Have you heard of geocaching? This modern treasure hunt has thousands of fans all over the world, particularly in Rennes: the Maison des aînés et des aidants in the Breton capital introduced around forty seniors to it in 2022. An off-the-beaten-track initiative, which won an award at the 2023 Age-Friendly Cities competition.
Geocaching is a recent hobby, born in 2000 with the democratization of GPS. The principle is simple: you just have to hide an object in nature, or in the city, then publish its GPS coordinates on a dedicated site. Geocaching enthusiasts are invited to find it, take a photo of it and record their discovery, while leaving it in place for the other participants.
A sort of treasure hunt accessible to all, free, where there is nothing to gain other than the pleasure of finding. In 2015, more than 2,700,000 active geocaches around the world were listed by the geocaching.com website.
The idea inspired the professionals at the House of Elders and Caregivers (M2A) in Rennes. They first created a route, throughout which they scattered caches and associated puzzles. Once the GPS coordinates of the caches were recovered, they entered them on the geocaching.com website: the treasure hunt could begin.
The M2A facilitator organized four sessions in 2022, which brought together 42 seniors, with an average age of 75.
Equipped with tablets, they embarked on the adventure, exploring Old Rennes and the magnificent Thabor park, until the final cache of the route where they were able to leave a trace of their journey.
A fun way to get moving, share friendly moments, but also to get to know digital technology (tablet, GPS, etc.) and shake up clichés!
They enjoyed the activity so much that many of them introduced it to their loved ones, and are asking for a new edition. A wish that the M2A has decided to grant: all that remains is to build a new course.
All the winners of the 2023 Age-Friendly Cities competition
