What is The Golden Treasure of The Entente Cordiale Armchair Treasure Hunt?
The Golden Treasure of The Entente Cordiale , or hunt for the Golden Casket, is an armchair treasure hunt. Clues to find a treasure are within the book that was published by Michel Becker, Vincenzo Bianca, Stephen Clarke, and Pauline Deysson. It was released on April 8, 2021.
The treasure is the Golden Casket, made in London in 1903, which held a document celebrating a friendship between the two countries: France and England. It was crafted by the finest jewelers of the time: the Goldsmiths and Silversmiths company of London. Becker tracked down this historic Casket, purchased it for the hunt, and is offering it as the prize. It is valued at 650,000 pounds.
The hunt is of two parts. Each consists of a set; made up of a book, map, and adventurer’s notebook. One set in English, another in French. These 3 items of each version are needed to discover the location of a hidden geode (key).
One geode is hidden in France. Another is hidden in England. You can choose to look for one or both. United, they are used to unlock the casket, and claim the treasure. In each of the books are 9 riddles and illustrations which will help identify where the two different geodes are exactly hidden. The Riddle solutions, along with Map and Notebook, are used to discover the exact locations of each.
What are the Clues to the Golden Treasure of the Entente Cordiale?
Six Questions with Michel Becker: Creator of The Golden Treasure of The Entente Cordiale
Clip from the Six Questions:
“ What is new with the Entente Cordiale® Box is that there is a mix of several types of puzzles with fairly classic encryption, things to be found in pictures and also in texts. Researchers are used to the ciphers that are often used in treasure hunts. Regarding what to find in the pictures, it’s a bit like the game in which you have to find the differences between two drawings which appear identical but whose details have been changed. It’s a job of attention and concentration. Finally, the text of the tale The Treasure of the Edrei also contains elements of puzzles that must be detected. The researcher must therefore use all his mental capacities to move forward.
To date, it seems that the mechanisms have been fully understood by researchers and we can see that there is a real progression in the puzzles. When the first stage of understanding is reached we see that the imagination of the players is freed and they become more and more perceptive and astute.
What is The Golden Casket of the Treasure Hunt?
Six Questions with Stephen Clarke: Co-Creator of The Golden Treasure of the Entente Cordiale
Clip from the Six Questions:
“Yes, I was surprised that the casket wasn’t in a museum. And when I picked it up, I wondered why it wasn’t in a vault. It’s a huge lump of solid gold. With decorations, of course, and the scroll inside, which is a very moving document, an expression of Anglo-French friendship, a sort of English love letter to the French at a time when world peace was in the balance and everyone was afraid of the Kaiser. So a weighty document in its own right.”
Besides the bold letters for the riddles of the hunt are there other hints hidden within the tale of the Edrei?
Six Questions with Pauline Deysson: Co-creator of The Golden Treasure of the Entente Cordiale
Clip from the Six Questions:
“What I love about writing is that words can have several meanings. For instance, rather than inventing never-heard-of-fantastic-and-beautiful-looking names for characters in order to make them look more exotic, I prefer to look for foreign words that suit their personality and add depth to the story. Those foreign words often sound much better than invented ones and add reality to the text. Also, I like to think that an adventure may happen to anybody, anywhere, inside reality itself, waiting behind every word… So I tried to make the best of those imposed words and criteria to make them really mean what they say, in every possible way.
This also answers the second part of your question: behind many stories there are several meanings and clues, and I hope it is the case with The Treasure of the Edrei.”
I love the last lines on the back cover of The GoldenTreasure of The Entente Cordiale treasure hunt book:
“Some people hide treasures. Others seek them, a lucky few find them.”
The line makes me wonder, who will be the lucky searchers to find the hidden keys of The Golden Casket valued at £650,000?! How fortunate we are to have the opportunity to join in on this epic Quest! It is sure to be a fun adventure! Already, searchers have discovered incredible gems of history, and experienced those satisfying moments given when some pieces to the puzzle have been solved. However, much remains an enigma. The keys wait for whoever finds them!
More on the MW Forum
Plus, Join us there to also discuss the 1993 Golden Owl Treasure Hunt – The book, On The Trail for the Golden Owl, was illustrated by Michel Becker- and now he has created this new treasure hunt – might one help the other in finding a solution?