The Concierge at the Marriot Champs Elysees May Have Trouble Directing You to the American Embassy

Where: 70 Avenue Des Champs Elysees, Paris, France, 75008

Picture this: A hotel guest, sleepless after a night spent at the posh Marriot Champs Elysees, asks the concierge for help getting an emergency passport.

She is without hair product or makeup, sports a blotchy face swollen from tears, and is wearing the clothes she went out in last night. Long story short: her purse--ok, fine--our purse containing the key to our rental apartment, cell phone, money and credit cards -- and th all-important passport -- was stolen the night before.

Also, it was just two nights before we were flying home.

Weeping and wine-muddled after discovering the loss following dinner last night, we had reached my husband back home and asked him to book a room at the Marriott. American-style comfort and help was just what we needed.

All our Marriott points and a couple hundred bucks later we were checking in, relieved and happy to be in a place where they brought us Evian and spoke in English.

The concierge was indeed quite helpful the next morning, seeming not to notice our pitiful appearance, providing the information we needed and a map to find the embassy. Since it closed early in the day and this replacement passport process could take a while, we headed straight there.

Unfortunately, his directions were wrong. The concierge of an American hotel, a five-star hotel at that, had sent us awry. We cursed him as we stood, crying again, in front of the imposing doors that possibly once housed the embassy. Where is someone who will, with soothing murmurs and grace, take care of everything you need when you need it?

For all his helpfulness, the concierge's mistake could have left us stranded in Paris waiting for the embassy to open the next day. Marriott, all we wanted was to stay in your cushy embrace that night, but you let us down.

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