Why Aren't There Any Caches...

[+The J J Noodle Fan Club]

Well it looks like France for our hols again next year. Last year (pre our discovery of caching) we went a few miles south of La Rochelle. This year the plan is to go somewhere north of La Rochelle but still near the coast (4yo likes beaches).

 

So a MAJOR factor on Gite location has to be cache density - right?!

 

We put in N46.7 W2.04 to gc.com and there are an extraordinary 9 (nine) within 100 miles! What! Excuse me! We can understand and even join in with with a desire to spend cash on Fromage or Pate instead of a GPS but 9!

 

As a result every person who reads this post is hereby reqired to visit this area of France before 1st June 2005 and place at least 5 caches within 30 miles of the given coordinates ... by order of The JJNFC. Please

Edited December 7, 2004 by The J J Noodle Fan Club

[markandlynn]

I believe that the French have there own version of le geocaching

<insert witty comment here about France please>

Moral plan your holidays arround cache density, we just spent 3 weeks finding holiday cottages in cache dense areas

not addicted honest and no were not planning route caches at all oh no

Good luck in France

[+Eckington]

As a result every person who reads this post is hereby reqired to visit this area of France before 1st June 2005 and place at least 5 caches within 30 miles of the given coordinates ... by order of The JJNFC.

........which would be, quite correctly, turned down unless you could provide the reviewer with evidence that you, or a local person, were prepared to maintain the cache in an emergency.

[+Alibags]

That's a lovely neck of the woods, but last time I was there I had not yet taken up geocaching. Where my friends holiday cottage is, just down the coast from la Rochelle, I suspect that any cache would get rootled up by the wild boar that roam around the place!

 

I would love to go back and place some caches, but I am not to sure about holiday caches as a good idea.

 

It *is* noticable that La Belle France is a big black hole as regards geocaching though. If you look at the maps, caches cluster round the borders but do not seem to make it into France itself. I was looking for a handy one near Calais to combine with a booze bruise, but no joy.

 

Hmm, I have some other friends who own a Gites (is that how you spell it?) In Brittany. perhaps I should visit, set some caches round and about their property and get them to maintain them. They could then offer accommodation in the centre of French caching country. Possibly too commercial an idea?

[+The J J Noodle Fan Club]

As a result every person who reads this post is hereby reqired to visit this area of France before 1st June 2005 and place at least 5 caches within 30 miles of the given coordinates ... by order of The JJNFC.

........which would be, quite correctly, turned down unless you could provide the reviewer with evidence that you, or a local person, were prepared to maintain the cache in an emergency.

In that case I'll amend the order to require that all readers of this thread not only place 5 caches but also move to France to facilitate thier maintenance.

 

That's not being unreasonable is it?

[+one4zorro]

There is a short, interesting article about caching in France Here from Todays Cacher Magazine.

Edited December 7, 2004 by one4zorro

[+Happy Humphrey]

I did a few caches in France back in July - they were generally excellent but most were probably in the "holiday cache" category. Next time I go caching there I'll take a "holiday cache kit", i.e. a couple of cache boxes and blank log books in case any have been trashed or are disintegrating badly.

 

If there had been a warning against the cache description along the lines of "holiday cache - not guaranteed by the cache owner" I would have still sought them out, whilst being aware that the find may not ultimately be possible.

 

One of them had been trashed, and after I noted this in my log, it was eventually reinstated by another cacher (not the owner). This system worked well enough.

 

I'm not sure why, for certain areas, a holiday cache cannot be approved as long as it's clearly categorised like that. In the case of France, that just might start to encourage more locals to join in, and adopt the caches as well as making their own. France is full of superb geocaching country and it's a shame that our near neighbour should be ignored - although perhaps we could join in with their version!

 

HH

[+Roberts-tribe]

I was looking for a handy one near Calais to combine with a booze bruise, but no joy.

 

There's this one if travelling by Le Shuttle http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...aa-6f844116d784

 

Not exactly challenging though

[+The J J Noodle Fan Club]

There is a short, interesting article about caching in France Here from Todays Cacher Magazine.

Thanks for the link - it's a good article.

 

Cheers.

[+Learned Gerbil]

I discussed this the other day with a UK resident French hiker I know. She says French people simply have better things to do with their time than go caching!!!!

[Lactodorum]

As a result every person who reads this post is hereby reqired to visit this area of France before 1st June 2005 and place at least 5 caches within 30 miles of the given coordinates ... by order of The JJNFC.

........which would be, quite correctly, turned down unless you could provide the reviewer with evidence that you, or a local person, were prepared to maintain the cache in an emergency.

