Finding the door: passages, courtyards and turret stairs
The houses along the rue Nationale stand on narrow, very deep plots inherited from the founding charter of the ville franche. From the road you see a frontage a few metres wide and a shop at street level. The home itself is reached through an allée, a covered passage, then an inner courtyard, then a flight of spiral stairs set in its own turret.
So give the street number, but also the name of the shop below, which side of the courtyard, and the floor. Many of these passages are now closed by a carriage door or a keypad gate, and that is the first real obstacle, well before your own flat door. Residents often name the allée, and that name helps more than the number.
The heart of Villefranche is largely pedestrian, set with bollards and closed to vehicles at certain hours. You park on the ring boulevards laid out over the old ramparts and finish on foot with the tools. On the last Sunday in January the conscrits parade closes the rue Nationale from end to end: say so when you call.
Slammed or locked: the question asked first
In Béligny or Troussier, a flat door swung to by the draught in the stairwell is held by the latch alone. Nothing has been locked, and the work at the door has little in common with a door deliberately bolted. That is why the question comes first on the phone. These doors swing all the faster where the entrance hall stays open through the day.
Locked, the same door has its deadbolt out and, on the multipoint locks fitted in the 1970s blocks of this town, several points engaged over the full height of the leaf. On an old leaf in the centre, out of standard sizes and hung in a hundred-year-old frame, the assessment is made at the door, and no damage-free opening is promised in advance.
Proof that you live there is asked for before anything is opened: a rent receipt, an energy bill, a home insurance certificate. A detailed quote comes before the work and a detailed invoice after it. If your papers are behind the door, say so on the call: other evidence can be accepted, a statement from the neighbour across the landing for instance.
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 Villefranche-sur-Saône.