If you come for a visit to our apartment, make sure you exercise your index finger.  You will be pushing lots of buttons.

First, you will need to push the buttons on the outside keypad.  Once you enter, look to the side of the long corridor for another button to light the way.  Walk to a small dark vestibule and push yet another button for overhead lighting so you can find our name on the apartment resident list.  Push the button next to "Johnson" (this will ring the apartment upstairs).   I will push a button from my phone and the entry door will unlock.  Walk into the entry and look to the left and push another button to light small entryway.   Push the elevator button and wait for its decent.  Walk inside and push number five to get to our floor.  (If you prefer to walk all five flights, make sure you push the buttons on each level to provide overhead lighting for you so you don't trip.)   Once you make it to our floor, push the button for the doorbell. 

It is not just our apartment that requires lots of "button pushing".   If you enter a bank, you will need to enter through large doors that will close behind you.  You will see the tellers and the beautiful bank through glass doors; the tellers and customers will stare at you while you stand in the small vestibule wondering how to enter.  Look for a button to push, it will unlock the glass doors for you and you will be able to enter. 

Let me also warn you that many of the metros require you to push a button to open the doors to get on and off the trains.  I remember the first time I tried getting on the metro, I stood in front of the train doors, everyone looking at me from inside the train, I waited and waited for the doors to automatically open like they do in the United States.  The next thing I new, the train whizzed away.  I made sure to watch the other passengers and realized that once again,  I would need to push a button to enter and exit the trains. 

One more thing, many small stores require "button pushing" to exit; not boutiques but more of the service centers.  Some cell phone stores, the store where we purchased our metro cards, etc. 

The moral of the story is "if you are stuck inside or outside of a store or train in Paris, look for a button!"