Had one today with ongoing repercussions.
Went to the Mairie this morning, and, for once, took the Brompton. It's an easy walk for me, but I was intending to make some other stops after. As ever, looked for the first available free lamp post and tethered the Brompton to it. Paid my dues and left. Brompton still there, but key in one of the many pockets North Face pack into their parkas. Found the key, dropped it, picked it up, but half stayed on the ground. The key, he only one I have, had broken in half.
Well, what would you do? This is a small town, no locksmiths, nobody selling replacement keys, so I approached the local garage. The chief mechanic had left his bolt cutters at home, but promised to pick them up at lunchtime. He suggested the mower specialist further down the road, who suggested the plumber. The plumber said he could probably do the job after 18:00. In the meantime, he suggested seeing the local locksmith some 15km away to see if they could make a key out of the two pieces.
I'm glad he did, and even more so that I rang before heading in his direction. This is Monday, and half the business are shut, to make up for weekend work. In this case all the local locksmiths were shut, except for one in the town acts as the regional centre, whose website promised it was open. I rang them several times in the next couple of hours, but in the end got bored. They were also 50km away, with nary a motorway in sight. I was almost on the point of driving there, when it struck me petrol plus key would cost more than plumber breaking existng lock, since I already had a replacement.
If the plumber doesn't turn up, and time is elastic in France, I'll add another lock to the bike, then tomorrow will try the local locksmith and the duplicate key. I managed to speak to him, and he said that normally it is possible to cut a new key from a broken one. There was a touch of hesitation in his voice, so we'll see.
Went to the Mairie this morning, and, for once, took the Brompton. It's an easy walk for me, but I was intending to make some other stops after. As ever, looked for the first available free lamp post and tethered the Brompton to it. Paid my dues and left. Brompton still there, but key in one of the many pockets North Face pack into their parkas. Found the key, dropped it, picked it up, but half stayed on the ground. The key, he only one I have, had broken in half.
Well, what would you do? This is a small town, no locksmiths, nobody selling replacement keys, so I approached the local garage. The chief mechanic had left his bolt cutters at home, but promised to pick them up at lunchtime. He suggested the mower specialist further down the road, who suggested the plumber. The plumber said he could probably do the job after 18:00. In the meantime, he suggested seeing the local locksmith some 15km away to see if they could make a key out of the two pieces.
I'm glad he did, and even more so that I rang before heading in his direction. This is Monday, and half the business are shut, to make up for weekend work. In this case all the local locksmiths were shut, except for one in the town acts as the regional centre, whose website promised it was open. I rang them several times in the next couple of hours, but in the end got bored. They were also 50km away, with nary a motorway in sight. I was almost on the point of driving there, when it struck me petrol plus key would cost more than plumber breaking existng lock, since I already had a replacement.
If the plumber doesn't turn up, and time is elastic in France, I'll add another lock to the bike, then tomorrow will try the local locksmith and the duplicate key. I managed to speak to him, and he said that normally it is possible to cut a new key from a broken one. There was a touch of hesitation in his voice, so we'll see.
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