Which gate you come in by
The old town is entered through five ancient gates — Portail Levis, Peyra, Signadour, Orient, Pontis — and covered on foot from there. The vehicle stays on place du Grand Jardin or along avenue Marcellin Maurel. Give the gate nearest your door, then the next landmark along: the Peyra fountain, the Roman column on place Godeau, the ash tree in front of the château de Villeneuve.
Outside the walls it works the other way round. No lanes, no flights of steps, but a motorised gate at the end of a private track, often shared between two or three properties. On the slopes below the Baou des Blancs the drive keeps climbing after the gate. Say exactly where you are stopped: at the gate control, halfway up, or on the doorstep with the keys inside.
Around the Grand Jardin and along the route de Grasse, what matters is the floor and the stairwell. Above the shops the flat doors look alike from one landing to the next, and the way in is sometimes through the rear courtyard rather than the shopfront. Say which of the two you are waiting at.
What gets checked, and what is decided on the doorstep
No door is opened on the caller's word alone. Proof that you live there is asked for: an identity document carrying the address, a rent receipt, an energy bill, a home insurance certificate. A good share of Vence property is let by the season or watched over by a neighbour through the closed months; a tenancy agreement, a management mandate or a booking in your name then serves instead.
If your papers are shut behind the door, say so when you call. Inside the oval, where houses share walls and people know each other from one lane to the next, a statement from a neighbour or from the managing agent is usually the quickest thing to produce. For a property you neither rent nor own, the landlord's or the agent's agreement is still needed.
Nothing is settled over the phone. The door itself is what gets looked at: what family of lock, how much play it has taken in its frame, how thick the timber, and what can be carried up the lane on foot. A detailed quote is drawn up before any work starts, and an itemised invoice closes the job. Until then, leave the door alone: a blade slipped into an old rebate snaps off inside.
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 Vence.