#food

A Missing Tortoise, Fifty-Seven Urine Samples and Oxford’s Ancient College Feud
Oxford

A Missing Tortoise, Fifty-Seven Urine Samples and Oxford’s Ancient College Feud

Jul 30, 2026 36 min read

Seven years after my first visit, I returned to discover what Oxford keeps behind its gates Had apparition been allowed inside Hogwarts, I could have travelled directly from the Gloucester Cathedral cloister where Mrs Norris was found petrified to the hospital wing in Oxford’s Divinity School. Unfortunately, it was not. So I had to take a train.

From Mozart to Moulin Rouge: 40 Hours in Paris
Paris

From Mozart to Moulin Rouge: 40 Hours in Paris

Jul 17, 2026 24 min read

Two hotels, two stages and one unapologetically expensive escape Technically, this story is about forty hours in Paris. Spiritually, it began with a brioche in Strasbourg. I had flown into Paris the previous day, only to leave it almost immediately by train. I had never visited Strasbourg, and late November seemed like a reasonable time to correc