The best geocaching places
Go treasure-hunting in Vaucluse!
With your smartphone in hand, set out to go looking for little boxes hidden away in nature and marked by GPS coordinates. It’s a wonderful way to discover heritage and its marvels, there are so many to be found in Vaucluse! It’s great for adding something to a Sunday walk, alone, with someone or the family.
The idea
behind geocaching
To get started, you just have to register on the website indicated by the organiser (Geocaching.com or another) to find out about the routes designed with geocachers or those involved in the area’s activities for tourists. Then you wander through a town, estate or the countryside looking for camouflaged boxes (the caches) on the route set out.
The app gives GPS coordinates and a clue for each hiding place. Some contain little treasures. If you take one, you replace it with something else – that’s the concept.
Other hiding places are there only to be discovered and logged in the app.
You note your name and day you found it in the little notebook found in the box that you put carefully back in place for those who come to find it next, and move onto the next one 😊
In Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Practical information
Contacts at the Tourist Office, 00 33 (0)4 90 83 71 08 – 3 rue de la République – Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Heritage and vineyard
Several treasures are hidden in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, listed on geocaching.com where you enter the village’s name. You set out to look for them which leads you in turn to a chapel, a UFO, the castle… A stone’s throw from the village, another box can be found on the footpath leading to discovering the Châteauneuf-du-Pape AOC, its history, the terroir… And there are many others on île de l’Oiselay in Sorgues or the Courthézon lake.
In Vaison-la-Romaine
A genius sleuth at the heart of the village
After connecting to www.geocaching.com, you head out looking for 6 secret hiding places at the centre of a magnificent village. Each hiding place has a box with messages from those who found it before you and a challenge. Advice: keep your eyes open.
Once you’ve done the challenge, capture the moment forever by sending a photo to geocaching@escapado.fr. And don’t forget, put the treasure back right where you found it of course.
Practical information
The Vaison-la-Romaine Intercommunal Tourist Office lends the GPS devices for free.
In Mirabeau
Fall in love…
…with Mirabeau, a magnificent Provencal village, the square and its fountain of which were featured in the films “Manon des Sources” and “Jean de Florette”.
Searching for the missing winemaker
In Mirabeau, the Château Clapier estate gives you the opportunity to go geocaching at the heart of its vines, which little and not so little adventure hunters will enjoy. The mission is simple: find the winemaker Thomas Montagne. For that, download the app Baludik and follow the trail thanks to the markers and clues. As a family, with friends or alone, this outdoor game opens the doors of Château de Clapier for 90 minutes to 2 hours of exploration combining tips, sharing, fun moments and tasting. It can be enjoyed every day except Sundays, from 9:30am to 12:30om and 2pm to 6pm.
In Grillon
Following the water’s flow
Grillon’s history is closely related to water because that is what has enabled it to develop over the centuries. Bolstered by its streams, fountains, canal, silk mill… for a long time the pretty village was visited by the Knights Templar who stocked up on supplies from its vast hydraulic network. Therefore it’s completely natural that a walk to go geocaching with water as a theme is what you can do in Grillon. It has 3 hiding places. The route is signposted on the Geocaching app and website with the title “L’eau à Grillon #1 – Le plan d’eau” (Water in Grillon #1 – The body of water).
Did you know?
Various signposted hiking and walking paths also set out from Grillon.
