4 November, 2011 | Leave a Comment
Yesterday, at two different times during the day, someone tried to unlock the door to my apartment. The first time it happened was around 7am, when I was still in bed. I awoke to the sound of a key in the lock and someone inserting and re-inserting it very aggressively. I was about to get out of bed, but then whoever it was walked away. The door has no peephole, so I wouldn’t have been able to look into the hallway.
My first thought was that someone had the wrong apartment. For some reason that I cannot understand, apartments in France (from my experience) are not numbered. The doors have no numbers or letters and even the mail goes by the tenant’s name. I lived in four different apartment buildings in Paris and not a single one had numbered apartments, nor does the place where I’m living now. Does anyone know why this is? I have to say, it makes no sense to me. I sublet an apartment in Paris once and on my first day there, I went out to the supermarket and when I came back, I could not find the door to my apartment. I was faced with about 15 doors, each identical and unnumbered. I had to call the owner! Once they guided me to the correct door, I had to remember that it was the fourth on the left or some such.
Anyway, given this quirk of French apartments, I assumed that someone had the wrong apartment when they tried to open my door. But then, strangely enough, it happened again in the late afternoon. I had taken a nap, which was very strange for me, since I don’t usually nap. I was awakened by the sound of someone trying to open the door again. I was about to get up when I heard a man’s voice say something and then a woman responded. The woman, I think, is someone who lives on my floor. My French is pretty rusty, but I thought the man said something like, “I thought they are only here in the summer?”
I immediately emailed the owners in New York, asking them who has a key to this apartment. The apartment is empty most of the year and I wondered if someone has the key and decided to come in, for whatever reason, thinking it was empty. [I should note that even if this person actually has the right key, they would not be able to get in because I have used the deadbolt.] As I awaited a response from the owner, I taped a note to the door, above. For those who don’t speak French, it says: “This apartment is occupied! Do not open the door!” As scary as a rabid pit bull, that note is. I meant to say “Do not attempt to open the door” but I couldn’t figure out how to say that in the midst of my note-writing fury. I’m also not sure if “occupied” is the right verb – perhaps it means something different in English than in French. Oh dear. Maybe someone will call the police, thinking I’ve been taken hostage? Well, at any rate, no one attempted to open the door today .
The owner replied to my email to say that only the concierge has the key, plus the lady next door, who is very elderly. So I chatted with the concierge, who is a bit of a loon, and she said there’s a lady upstairs who is mentally ill and she thinks she probably tried to open my door. When I told the owner this, she said she doesn’t believe that, since the lady upstairs has never tried to open the door before. So the owner said if this happens again to go to the Gendarmerie. Sigh. Now I’m scared. <insertsadface>
If it happens again, the first thing I will do is go to the door and say, through the door,”What the hell do you think you’re doing? I’m American. Don’t mess with me. I have a gun pointed at your head.” [It would be great if someone could translate this for me.]
Anglofille said @ 11:18 pm | Uncategorized | 9 Comments
1. Maybe talk to people on the floor (neighbours), introduce yourself and ask what it was about?
2. Cet appartement est occupe is fine. N’essayez pas d’ouvrir cette porte. Je suis americaine. Je suis arme et j’ai un grand fusil americain
Jesus, I am worried about you. You all right?
Yikes! That’s a bit scary, but I’m sure you’ll be fine. I’m sure it’s just a misunderstanding, but just in case, shall I FedEx you a Louisville Slugger?
A good old-fashioned baseball bat – that’s what I need!!!
It hasn’t happened again, so perhaps it was just an innocent mistake. Or perhaps my note was so scary that the person is home now quaking in his boots. I just make sure that when I’m home, I use the double-bolt.
P.S. – Jan, I am finally reading Herta Muller – “The Appointment.” I like it so far!
“occupé” is fine ! Although – what could still give you away as a foreigner in your sentence (other than the “ce vs cette”-thing pointed out by Jan), is that the sentence stops with the word “occupé” and doesn’t go on, which according to my ear sounds a bit odd in french. Melodically really appropriate for the french ear would be to add something after the occupé, when talking about an apartment. (par, jusque,…) When I read the sentence, I immeadiately thought “occupé *what* ??”. But I think it is still ok to stop the sentence like that, it is not a real mistake, just a tiny subtle language-issue one could certainly discuss at lengths, and it much depends on the context as well, of course. It was just my first impression, don’t know why…
Hope the disturbance won’t happen again !! I think if I ever heard someone trying to key-enter my apartment, my heart would actually miss a beat !
super-scary! glad the prob seems to have gone away. but maybe you should come back to good ol’ friendship house. =) u kno what i watched last nite? masterchef professionals! – something to tempt u back… =D
Dorothy, I have to consider melody as well as grammar? Oh la la!
Theresa, I’m missing Masterchef? NOOOOOOO! I love that show. I saw a cookbook here called “Le Masterchef,” so I think there is a French version!
That depends on whether you’d like to actually speak french or just make yourself understood in french ! For the latter, you just need either grammar OR melody (most people go for grammar because it is much easier and quicker to learn for them), but otherwise you’ll need both. Tricky to get there, I know. I was once a french-fanatic and trained myself up to a sick paranoid level of the language with a lot of suffering and self-punishment, and the french actually thought I was french, both when I talked and when I wrote something. But I’ve become lazy with age, I would have to resume the murderous training in order to be spot-on again, my ear is sometimes getting slippery now when I’m not concentrating enough.
You can forget the language so easily. My French was pretty good when I lived here about 4 years ago, but now I’ve lost most of it.
Murderous…that’s the perfect word for learning French.