......unless the cache submissions were accompanied by a case of nice Burgundy

[+Silver Horde]

I have a cache in France, Tocqueville. I don't know how to link it!!

It is handy for Cherbourg and there is a Hypermarket, Auchen, close by for the dutyfrees!! It is close to a family owned cottage. It is a truly international cache as I live in the US. The first visitors were Dutch!

 

ttfn

Jane

[+Eckington]

As a result every person who reads this post is hereby reqired to visit this area of France before 1st June 2005 and place at least 5 caches within 30 miles of the given coordinates ... by order of The JJNFC.

........which would be, quite correctly, turned down unless you could provide the reviewer with evidence that you, or a local person, were prepared to maintain the cache in an emergency.

......unless the cache submissions were accompanied by a case of nice Burgundy

the short fat bloke with beard and specs is inkoruptabull..............................for less than 2 cases

[+G Force]

I just completed 7 in Paris on an extended layover from CDG but think most were placed by UK cachers and maintained locally.

[+Bill D (wwh)]

markandlynn wrote:

I believe that the French have there own version of le geocaching

It's similar to geocaching in that it involves hiding and finding tupperware containing "treasure", but with one big exception - it doesn't use coords and gps units. There are a lot of "cistes" as they're called out there in France, though, and in some other European countries, including a few in the UK. The website is here - in French only. I notice the site is for sale - I don't know what that bodes for the future of the game.

[+The J J Noodle Fan Club]

It's similar to geocaching in that it involves hiding and finding tupperware containing "treasure", but with one big exception - it doesn't use coords and gps units.

So how do you find the beasties - my French isn't that good and babelfish won't follow the links properly?

 

Goes some way to explaining the lack of geocaches but then again I'd have thought with this already going they would have moved over to gc easily. Perhaps they don't want to use technology

 

Jon.

Edited December 7, 2004 by The J J Noodle Fan Club

[+Bill D (wwh)]

The J J Noodle Fan Club wrote:

So how do you find the beasties - my French isn't that good and babelfish won't follow the links properly?

 

Goes some way to explaining the lack of geocaches but then again I'd have thought with this already going they would have moved over to gc easily. Perhaps they don't want to use technology.

The "cacheur" (placer) gives up to seven lines of text to describe the hiding place. It can be simple and descriptive, or cryptic, but the site recommends that it shouldn't be too cryptic as the whole object is for the ciste to be found. You have to register to see the actual ciste pages, and I haven't done so, so I haven't read any of the clues themselves.

 

As you say, one would have thought that moving to caching would be an easy transition. But as there are nearly five thousand cistes in France and very few caches, there's probably no motivation to. In the UK, by the way, there are just eleven cistes. It seems to be very much a French thing - the only other country with any substantial number of cistes is Switzerland, and they only have a little over 300.

 

The lack of caches in France has been debated before in this and other forums, and the commonest explanation I've seen offered is that gc.com is an American site and GPSrs are mostly American, so the French don't want to know, but I'm inclined to think that they're just sticking with their own version of hidden boxes.

[+Bill D (wwh)]

Bill D (wwh) wrote:

You have to register to see the actual ciste pages, and I haven't done so, so I haven't read any of the clues themselves.

Just out of interest I registered. The clues aren't on the ciste pages - if you want to seek a ciste, you indicate your interest and the clue is emailed to you. So there's a record of everyone who's had the clue for any particular ciste.

 

Incidentally, I noticed one user's profile said, "I prefer puzzles to GPS units". Perhaps that explains the lack of French caches!

[+kewfriend]

We've done a couple of great caches in France - lucky they werent too far away from where we were staying. We wanted to set up a cache here north of Nimes in France:

 

.

 

Off we went to see the landowner - ooops wrong landowner so it came to nout. But next year we'll find the right landowner perhaps. And if anyone recognises the location - the answer is "Yes - we are."

[Leoness]

We've done a couple of great caches in France - lucky they werent too far away from where we were staying. We wanted to set up a cache here north of Nimes in France:

 

.

 

Off we went to see the landowner - ooops wrong landowner so it came to nout. But next year we'll find the right landowner perhaps. And if anyone recognises the location - the answer is "Yes - we are."

 

Naturists?

[+kewfriend]

ummmm - errrr - so it was your GPS beeping away behind us ......

 

Edited December 7, 2004 by kewfriend

[Leoness]

ummmm - errrr - so it was your GPS beeping away behind us ......

 

   

 

Er.... actually, it was probably the motorised shutter on my camera!!!

 

(and also, a lucky guess!)

[+kbootb]

We've done a couple of great caches in France - lucky they werent too far away from where we were staying. We wanted to set up a cache here north of Nimes in France:

 

.

