Mundus Casus Pars Duo

Wednesday 29 October 2025 Soko is not only still alive but settling into our routine. Just goes to show that Flashy is a cat whisperer. Today was sunny and mild in the morning, so Flashy went out in search of a big bin for the empty bottles, of which there are a few! After successfully locating one not too far away, he walked around the town for fun and exercise. A Champagne for lunch. He’s on a diet. A eclair on the way home from the beautiful pâtisserie chocolaterie close to home, for more research. Now this one was the best so far. You can go too far with the rich chocolate filling, you know. And the choux was not cut. The filling was injected – ah ha! Dinner tonight is escalope de veau panée - double crumbed veal using the home made crumbs with lemon zest and oregano; flattened veal slices from the marche butcher and cooked in butter. Chilli and garlic roasted Brussels sprouts and new potatoes. A grand Cru du Bordeaux for hydration. Lady P due home tomorrow.

Saturday – Sunday 25/26 October 2025 Saturday is market day and a cool but pleasant walk into the town market for some bread, fruit and vegetables from the outside vendors and inside for cheese, fresh fish and meat from the permanent stalls. A coup of Champagne on the way home and left over fish pie for dinner. Always better second time around. Sunday is cold and overcast, so soup and household chores in the morning, remembering to turn the clocks back one hour. Nurse P applies the ear syringe to Flashy, removing a plug the size of an almond. And on the subject of things medical, is the story of the pissing cat. The owner did tell us that Soko sometimes pisses on the front door. Lady P’s great plan is to soak a piece of kitchen paper with eucalyptus oil and put it down by the door. Flashy thinks this is a very clever idea. Soko was observed sneaking over to the door, sniffing the paper, then rubbing her nose on nearby shoes. As the evening progressed she displayed unusual behavio...

Sunday 19 – Friday 24 October 2025 So good to be here in a modern kitchen and new house. 16 year old Soko the cat is timid and largely eats and sleeps. Lady P is planning her three day excursion to LPR to meet EL and Johnny with the builders for a site meeting about the proposed extension planned for 2026 and we are still chasing compensation for the London booking. By Wednesday we have walked into town a couple of times and have been reminded of the annoying French custom of closing businesses from noon to 2.00 pm and if not closed, the kitchen sure is, so no food. A drink is sometimes grudgingly possible. This is fairly prevalent in not so touristy areas. However, we managed not to starve or go thirsty. Flashy is cooking soup and fish pie as the weather remains cool and drizzly rain persists. We are enjoying the down time and the TV works. Friday dawned sunny but only 8C, so it’s still scarf and coat time. Troyes is in the Aube Department, one of five in the Champagne region ...

Friday 17 October 2025 A travel day today from Strasbourg to Troyes. While doing a last walk around looking for a new hat for Lady P, we pass by Cinnamood, a place that, by the length of the queue out the door and along the street the other day, was a favourite of the students. It served scrolls of all sort. Big, soft, sweet cinnamon and all other flavours of scrolls. We noticed that at this particular time, there was no queue. So, in we go and order a cinnamon and an apple one and a coffee. The coffee, as is often the case in France, was crap. We managed most of the cinnamon one and took the apple for the train trip. A five minute walk to the modern train station and a couple of hours   to wait for the train, firstly to   Mulhouse, just near Colmar. A change of train there and we get on the bigger one heading to Paris via Troyes and it’s packed with students and young people. Just outside Bar Sur Aube, two stops from Troyes (at Chaumont), the train stops. We are informed,...

Thursday 16 October 2025 Moving slowly towards the cathedral this morning. A coffee and a slice of pizza on the way helped us avoid the many students on bicycles whizzing past. Just like last time here, the 60,000 uni students are everywhere. They ride fast, silently and with enough skill not to crash into a couple of pensioners. No helmets, either. We made the cathedral in time for the presentation on the Astronomical Clock inside and its ‘chiming’ at 12.30 pm. A Renaissance masterpiece, the Astronomical Clock is a result of the combined work of artists, mathematicians and technicians. Swiss clockmakers, sculptors, painters and automaton designers all worked together to produce this masterpiece. The current mechanism dates from 1842. It was well worth the entrance fee. Then we retraced our tour from yesterday, through Petite France, looking for an éclair and a place to book for dinner. We were successful on both counts. Donatien Patisserie produced the world winning éclair and...

  Tuesday 14 October 2025 A full day of train travel through three countries and three trains from Florence to Milan in Italy to Basel in Switzerland and to Strasbourg in France where we have an apartment on rue du Vieux-Marche-aux-vins, not far from the Cathedral and various squares. Monoprix provides us with a couple of TV dinners and a bottle of Saumur red. Early night and a late rise is pretty good. Wednesday 15 October 2025 Indeed, a late rise at 9.30 am. Our walking tour is booked for 3.00 pm, so there is no hurry to get out and about but we are on the street at 11.45 am. A bit peckish, we have a coffee and then, poking our nose down a little alley, we find a lone bar/bistro and as it is close to 2.00 pm and the likely French shut down of the kitchen until 5.00 pm, we panic just a little bit and dive into Binchstub Brogli. We hear later that this is a special, locals place that serves authentic Alsace tartes flambe. And it did. Two large pizza like tartes, a half-litre ...

