Reaching the door, in a town built three different ways
Inside the ramparts everything happens on foot. Cours Masséna and rue Sade cannot be driven on a market morning, and the staircase that follows is steep, the stairwell narrow, the landing barely wider than the door itself. What can be carried up is limited by that climb as much as by the lock waiting at the top.
Large flats in Vieil Antibes have often been divided up over the decades. Two or three doors on the same landing can look identical, sometimes with no number at all. Give the exact name shown on the entryphone, the floor, and where the door sits on the landing: it saves everyone waiting outside somebody else's.
At Cap d’Antibes the difficulty comes earlier. There is a gate, a boundary wall, sometimes a private lane to clear before the house is even in sight. A fair share of calls there are not about the front door at all but about a jammed gate, a service door or a beach access shut for years. Say on the phone what stands before the house: it decides what gets loaded into the van.
What you are asked for, holiday lets included
No door is opened on someone's word. Proof of occupancy is required: an identity document showing the address, a rent receipt, an energy bill, a home insurance policy. If everything is inside, the classic result of walking down to the plage de la Gravette, written confirmation from a caretaker, a neighbour or the building manager can stand in.
Juan-les-Pins is full of short-stay occupants. For a flat taken by the week near the pine grove or port Gallice, the rental agreement or the booking email in your name serves as proof; failing that, we go through the owner or the agency that looks after the property and handed you the keys.
The method is decided at the door, never over the phone. We look at the type of lock, the play in the leaf, the state of the frame, and what a rampart stairwell will let us carry up. A detailed quote comes before the work and an itemised invoice at the end. Until then, slide nothing into the rebate of an old Safranier door: the moulding gives way long before the lock does.
How does this service work?
Techniques, typical situations, standards and things to watch out for: it is all on our door opening page. This page focuses on what the service involves in Antibes.