Adventures in the Lift

On our first night here, and in a desperate attempt to stay awake for a little longer, Jess and I decided to explore the Avanche complex and look for a place to eat dinner. Since we couldn't understand exactly what Mrs. Bonny was saying, I can't really tell you why she came with us, but she did. Their apartment is on the 12th floor so we summoned the lift to take us down.

When the lift arrived there were five other people heading to a party (that's what I gathered from my limited French, anyway). It started wonderfully, but then between the 5th and 4th floors it stopped. We still don't know why since the capacity sign said 10 people and it worked just fine later. In any case we were lucky enough to be stuck in a narrow lift for 25 minutes with 6 French speaking Swiss people.

Jess and I were so tired that we were giddy and laughed most of the time. Of course our first response was, "this is going in the blog." Unfortunately, we didn't take a picture while we were stuck. I'm not really sure how well that would have gone over with the other passengers anyway, especially the semi-angry man next to me. We will have to go back and, at least, take a picture of the infamous lift.

Thankfully we did have the semi-angry man in the lift with us, though, because he called the emergency services, rang the bell, and banged on the door until someone got us out. The lift had stopped about two feet above the 4th floor so we had to jump out after the doors were pried open.

I've always wondered what it would be like to be stuck in a lift. I thought I would freak out in the small space, especially if there were a lot of other people in it with me, but I think being delirious with lack of sleep was helpful in this case because I really didn't care, and I couldn't even force myself to care. All I wanted to do was sleep and if I had to push people aside and sleep on the lift floor while we waited, I would have been glad to do that. So, in the future, if I ever get stuck on a lift I will try to be deliriously tired so the small spaces won't freak me out. Unfortunately, since these are unplanned events, I will just have to pray that I never get stuck in a lift again.