Reaching the door in a town built in tiers
The old town is climbed, not driven. From the quai Bonaparte you take the montée du Souvenir or the ramps up to the parvis Saint-Michel, the terrace in front of the basilica, and the equipment covers the last stretch by hand. One address can have its entrance on one level and its windows two streets higher, so say how your landing is actually reached.
On the old leaves of the rue Longue or the rue du Vieux-Collège, one distinction counts twice over. Pulled shut, only the spring latch holds the door. Locked with a key, the deadbolt is out, and the renovated flats of the centre often engage several points up the height of the leaf. The two cases call for entirely different work.
In Garavan, up the Careï valley or along the route de Sainte-Agnès, the difficulty changes shape. The gate carries one number and the house another, and the private track serves several properties. Give a landmark visible from the road, and say which door is the one that stays shut: the house, the service door or an outbuilding.
Proof of occupancy in a town people pass through
No door is opened on request alone. You have to show that you live there: an identity document with the address, a rent receipt, an energy bill, a home insurance policy. If all of it is inside, which happens easily after a walk down to the covered market on the quai de Monléon, say so on the phone.
Menton houses a great many short-stay residents: cross-border workers commuting to Monaco, seasonal tenants who get off the train at Carnolès, owners reopening a Garavan villa after the winter. A lease, a booking agreement or a deed all serve as proof. Failing that, written confirmation from the landlord, the managing agent or the letting agency takes over.
Nothing is settled over the phone. At the leaf we look first at what the sea air has done to the timber: swollen, it binds in its frame, and that has nothing to do with a seized mechanism. We then measure what the stairwell will take, narrow and winding as it usually is in buildings built against the slope. The itemised quote comes before the work, the detailed invoice closes it. Until then, slide no blade into the rebate.
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 Menton.