My First Full Day

Monday, September 29, 2025

My first full day in Paris!!!

I woke up with my alarm at 8:00 am and snoozed until about 8:12 am.  I went to the kitchen to make coffee with an unfamiliar espresso machine. It took me about 15 minutes just to figure out how to insert the coffee pod! I had to google it. I knew I couldn’t wear my yoga pants for my appointment with my tutor, so I quickly jumped in the shower sans soap, sans toothpaste, and rushed to get dressed before 9 am.

At 9 am I got a WhatsApp message from Aurélie - “Je suis arrivee!” I quickly grabbed the keys from the dining table and ran down to let her inside the building. The building is amazing with plush red carpet lining the curved staircase. I’m on the first floor, so knowing we’d be back in a minute, I left my door wide open.

I pushed all the buttons necessary to open the two portes and let Aurélie inside the foyer, feeling discombobulated and excited. We need a key fab to enter the building and to enter the inner door. I quickly removed the key from my pocket, and I then realized that I had brought the wrong set of keys downstairs. My host had given me two sets of keys. The first set with the key fab and the apartment key, and the second set to open a door to the inner courtyard to dispose of the ordure. I had the garbage key! We were locked out!!!

I apologized to Aurélie, and she quickly turned to the bulletin board to see if there was a concierge we could call- no luck. Then she started pressing a couple buttons to ring another tenant. No one answered. Finally, a man answered and when she started to explain our situation, he hung up. There is one apartment between the entrance/exit door and the inner door. Aurélie knocked, no answer. We stood awkwardly for a couple minutes, I apologized profusely and explained that I knew my host was on her way to work already. Aurélie said we would just have to wait until someone walked in or out. We resigned ourselves.

In a last ditch attempt, Aurélie rang the doorbell of the ground floor apartment instead of knocking. A minute later a young man opened the door. She explained our situation, and he let us in quickly. He was very kind and ADORABLE.

Bonne! Now we could go upstairs, to my open apartment, to begin our lesson.