Straight from the Oven: It doesn't take me 40 minutes to open my door anymore!

When I first arrived at my apartment, it took the woman I'm renting it from, S., 1 hour to open the door. In the time it took her to open the door, I dragged all four of my 50-70 pound suitcases up to my "fifth" floor apartment. *A little note about French buildings...Older buildings don't have elevators and the French consider the ground floor as floor zero (rez de chaussée), not the first floor. So, technically, I live on the 6th floor with no elevator - very French. My legs better be in the best shape ever after this year!

So, I manage to lug all of my suitcases up to the "5th" floor and S. still hasn't gotten the door open. That might have something to do with the fact that the door has 4 locks, a different key for every lock, and a certain series of steps to open each lock. Welcome to France, land of the simple. Eventually, she gets the door open and informs me that I should practice locking and unlocking the door before I decide to leave so I don't get locked out. I'm thinking to myself, "Are you serious? I have to practice to get into my own apartment?" Well, I guess I should have practiced more because each time I left, it took me 40 minutes to get back in...not acceptable.

The lock problem solved itself unconventionally on Saturday...The key got stuck in the lock that was causing me the most problems. The neighbor came over and removed part of the lock so that I wouldn't get locked out...Woohoo! I did a little dance; I could finally get into my apartment in 30 seconds instead of 40 minutes.

S. wasn't too thrilled about me getting the key stuck because locksmiths charge a small fortune in France. Luckily, she removed the lock, took it home, fixed it and brought it back last night. Honestly, I'm glad the key got stuck. Now, the lock opens easily and it doesn't take forever to unlock the door. Maybe all of the practicing S. made me do before she left last night actually helped ;)