Hello

[Charles]

Hi everyone

I’m very new to this Golden Owl hunt, but already completely intrigued!

I’m Charles, mid-30s, live in London. Limited grasp of French, but a big fan of puzzles.

I’ve ordered a copy of the newest version of the book and I’ve also got my hands on a mid-90s Michelin map, but I’m in the market for an original edition of the book and a 1993 map of anyone knows of any sensibly priced copies going spare!

Does anyone else live in/near London? Do people ever meet up to discuss theories? I’d be keen…

If not, does anyone have any tips for a newcomer?

thanks

Charles

[Tom]

Charles, the book itself is quite expensive. This site has a version you can print and bind if you want a hard copy.

I started with google maps just plotting points and drawing lines but by the time you get to the 420 clue & the 560 clue the Michelin map was a big help to see where my final zone was. You will need a smaller map in the zone for the 650 clue (assuming you reach the same conclusions I did) can’t help you much on the 520 as I’d be reporting I had the owl if I had this one sussed :-0

you can get historical data and Ariel views through geoportail.fr who host all the IGN info (map providers for France) – it’s like google just far superior.

hope that helps & enjoy. – I have.

[Jo]

Hi Charles, I’m not too far away from you, I’m based in Kent. I’d love a meet up to discuss all things owling if there were a few more people to make it work. Or maybe Zoom would be an idea to involve the US owl hunters?

I don’t have many tips really. I don’t think affordable copies of the book can be found, and also don’t think it’s necessary if you have a good PDF download… Mostly people want the original book for the images, but I’m not soo sure there’s much extra to see. If you keep an eye on ebay the 1993 maps do come up now and then. I think the scale and plots are exactly the same on all editions up to 1996 or something like that… There is a french site that has a lot of detail on this. I think it is important to get the right map but not sure it has to be the exact year.

Good luck!

[Renard]

Hi Charles. Some tips for you…. the newest version of the map will work fine. You don’t need an older version. If you combine this with Google Earth, it will take you most of the way through the hunt. As for the hunt itself, here are some tips. 1) don’t look at the 11 enigmas as 11. Each enigma has at least 3 parts and each of those parts (and the solution for each), can be an enigma in itself. 2) do not look at each enigma as an individual. 3) If you make it to the end of the 11 enigmas you are actually only about 1/2 way to the conclusion. 4) look for verification for everything you suspect, or think you have found. 5) if you are following a lead and some tangent pops into your head, make note of it and carry on with the original idea. Go back after that lead is exhausted and look at the tangent. 6) don’t believe anything you read about the hunt on any site until you can confirm it. There is a lot of deliberately misleading information inserted into ALL  of the sites I’ve seen. 7)if your serious about solving the hunt you may want to do so in a timely fashion. It’s almost over. Cheers and good luck.

[Renard]

<p style=”text-align: left;”>Please replace the word “your” with  the words “you are” in item 7 of my previous post. Cheers.</p>

[Jo]

You sound very sure of your method Renard. Good luck and hope your dig is a success!

I once plotted lines on Google Earth and compared them with plots on the Michelin 989 map, they definitely don’t hit the same locations, at least not if you are using km measurements. But I accept that not everyone will think this hunt is solved using a 33cm measure to get the ‘measure’ distances, or that a 559km line is drawn from Golfe Juan to Dabo. That’s what makes this hunt so entertaining, it is so open to ideas. 🙂

[renne]

Bonjour,

I can see from some comments here that a few hunters are very close. I also established the location in 2019, and visited the site a couple of times. Due to covid I haven’t travelled I two years. I was overly confident when I visited the site the first time, I hadn’t figured out all details then. I just thought I would figure out everything on site. Since then I have got the full solution, which is very elegant, and the confirmation is “built in” in the earlier solutions. I’m confident that I have the the correct solution based on this “built in” confirmation. I didn’t do a full dig, but I did some probing. I have my doubts that the owl is still there, as the solution is difficult to reach, but not that hard in the end. Given the time and amount of hunters, there must have been several persons at the correct site. Not sure why I write this comment, maybe mostly due to my frustration of not being at the site now.

[renne]

As an answer to Charles, I can say that you don’t really need a 1993 map, you can even solve the enigma with google maps. Actually easier as you can draw and redraw lines according to your thoughts and needs at the moment. It is also easy to zoom in and out when you need. The projections are not the same in the Michelin and google maps, which may cause some confusion at some point. I have a paper map too, didn’t use it much though. It’s more important to figure out the enigma in a conceptual way than drawing a perfect line. Once you know where/how to draw a line it’s easy. I used the paper map to draw lines at the end, but it wasn’t really needed. The lines on the Michelin map won’t give the exact spot anyway, due to the scale. It will just point you to the next level. There are two more levels after the Michelin map, which is easy to understand, you need to locate a one square meter spot in the whole of France.

[Jo]

I agree Renne, Google maps can be useful to get a feel for where any plots go. I think you’re right that getting a conceptual idea of a solution is a good idea, there’s no need to draw everything on the paper map, especially when testing ideas. Though I think it is important to check any confidently held solution on the 989 map. Max stressed the brand of map in one of his additional clues, so he must have believed that the final area on the first map would only show on the map he used to set the treasure hunt.

[renne]

Hi Jo, you need to remember that there was no google maps back in 1993. It is actually easier to get the lines drawn on google maps than on the Michelin map. 1 mm equals 1 km on the Michelin map, even with very accurate lines you can only pinpoint an area on about 1 km2. In reality it’s hard to get that kind of accuracy, the lines are typically several tens of cm long, and a small error adds up. Almost everything related to the lines are available even on this site. Everything is of course not correct that is available online. Getting all lines is not too hard, I know, because I figured them out. I used google maps to solve that part. I only drew the lines on the paper map to see that they line up there also, just another level of confirmation. The point where you arrive at the Michelin map is only the starting point of the next stage. I am quite sure there must be hundreds who have the lines on the Michelin map by now. Getting further is the hard part, it’s not available on line. The hunters keep that for themselves.

[Author]

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