Upon returning home yesterday evening, I found that after trying to unlock my door with my key, my door wouldn’t budge. Talk about a predicament. Trying to thumb through reasons why my key may not be working, I could only imagine that my door was jammed. So, I started thinking of my options. I went downstairs to call my landlord – but shortly realized that I only had the number for her office and conveniently left her cell phone number inside my apartment where it would be of no service to me. Considering it was about 7:45, and she wasn’t answering the phone, I concluded that she had gone home for the day. Next, I called the emergency number posted on the outside of our building to try and reach the building superintendant. No response.
I then thought about who I could call / stay with for the night. Just as I was about to call my host family from when I was abroad last fall, an older woman asked me if I was alright. She asked if I lost my key to get in…and I explained to her my conundrum…in French. As another tenant in the building herself, she took pity on me and in an amazing demonstration of compassion and the human spirit (in France no less!), took me under her wing and marched me straight over to our building manager’s store on the first floor. So Maria, my new friend and I packed into the elevator to have a look at my door. When neither of them could get the door to move, Maria decided to go get “un jeune mec”, a young guy.
As if he walked straight off of a movie set where he played the generic French waiter, and into my hallway, this strapping young man came to my rescue. As much as I loathe any and all references to the phrase “knight in shining armor”, this guy literally saved me yesterday. After passing his cigarette to Maria (naturally), he tinkered with the handle and lifted my door…and voila, my door busted open. Apparently, the handle turned and caused it to lock the lower lock on my door … I don’t really know – I just know that I made it inside and was beyond relieved that I didn’t have to sleep on the street last night.
In a place where the people are known for being cold-hearted and surly, these three people renewed my hope in Parisians. My neighbor had no idea who I was before last night, and yet she assured me that everything would be fine and she would stay with me until we got in. Afterwards I felt nothing but relief and an enormous amount of gratitude to three random French people.
Just another thing to add to the list of “interesting life experiences in Paris”!
