An American in Provence

I seem to be making a habit lately of getting locked out of my apartment in various cities of France.
Last time, our apartment, Marseille, totally not my fault.
This time, my studio, Strasbourg, totally my fault.

The door has three locks, and the middle one you have to have the key to open it, even if it is not locked. (I hate these kind of doors- just begging to get locked out when you say, go get the mail.)

At night, I put the key in the middle lock, lock the door, and leave the key in the lock. This morning, I got ready to go (thinking about my practice test which went okay, thanks), unlocked the locks, went to put on my coat and get my bag, opened the door, walked out, closed the door, OH NO! Yep, had left the key in the lock on the inside.

There was nothing I could do about it at the time, so I went to my class, and quickly sent an email to the owner, telling her I was locked out and could she please stop by and either meet me at the apartment or just leave the keys under the mat or something?
I noted her cellphone number, in case I needed to call her.
By noon, she still had not emailed me, so I borrowed one of my friend's cellphones to call. Yes, I don't have a cellphone. Yes, I know it is highly unusual. I just don't like the things. I don't WANT to be joinable every second of every day. The few times you really need one, you can usually find a payphone nearby or else use someone else's. The human race somehow managed to survive 10,000+ years without them. Anyway.

I called and left a message, leaving my friend's cellphone number. I called back after class and the owner said she could stop by after her work, about 7 pm. Sure great, thank you so much.

Had a conference at 5:30 with a speech that was supposed to last about 45 minutes, followed by another 30 minutes or so alloted for questions. Come 6:50, the questions still weren't finished, so I tried to slip out as unobtrusively as I could. Raced home, found my landlady trying to open the door. No success. As I had left the key in the lock on the other side, we couldn't open it with the spare set of keys from the outside.

We tried to think of ways to get in. Credit card? No luck. Thought about going through the window, but no ladder and don't think that would have been much easier either. My neighbor came home (young college kid) so we asked him if he had anything like a screwdriver or nail file. He said no, but got some plastic cards and a paperclip, and had a go. Couldn't push the key out, couldn't get the latch to slide open. Another neighbor came home (young, college student) and we asked her the same thing. She tried to find something to help, and the two of them worked on it for about twenty minutes.

By this time, my legs were aching (stress and tiredness) and all I wanted was to take a hot bath and crawl in bed. Also had to pack my suitcase, and if possible, study for my second practice test tomorrow morning (5 hours long). I would have given up a long time ago and called a locksmith, but it is hard to suggest such a thing when half the building is trying to fix YOUR mistake, yet you feel bad for them getting bruised knuckles and surely they have SOMETHING better to do on a Friday night?

After about an hour, my neighbor finally managed to get it open! yay! Very glad because didn't have to wait another hour for a locksmith to arrive, and I didn't have to pay the locksmith (which would have been at least 100€). My landlady said she would bring him some eclairs on Sunday afternoon. I would have invited them in, but don't think being invited into my messy studio and being offered Pineapple juice really interested them, as they were both in their early 20's (ah! I'm no longer in my 20's!! ahh!!) and it being a Friday night and all.

Thank goodness. Now only have to remember not to do the same thing when I leave tomorrow....