Hi Folks,
Many years ago, I went out on a Saturday night only to discover, upon my return, that I had come out without my keys. I won’t relate here how that turned into a nightmare.
So with my house in France, where I shall often be alone for a month or two at a time, I am wondering how to have a back-up set of keys in the event that I manage to lock myself out.
My thoughts are to have three sets of keys; the first, that I carry on my person; the second, under a mat in the car; and a third set, in a jam jar buried in the garden.
This might sound a little OTT, but considering the inconvenience - particularly if it should happen at night, and the cost of a lock-smith - try finding one in a rural village at 11.30pm, I thought it wise to have a plan.
Is there a better way? What do you do?
TIA
A key safe. Inside the garden, and extremely useful.
That’s what we have. I won’t say where it is🤭
Trusted friend(s).
Not the only possible solution, of course.
Our garden is rather large 
Indeed, as is ours, but it’s remembering where I put it that’s the looming issue.
Frankly, that’s not a good idea…
Keysafe or key with trusted neighbour is how I’d play things…
but we’re all different in how we think and what we do… so, best of luck 
We have a box with all out neighbours keys and I am sure most of them have a copy of ours. I don’t think we have any neighbours that could be described as not trusted.
I have a keybox which is inside a tupperware container buried in the garden near a feature so I can easily locate it. That is in the event a local friend is out or away as they keep a key. Works for me.
Never lock it. 
Remember that key boxes, invariably the code locked type, are amongst the easiest versions to open without the code. A strip of paper and a pencil is all one needs. Therefore it is important not to place the key box in plain sight if one is planning to store important keys inside the box.
EEk
Two key boxes are needed, one in a obvious place, but empty. The other somewhere discrete with the key inside 
Consilio et prudentia.
Errare humanum est.
we are obviously trusted by several of our neighbours
Better still, 3 key boxes. First one empty, second one containing a note like ‘under the hosereel’ and the third one, hidden nowhere near the hosereel, containing the keys
I am disappointed that no-one has given instructions on where to place the keybox.
I believe that the official instructions are ‘at the bottom on the right’. But is this the same for left- and right-hung doors? Would top left be acceptable?
Given how rapidly we lose keys, we have a keypress inside the house for all the keys, internal and external, then each of us has a copy of the main door keys on our keyring plus there is a key wrapped in an oily rag inside a plastic bag buried under a stone in a rather obscure place. Given the size of the garden and the fact that a) it’s littered with stones b) it’s covered with brambles and c) rural Normandie isn’t exactly a high crime area, I think our arrangement is quite secure.
On the other hand, if I was a burglar and sufficiently desperate I wouldn’t bother fannying around looking for keys, I’d jemmy the shutters and break a window 
I’m indecisive about this as we inherited 2 key boxes with the house and they are both out of sight. Apart from the fact that they’re probably quite easy to break into, my concern is that, because they’re out of sight, a miscreant would have all the time in the world to work on them.
I guess the ideal is not plainly visible but such that anyone fiddling with it would be.