Monday 13 October 2025 Another warm (low 20’s) day here and still lots of tourists about. Perhaps not as many as on the weekend. Before the old, infirm and hungover got up, we went at 9.30 am opening to the Museo Galileo with Kathy and Mac. The museum houses books, manuscripts and scientific instruments from the 1600’s and is well worth a visit. Dinner was booked at a steak restaurant recommended by one of Mac’s friends. Bistecca Restaurant, close to our apartment was clearly an up market, Michelin recommended place. Lots of staff, white tablecloths, a large and expensive wine list and gigantic Florentine steaks (rib on the bone). We shared one between the four of us with simple truffled potato and some grilled vegetables. Mac got the bone. Well, most of it. Lady P got the little side bit. A couple of bottles of Chianti Classico and we were done. The night was crisp and the streets quiet, so we walked back to Mac and Kathy’s hotel via another recommended ice cream place for desse...

Friday to Sunday 10 to 12 October 2025 On Friday we caught the train into town to have an early dinner with Alyssa at an Italian Restaurant, joining the fully booked venue crowd - eventually for a pre theatre meal. The place was loud and packed but the food was good. Of course, in fine print at the bottom of the menu was the now London ubiquitous, “A 12.5% optional service fee will be added to your bill.” Not bloody likely says Flashy. And to the embarrassment of all and sundry, he asked for it to be removed. “Was something wrong, sir?” “Not at all, he replied. Are you not paid a proper wage? I object on principle.” Was it worth a tip? Not on your nelly. Certainly not £30 worth. Anyway, of we went to see ‘Operation Mincemeat,’ a show at the West End’s Fortune Theatre. A real WW2 story of Glyndwr Michael, a homeless tramp from the city of London, who died from eating rat bait and whose body was dropped by submarine off the Spanish coast, disguised as a British Officer with fake pape...

Monday 6 to Thursday 9 October Last day in Paris. Tradition has it that when in Paris, we dine at Au Pied de Fouet, so off we go to this very local little bistro that has been serving guests for 160 years. Lunch was once again upstairs and the place was full with tables turning over quickly as well. Best confit duck ever – again. Our departure from Paris on Monday was on the Eurostar. The 2.5 hour trip was seamless and comfortable. Jen had been dispatched ahead of us to collect keys and meet us at the expensive, booked apartment in Tower Bridge, very close to Alyssa’s flat. A litany of problems then arose. The keys were left under a pot plant on the street. It took a phone call from Jen to the agent to locate them. Far worse was to come, as the flat stank of mould, with creepy black stuff growing on the walls. Broken and missing floor boards in the kitchen and the list goes on. Flashy filled a page in his note book with things that were wrong. Unfortunately, we were forced to sta...

Saturday 4, Sunday 5 October 2025 Saturday was a big walking day, exploring Île de la Cité and Île St Louis on the way to a late lunch at Bonhomme Restaurant at Rue du Faubourg Poissonnière. While a long walk, it was good to see some of the streets we had not walked on previous visits, particularly Rue Montorgueil. This is a street in the 1st and 2nd arrondissements of Paris, lined with restaurants, cafés, bakeries, fish stores, cheese shops, wine shops, produce stands and flower shops. They say it’s the centre of Paris gastronomy. On the way home, a giant black cloud drifted towards us and as predicted, the storm broke as we entered the Metro. Here, Lady P, being a little lass, dove into a completely crowded carriage. The doors slammed shut, leaving Flashy standing on the platform. Luckily, he had memorised the Metro stop of our apartment, so he caught the next train three minutes later. Always have a plan B. Emerging into our neighbourhood, there were signs of the wind and ra...

Wednesday 1 October 2025 Another sunny and crisp day for our departure to Paris and Jen to Copenhagen. Us by train and she by plane. Copenhagen is in high security mode for the NATO meeting about the Russian drone incursions and Paris is planning a strike day tomorrow. We are on first class train tickets, arranged by Lady P online months ago, for €69 ea. Toady they’re €350 ea. We present to the DB premium lounge only to be turned away. “You only have €69 tickets!” Well, really. The other DB lounge around the corner is worth a crack and this time the door bitch doesn’t know what tickets we have, but they do say first class, and we get in. Just a quiet place to have a crap coffee, use a clean toilet and then board the Inter City Express for Paris. Seven hours goes fairly quickly, with a few in our carriage also having a picnic lunch at their seat. Our cheese and biscuits are simple but tasty. Before passing through Strasbourg, we have a gin and tonic also at our table and the littl...

  Tuesday 30 September 2025 Today was a day to slowly stroll, sip and snack our way around some of the touristy sights we didn’t do yesterday and for Lady P to revisit the Berlin she last saw 50 years ago. Being experts now at the tram and train network, we got ourselves to the Brandenburg Gate. Here we discovered a little Italian restaurant and it being 12.00 noon, we shared some bruschetta and lemon prawn starter, with a couple of cooling beverages. Having booked access to the Reichstag for 4.45 pm and being told to be thereon time, we strolled in that direction. On the way we found the Deutschland Museum and went in for a visit. This was particularly good, with many interactive displays and smells. The quiz questions at various stations were fun and we did get quite a few right. Speaking of museums and quizzs, Flashy was regaling Jenny with tales of his passing of the 1960 Queensland driving quiz at the Herberton Museum. Showing her his hand signal for left turn and stop was...