No electricity

I was in the shower when the lights went out.  I could hear the workman from the upstairs flat owned by my landlord who lives a couple of hours away, clump up then down the stairs. He didn't hear me call out. By the time I was dressed, he had left.

Our flat has a second entrance that opens into the entryway for the apartment upstairs and where the electrical box that would allow me to flip the switch and have light is located.

The door between my flat and the entryway was blocked. I could peek and see wood and furniture.

On the other side of the entryway is the place where I could flip a switch and restore the electricity.

I needed to email or call my landlord. His contact info is on my laptop. Of course, no wifi. No telephone access.

I packed up the laptop and threw myself on the mercy of Jonathan and Matt, owners of L'Hostalet, the hotel around the corner.

They not only set me up in their dining room, they brought French Breakfast Tea and Matt lit a fire.

I'd left my mouse at home. After chemo, I have little feeling in my fingertips so to use the arrows, etc. on my laptop is not easy to impossible. Back home for mouse, which I hadn't realized I'd dropped before I could use it at the hotel. I later found it.

The laptop is old. New ones await us in Geneva. The battery was dying.

My mobile to call my husband in Orlando so he could contact our landlord didn't want to connect.

On my way home, I stopped by my other flat, a small studio, which I call my Nest.  I knew that there was electricity there and I could connect my laptop and wifi. Gigi, a workman and friend, is redoing the stairs to the 4th floor where the Nest is. He offered to try and budge the door between my flat and the entryway. Using all his strength, he managed to open it three inches, two more than I could, but not enough to get to the electrical box.

Oh, and I got paint on my coat when going up to the Nest, not adding to my day.

I have one of two keys to open the other entrance to my landlord's flat. That is the entryway that I was blocked from entering. We keep keys for many people, few labeled, and I tried everyone of them on the top lock. No luck. However, the bottom lock opened, but I still couldn't get in.

I decided to take a lunch break at La Noisette with Sherlock. Upstairs in the Nest, after eating, I was able to use the landline to call Rick in Florida. It was a bad connection and my explanation was not complete enough. He thought it was a drain problem, which is something else we are working on.

He called me back to tell me the drain man was coming.

No, no, no.

I ran into the drain man on my way back to my flat. Rick was talking to him. I explained to the man in French, the problem. Although he was drain not electricity, he offered to try to open the door to the entryway. He pushed, pushed, pushed. There was the sound of falling boards and moving furniture. He got it open enough to climb over the debris, went to the electric box.

Voilà!

I had electricity.

He also explained the drain problem, but that is for another day.