I don't suppose you've been lying awake worrying about this passport business, but I've found out more.

You'll remember the American embassy was so swamped by visa applicants that the first interview wasn't for months. I said it was because many French people had old-fashioned passports that couldn't be read by machine and that America insisted their holders have visas they didn't previously need.

That turns out only partly true because it is in fact - and it's never unenjoyable to see officialdom on the hook - due to a government cock-up in Paris.

The newest form of passport has not just those computer numbers on the photo page but something described as a "digitalised" picture and a microchip. The picture makes you look as startled as usual but the chip contains information that only a computer can read. And since only a computer can read it, you can't change it and go about claiming you're the Duke of Edinburgh when you're not.

It seems the world agreed to these new passports, perhaps at America's urging, and that France said "oui" along with the others (making allowance that - pedants kindly note - the Germans would have said "ja", and so on).

And that's where the cock-up started.

The government wants to contract to whoever most impresses with prices and quality. And it gave the job to a private company. All went well until the state printing works displayed a contract which said it was they who printed passports and not some outfit down the road with a John Bull printing set.

By then the ink was drying on the other people's contract as well. The job had been given to two people. Something Had To Be Done.

That's what the Americans thought as well. They waved France's agreement to have the printing presses running by now. And they announced that any passport issued after the deadline for new passports - the thousands issued in the old style when they should have been in the new style - wouldn't be recognised: their holders would have to wait months for an appointment and go to Paris for an interview and, with luck, a visa.

It became a scandal in France and created friction between Paris and Washington when things had only just settled down after Iraq. Now, the interior minister has told the state printers to get going and says he'll sort out the consequences. Everyone who needs one will have a new passport within five weeks.

That's no consolation for people who've had to abandon their trip or wait months for a visa, but at least the waiting date at the embassy has stabilised at mid-June.

Le jour de gloire est arrivé.