The first door is the front entrance to our building. It's one of the biggest, heaviest doors I've ever seen. Instead of using a key, residents enter a secret code on a keypad, causing the door to slowly and automatically swing open on its creaky hinges.
The second door is situated a few meters inside the foyer, and the key to this door is really interesting. Instead of jigsaw edges, the key is flat on the sides, and the face of the key has divots of differing sizes and shapes.
The third door is the front door to our own apartment. It's another heavy wooden door, but not nearly as large as the massive exterior door. The outer doorknob is in the center of the door, not to one side like most American doors. Its key has a pattern of square and rectangular-shaped lines and grooves, unlike the average door keys in America which tend to have triangular shaped wedges, like a saw or alligator teeth.
This door also locks automatically when it shuts -- like an OCD person, I feel a compulsion to touch my keys several times when I leave to make sure I have them with me. Getting extra sets of keys can be very expensive in France, unlike the quick process at Home Depot. Keys are cut at shoe repair shops (cordonniers) - not hardware stores - for some reason (if anyone knows how these two industries are related, let me know!)
All of these keys are interesting, but my favorite key on our French keyring is a large skeleton key which opens the front gate to our church courtyard. Although it doesn't fit in pockets very well, I love it. There is something romantic about an old-fashioned, heavy brass key -- almost like you can use it to enter another time, another era when things were simpler.
Ah, to have a key like that would be blissful indeed!
More security than here in Latin America, but you don't have razor wire and high walls right?
ReplyDeleteExactly, Cathi! Knowing there are three layers of solid wood between me & anyone who would want to get in are all I need to sleep soundly at night.
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