Raid Dingue

(N.B. A “raid” is a sort of treasure hunt. If you’re a French speaker, click on the poster above to see more details. If you’re not, you’ll just have to trust my version - hah! :))
I don’t think we ever really recovered from a poor start i.e. when they blew the starting whistle, we were still trying to fold the map, while arguing about whether or not we should have a team song. We took heart from the rulebook, which said it wouldn’t necessarily be the fastest team that won -- we were already having a “mint tea break” by question No. 3 -- but the “nicest” - unfortunately, then some of us were hungry (so we had to try and find something to eat), then we had to wait for another friend to join us, and basically we never got to show anyone just how “nice” we were, because nearly all the checkpoints were closed by the time we got there :)) And even the ones that were open, we had to do two or three times because we were - still - debating the song question, rather than paying proper attention to the clues. As we were originally one short of a full team of six, we adopted Sophie at the starting line, as she was there on her own. Poor thing. We were just there having a laugh, and she thought she was solving the Da Vinci Code. I shall treasure a memory of her squatting on the ground in Montmartre, trying to read the number on a drainpipe, using her lighter, shouting “I’m sure I can see a 36” (??!), convinced it was a vital clue (to what I’m not sure). By the time we gave up and went for a drink, we were all feeling knackered and a little tetchy. Somehow, I don’t think we’ll be entering for “Fort Boyard”.