I'm trying to remember the author and title of a story I once read. It was set in Paris in the nineteenth century, and I assume also written by a nineteenth-century French author.
The story is about a grumpy man who doesn't do much, and is always complaining about everything. A lot of the story is taken up by him going out to dinner and complaining about how bad the food is. It's all very dreary and depressing, but exaggeratedly so, for comedic effect.
I think there is also a part where he plans a trip to England, and he takes the coach to a port, goes to a bar while waiting for the ferry to arrive, and then decides against the trip and goes home again. (But this may be from something else I'm confusing it with.)