Caching in Paris - and a language query

[+Mirandapanda]

I was in Paris for a couple of days earlier this week, and found that my GPSr was consistently about 150m off. I managed to find a few caches where the description or clue were very specific, but others were quite impossible. Should I have done some sort of re-setting to take account of the new location? I didn't encounter this problem in Austria or Italy.

 

Also: can anyone tell me how to set acute and grave accents in my logs? I have a formula that says you use Ctrl + ' for acute and Ctrl + ` for grave, but this doesn't seem to work. I dearly want to show off and enter my logs in as correct French as possible!

[+Gushoneybun]

I was in Paris for a couple of days earlier this week, and found that my GPSr was consistently about 150m off. I managed to find a few caches where the description or clue were very specific, but others were quite impossible. Should I have done some sort of re-setting to take account of the new location? I didn't encounter this problem in Austria or Italy.

 

 

The coords should be fine the world over. Were they all placed by the same cacher, they could have the accuracy issue . Sometimes being close to metal objects can affect the GPS slightly, were they all at the foot of the Eiffel Tower

[+MartyBartfast]

I was in Paris for a couple of days earlier this week, and found that my GPSr was consistently about 150m off. I managed to find a few caches where the description or clue were very specific, but others were quite impossible. Should I have done some sort of re-setting to take account of the new location? I didn't encounter this problem in Austria or Italy.

 

No, you don't have to do anything to the GPS to operate in France. I was in Paris myself last month and did a handful of caches, and the GPS was OK to within a few metres, exactly the same as I get in the UK.

 

Can't help you on the accents, but isn't there a "Character Map" tool under the Accessories menu on Windows?

[+The Blorenges]

150m is a suspicious number..... its roughly the error you'd get if you had the GPS on the wrong map datum. It should be set to Lat and Long, degrees and decimal minutes (HDDD.MM.MMM) on the WGS84 map datum. If you've been using it in the UK on the British Grid then that could be the error.

If you want more information about coordinates and GPS settings have a look at my resource website www.follow-the-arrow.co.uk

 

Chris (MrB)

[+ijcoxf]

I was in Paris for a couple of days earlier this week, and found that my GPSr was consistently about 150m off. I managed to find a few caches where the description or clue were very specific, but others were quite impossible. Should I have done some sort of re-setting to take account of the new location? I didn't encounter this problem in Austria or Italy.

 

No, you don't have to do anything to the GPS to operate in France. I was in Paris myself last month and did a handful of caches, and the GPS was OK to within a few metres, exactly the same as I get in the UK.

 

Can't help you on the accents, but isn't there a "Character Map" tool under the Accessories menu on Windows?

That was my thought too, I don't know if it works though, I've never had occasion to try it in this context. Let's see if it works here: my €0.02 worth = ¢¢. Preview looks OK, & so it looks like it should work, in forum posts at least.

[+The Blorenges]

Hold down the Alt key and type

 

0232 to give è

 

0233 to give é

 

0234 to give ê

 

Others can be found here: Windows Alt key codes.

 

MrsB

[+sTeamTraen]

Hold down the Alt key and type <something very hard to remember>

And when you're tired of that, get AllChars.

[+Mirandapanda]

Thankyou all for your very helpful advice and suggestions.

 

With regard to the co-ordinates, I suspected the fault was with me, as the caches had all been placed by different people, and there was no mention in the logs of anyone else having trouble. And yes - my GPSr had been inadvertently set to British Grid (nephew fiddling about with it!) - so problem solved. It was a shame I only got a 50% hit rate in Paris, but I discovered all sorts of interesting places I would never otherwise have found.

 

Will now go off to experiment with my accents!

[+currykev]

Sorry to hear about your French woes.

I'm sure that if you'd have asked, a certain Mr Thierry Henry would've given you a HAND!

[+NickandAliandEliza]

Sorry to hear about your French woes.

I'm sure that if you'd have asked, a certain Mr Thierry Henry would've given you a HAND!

 

You can take the cheat out of Arsenal, but you can't take Arsenal out of the cheat!!

 

If you download GSAK, I think there is a macro to sort out all the weird foreign type lettering. It does pretty much all you want............

[+Team Sieni]

And when you're tired of that, get AllChars.

Looks interesting. I will check it out.

 

Another useful doodad is "charmap" which is one of the utilities that comes with Windows. Just do start/run (or whatever) and enter charmap you can then find & cut and paste all the characters you need. A bit of a fiddle, but easier than remembering alt codes.

[+Mirandapanda]

Sorry to hear about your French woes.

I'm sure that if you'd have asked, a certain Mr Thierry Henry would've given you a HAND!

Would it not have been The Hand of God?

[norsch]

Sorry to hear about your French woes.

I'm sure that if you'd have asked, a certain Mr Thierry Henry would've given you a HAND!

 

Is he the French president?