 

Off we went to see the landowner - ooops wrong landowner so it came to nout. But next year we'll find the right landowner perhaps. And if anyone recognises the location - the answer is "Yes - we are."

 

Naturists?

What is that just creeping into the left of the frame?

 

I'm sure I recognise the location, I think I kayaked past this once.

 

There are three great caches in the region that I have found

 

GCG9BQ

 

GCG9BR

 

GCG9XZ

 

and one really tough one that has been 'lost' and is now archived after our brave attempt. GC72B5

 

France may not have many, but if you choose carefully they are very high quality.

[+2202]

Working in a very multi national office I can confirm that the French, along with the Spanish, Italian and Greek do not understand the concept of games. Sport yes, in the traditional sense, but games, no.

It is only the northern europeans where the concept of games and pastimes have any foothold. Its nothing to do with the fact that this appears to be USA orientated.

They also on a whole do not like hiking, and camping is also alien to them. As those of you that have camped in those countries, its mainly the Brits, Germans and Dutch who seem to frequent those locations. IMHO

[+kewfriend]

Yup - we did La Chapelle - weird spot but certainly worth the trek through the woods. Les Templiers almost certainly got washed away in the storms almost as soon as it was set up. We stopped off there on the Ardeche decent and pointed our GPSs but it didnt take us long to work out it had been long long gone.

 

The fun of the castle is indeed that it is in a 1000 hectare local government 'Zone Naturiste' but there are footpaths to it off the public roads which makes a visit to it always an interesting encounter.

 

Underneath the castle are easily accessed caves just waiting for a Geocache.

 

[+Happy Humphrey]

I did the Garrigues series just three weeks or so before kbootb - highly recommended, particularly the Pont du Gard. Is that the river Ceze in the photo, or the Ardeche? Beautiful area, but naturist geocaching is probably not advisable for another five months at least...

 

HH

Edited December 7, 2004 by Happy Humphrey

[nobby.nobbs]

naturist caching in uk hardly ever a good idea weather wise! little blue people running around trying to convince themselves they're having fun. don't get me wrong i can understand the temptation in the med etc just not in this country for 364 days of each year (you do get atleast one day warm enough to contemplate the idea)

 

i have no axe to grind with the french this cistes thing just sounds like letterboxing so no reason why caching can't be introduced slowly and the two exist happily together. as long as holiday caches are permitted.

[+sTeamTraen]

As the only gay in the village, oops, cacher in my region (that's "region" in the French sense: 1.2 million people in Alsace, one geocacher, not even French), I have my own opinions on why there aren't more caches in France.

 

There's a bit of what 2202 said. However, there are several thousand "cistes".

 

Incidentally, cistes.net is a lot more recent than Geocaching, and the interviews I've seen with the site owner indicate that he freely copied the idea from GC (and letterboxing, and scavenger hunting... let's not forget that GC is not as unique as we sometimes like to kid ourselves).

 

Cistes can involve solving quite complex riddles, written in French. The French love word games. Now of course you can make a cache like this too, but in my experience the most visited caches are the ones where you get coordinates rather than verbal challenges.

 

There's also a substantial "chicken and egg" problem, partly caused by the distances involved. France's population density is about 1/3 that of the UK, and if you remove Greater London and the equivalent area round Paris, it's about 1/4. Caching is like rabies (work with me here): until you get a certain density of caches (foxes), it has trouble spreading.

 

I suspect there's also some demographics involved. My feeling is that while younger people are not far behind the UK or Germany in terms either of their confidence with reading English, using the net, or buying high-tech gizmos, there is a bit of a gap when it comes to the 40-55 year olds, who tend to dominate GC (we have the money for the gadget and the petrol, the teenagers to entertain, and a vague desire to get out into the countryside now we don't listen to pop music any more ). That group in France is, IMO, a bit further behind the times than in other countries.

 

There are a couple of caches about 40km West of me placed by people with no finds. I suspect it's teenagers who love the GC idea but don't have access to the kind of transport you need for this hobby in a rural environment.

 

At least I have Germany just across the river. A wannabe cacher in Brittany or the Auvergne would be a poor lonesome cowboy indeed.

 

Anyway, the local paper are interviewing me about GC tomorrow - the journalist stumbled across GC.com while researching bookcrossing (which *IS* quite big in France). So I'm going to pretend to have to work out this cache again while the photographer looks for my best side. We're going at lunchtime so I will need to take a big sweater to cover up my tie

Edited December 8, 2004 by sTeamTraen

[+The Hokesters]

I discussed this the other day with a UK resident French hiker I know. She says French people simply have better things to do with their time than go caching!!!!

Wrong - they have their own game.

 

Not only do they have the time to play but they also have the time to conceive their own game, rules and website