Robert Langdon, Eat Your Heart Out

I’m on an American expats listserve (hey, why not) that recently posted an interesting event: a Saturday night scavenger hunt around Paris. The attendees would meet at a pub on the Right Bank, where they would split into groups of no more than 5, and compete to complete the hunt within 4 hours. An adventure company would provide the entire game, including instructions, clues, and waiver forms (in case any participants encountered danger along the way). And participation was free. COOL! I, Nate, and his fellow American-in-Paris co-worker were in. We ran into another American expat Nate randomly knows at the pub, so we had a perfectly-sized group and were ready to compete…or at least finish the game. We didn’t really care about winning.

We received seven clues, a stylized treasure map, and a cipher. Each clue was written as a poetic riddle. At the bottom of the riddle was a word or phrase encrypted in cipher code. You had to decipher the location of where the clue would be located. Once you got to the location, you either had to find an agent (an actor within the game) who would provide more pieces of the clue or a piece of information (e.g. an inscription on a wall, a name on a building) that would enable you to determine the cipher key. Then you’d have to use the cipher to unscramble the answer to the riddle. Once all six regular clues were unscrambled, you then had to determine the total numeric value of all the answers’ letters and use yet another cipher to determine the answer to the seventh (bonus) clue. If you ever got stuck, you could call the coordinator for small hints. You were instructed to solve the clues in whatever order your team saw fit. When you finished, you were to meet up with the larger group at a pub on the Left Bank.

The first riddle we tackled led us to an “urban waterfall” by the “city’s ancient marketplace,” or in other words, the fountain by Les Halles! We had to look for “two men regarding numbers and suits.” We scoured the plaza for a couple of guys playing cards, but could only find random teens skating, breakdancing, and getting harassed by the cops. We searched and searched and finally found the two guys comfortably sitting in a café, drinking espresso and playing cards. “We can only talk to two of you,” they said mysteriously. Two of us withdrew, but I was one of the lucky ones who got to stay. The agents then entreated us to play blackjack. We lost the first hand, but then won the second with a 17 over the dealer’s 26. “17 is a very good hand…a VERY good hand. And that’s all I can tell you.” Aha, it wasn’t just enigmatic nonsense…17 was the cipher code. We unscrambled the first clue and moved on to our next location…

…At the “seat of city politics” (Hôtel de Ville, we surmised), where “there stands a house with insides made of ice” (the igloo-bubble-shack thingy that serves as an entrance to the temporary ice-skating rink in the plaza at HdV). We determined we had to look for an inscription of a De Gaulle quote on one of the smaller stone walls surrounding the building. This one left us scratching our heads for a while. We jotted down what we thought was good information, and then ran off to the next stop…

…At Notre Dame, where we sought “an agent whose treasure would help you win this race” and (more iambic pentameter blah blah blah) “the light of the color of the night.” Huh? A woman with treasure? Black lights? We roamed around the plaza for a while, but all we could see were people pulling beer stashes out of the bushes and engaging in some major public drunkenness in front of one of the world’s most famous landmarks. Suddenly N noticed a woman pull a strange looking box out of a duffel bag…so our agent hadn’t been ready until now! Indeed, she had an intricately carved wooden chest. She demanded we perform for her in exchange for her treasure. “Whadda you mean, like sing a song or something?” N was not amused. I was ready to do a pseudo-tapdance when our teammate started belting out some silly ditty. It worked. She opened the lid of her chest, revealing fake gold coins and purple objects – she instructed to take a purple thingy. Turns out it was a small black light which, when lit up underneath the clue sheet, revealed the answer written in invisible ink. Neat trick. We then focused on our next location…

…On the “larger of the city’s isles” (ok, still on Ile de la Cité) on “the water’s edge” overlooking "merchants' shops." We determined we needed to find a quai along the Seine overlooking the old Samaritaine department store. The riddle also instructed us to look for a man leaning ever closer over a ledge, who would be saying nonsensical things. Hmm. We reached a stairway leading down to a quai, where a lone figure stood shrouded in darkness. Either a serial killer or our agent…we tempted fate and inched our way towards him. Pfew, it was our agent. He handed us a slip of paper with a chicken-scratch scribble resembling words and whispered, “Smoke makes things clear. You must leave now.” Love the intrigue! Thinking of the telling line from the riddle that when the agent “says smoke, you think fire,” N made the best call of the night – the scribbled message was meaningless; it was the old lemon juice trick. We were pretty cold and hungry at this point, so we took refuge at a café near St-Michel and proceeded to hold a flame under the slip of paper. Eventually, the flame singed the paper enough to reveal the hidden lemon-juice etched message – another number, this riddle’s cipher.

Over mediocre croque monsieurs and marginally better vin chaud, we figured out the answer to the fourth riddle just by using the poem and a city map (awesome). We also nearly tore our hair out trying to pick apart the fifth, and when we finally did, realized we’d done the second riddle all wrong and we’d have to go back to Hôtel de Ville…on across the whole of Ile de la Cité, on the other side of the Seine. What was worse, we also figured out that the sixth riddle’s answer was right around the corner from the pub where we’d started, deep into the 2nd arrondisement. Normally all of this wouldn’t be a formidable distance to walk, but it was cold and now starting to rain. We hopped on the Metro, swung by our two locations and figured out the riddles, hopped back on the Metro a little soaked but not discouraged, and puzzled out the bonus riddle during the time it took to ride to the final meeting place, a pub in the Latin Quarter.

Well, we weren’t the first ones there. It had been four hours since we started! But when we arrived, some teams were still figuring out a few of their answers. Not too shabby! Overall, it was challenging, but not too hard, and it forced us to use a variety of skills to crack the riddles and codes. It was so much fun and a fabulously unconventional way to explore the city. We’re definitely looking out for the company’s future free events.