There are at least three layers of security in most French apartments. The main entrance, the second entrance, and your front door.
The main entrance of my apartment is a large chunk of wood, painted blue. It is heavy, over 2 meters tall, and you need a key code to open it from the outside. From the inside, there is a switch that temporarily unlocks it.
Fall is generally wet in Paris. It rains, it is cooler, and thus the humidity lingers. Humidity and cooler temperatures are not good for the front door.
What has been a fully functional first line of defense is now a decorative entrance. In this new weather, the inconvenience of the key code is an issue no more. The door has swelled and refuses to completely close.
Normally, this is not a worry. A lot of people have the code. You hand it out to friends or deliverymen, or the mailman. This is what the second door is for.
My roommate does a lot of traveling around the world. Enter 8AM and his arrival from the airport. Normally, one enters the code to the blue door and it opens.
“Ow!”
“Aroo?”
A vagrant and his dog discovered that the door works well as an alarm clock.
Suffering from heinous jet-lag, my roommate walks past and closed the second door firmly.
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