Three versions of Cannes, three ways to be locked out
In Le Suquet, the old town above the port, an address often ends in a flight of steps. The climbs towards the Mont-Chevalier tower and Notre-Dame-d’Espérance cannot be driven: the van stops near the marché Forville and the kit goes up on foot. Doors there are old, solid timber, and cut to sizes no current standard matches.
Along the Croisette and out towards Palm Beach, the difficulty is different. The lobby is staffed, shared entry runs on a badge, and behind it sits your own landing door, often a multipoint under a fitted cover. A lost badge is a matter for the concierge or the building manager. A key left inside concerns your door alone.
La Bocca, which has its own postal code, lives all year round: blocks from the 1960s and 1970s around avenue Francis Tonner, terraced houses, garages at street level. Landing doors there come in ordinary sizes, but the cylinders are often as old as the building, and a key forced into a worn barrel breaks off inside.
What you will be asked for before a door opens
No door is opened on request alone. Proof that you occupy the property is required: identity document showing the address, a rent receipt, an energy bill, a home insurance policy in your name. If your papers are locked inside, which happens easily on a bread run down to rue Meynadier, say so on the phone: written confirmation from a concierge, a neighbour or the building manager can stand in.
Cannes houses many short-term occupants. For a flat taken for the length of a trade fair, the rental agreement or the booking email in the occupant’s name serves as proof; failing that, we go through the owner or the managing agency. For a second home reopened after winter, a deed or a bill in your name does the job.
The method is decided at the door, never over the phone. A timber door on rue Saint-Antoine, in Le Suquet, does not read like a covered landing door in a Croisette block: we look at the play in the leaf, the type of lock, the state of the frame, and what has to come off before the mechanism is reachable. A detailed quote comes before the work, an itemised invoice at the end. Until then, slide nothing into the rebate: a card that snaps in there makes it harder.
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 Cannes.