Go France Go

The Go France Go geocache (GC420) was placed on 7 March 2001 in the Bois de Boulogne, at the gates of Paris: it is the first geocache in France. The game was ten months old. Three Americans passing through, SVL, Frogman and Joanna, were scattering national "firsts" as they travelled, always in the same little Rubbermaid box: five days earlier they had left Go Iceland Go (GC3A9), the first cache in Iceland. The listing sets the tone: "a group of determined travellers is carrying this cache across the Atlantic, from the New World to the Old", and advises eating a French crêpe before setting off.

It stayed famous above all for its coordinate error: the published latitude sent searchers eighteen kilometres too far south, over towards the runways of Orly. The Swede Anders Persson went twice: first in January 2002, bringing back a photo captioned "no wonder I'm lost, they sent me 18 km too far south"; then in April, at the corrected coordinates, at night, with no more success. Only one find was ever logged on GC420; everyone else came away empty-handed.

In February 2003, a geocacher noted that the box had been gone for a long time and asked for archiving, which followed straight away. The baton, though, had already passed: on 22 April 2001, La Vigie (GC7A2) was placed in the Estérel, and it is today the doyenne of French caches.