Worrying about your security

My grandfather lived in a small village in the north of Sweden. When we came to visit, we'd open the door and shout 'Hello!'. Sometimes he was away on an errand, but he'd left the door open. The only time he locked the door was when he went away several days, fishing or hunting. Everybody knew where to find the key, hanging behind a piece of wood just next to the door...

Since then I have lived in big cities and gotten used to locking the door behind me as I enter. I have even lived in areas with guards patrolling and security checks at the entrance. Pretty far from the confident way of life that my grandfather had.

Then we bought our house here in Castets. One of the first things we did was to install an alarm. Our neighbours were very curious. WHY do you install an alarm? As I asked around about the criminal activity around here, most people had trouble finding any examples at all. Except maybe that time when some youngsters broke into the cinema to steal some candy... A reality quite far from what I had gotten used to!

Of course, this is not true everywhere in Aquitaine. The coastal area have some problems, mainly because there are many summer houses that stay empy during long periods.  But still, the Southwest of France is a hundred times calmer than the Southeast. I hope it will remain so for a long time.