Concierge

Concierge is the French name for a door-keeper or janitor of a house, hotel, or public edifice. In French towns, where a large portion of the population lives in flats, the common door by which many households have access to their several tenements is very usually under the charge of a concierge, who exercises a general supervision over all who pass his conciergerie. The ancient Paris prison, known as the Conciergerie, is still standing; though Marie Antoinette's cell, converted in 1816 into a chapel, was destroyed by the Communists in 1871.