to get you the gist of the cache page and not much more than that. They are also good for a laugh.

[+murfster]

Google translation can do a rough translation as well.

 

Murfster

[+AV Dezign]

All my caches in Montreal are bilingual, so you should have no problems with those.

[+LeGodFather]

We are going to visit Montreal from the states later this month and would like to do some ccahes. However we do not read or speak french which seems to be the preffered language of the listings on geocacvhing.com. Is there a way to translate on line?

Paste the link to the cache page at http://babelfish.altavista.com/

 

Or, stick to Traditional caches.. because some of the Multis or Mysteries are not easy, even if you read french!!

[+Shawn&Holly]

A number of caches here are bilingual, most can be done with babelfish, either google or altavista, I use both. All of my local caches are bilingual, but you would have better luck reading the English then my French for which I am sorry. I have received translated descriptions from some of the local cachers and am very greatful for the help on the French portion.

 

This past weekend we made a successful raid of Ile Parrot and Vaudreuil-Dorion (West of Montreal just off the island on highway 20) of multi and puzzle caches. I teamed up with some other local non-French speaking cachers and our answers to the puzzles matched. Of the 6 caches I solved, we searched for 4, found 3 and DNF on 1, I had the correct solution that I confirmed with the cache owner. I only need help from a co-worker on 1 puzzle just to get the wording correct and would most likely made the same mistake if the cache description was in English. Language does not have to be a barrier, just makes the puzzles more interesting, more challenging and more rewarding when you do find the cache.

 

We do alot of our caching in Quebec and only run into 2 problems with language 1) local lingo that my better half does not know (she is bilingual, but we are from New Brunswick so some words are more to the local area) and 2) our PDA does not display French characters properly (any letter with an accent) so we have to try to guess words not in our native tongue. This year I hope the purchase of an old laptop will remedy that problem as well as an offline translation program I picked up (google and altavista require internet access, makes caching on the fly more difficult when you want a translation). I have also found the cachers here to be very friendly and helpful, answering any questions I have.

 

One thing I have noted here, most caches do not have a hint and often, for the traditionals, you only have the co-ordinates, type, size and rating to go on. Therefore even if the caches were English, it would make no difference in finding the cache. It does help that most are correctly rated for difficulty, terrain and for the most part size, I do find some Regulars tend to be on the small size of Regular, Small on 1 was a 35mm canister but all others I would call well camoed small caches and the micro's are correct (I cannot remember any that were not). I did hit my first almost nano (smallest micro I have found anyways) cache this weekend which was rated correctly. Hope you enjoy your trip to Montreal, might see you on the trail

[+geoSquid]

Or hook up with a local cacher who can help out

[+Couparangus]

I just got back from Quebec. If you are travelling for pleasure you may want to venture a couple of hours up the road from Montreal to Quebec City. Much more interesting, in my opinion. But most importantly, there are many caches there too.