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This past Thursday, our students took it to the bustling streets of the Marais to participate in an interactive escape game, called ClueZ. The Marais, or the “Marsh”, is a historical quarter situated in the 3rd and 4th districts known for its old-world charm, narrow cobblestone streets, hidden courtyards, a multitude of mansions (called hôtels particuliers), art galleries, and vibrant cafe culture. When we arrived at our meeting point, the Place Saint-Paul in front of the towering Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis Church, we were greeted by a representative of ClueZ who gave the group a run down of how to play. She then distributed each team an iPad that soon transformed into our treasure map, leading us to different spots all over the neighborhood to find clues, solve riddles, and decipher perplexing enigmas. Each team was assigned a student leader who ushered the way. The goal? To discover all eight clues the fastest of all the groups before our 2 hour time limit elapsed. 

ClueZ taking our students through hidden passageways

 

The escape game took us into secret gardens, through hidden courtyards, across the Place des Vosges, and under the arcades. At times, students needed to use their French to ask locals for help in navigating the way. They worked together to locate the challenging clues, some of which included gathering numbers off of a sea level gauge on the facade of a building and the time off of a decorative nineteenth century clock, to rearranging the tiles of a mosaic outside of a former horse butcher on their iPad. In the end, most of us made it through all eight puzzles, some of us in as quickly as 1 hour and 32 minutes using absolutely no tips from the program! In our post escape game debrief, many students mentioned that they enjoyed the activity because it gave them the opportunity to rediscover an area that most of them were already very familiar with. They explained how the game allowed them to really stop, look around, and notice the details that they most likely would have missed otherwise. I believe it served a fantastic reminder to us all to make the time to find moments to slow down, appreciate the beauty in the details, and truly soak up all that is around us while we are here!

Solving riddles under the arcades of Places des Vosges

 

Working together to decipher the enigma of the mysterious horse butcher mosaic