We were robbed while waiting for a bus at the Gare du Nord in Paris on the way to Italy - Naples. Getting from there to Naples and back again to London was tricky, but I have to say that the UK Border personnel were excellent and let us back in with only a bit of a delay - I had by that time managed to print copies of our passports and Residence Permit.
We have now got new passports - UK for me and South African for my wife(via this company
spammer who are
amazing!! http://www.spammer.com). Tomorrow we hope to get a new Schengen visa from the Italian Consulate in London, but the Residence Permit is still going to be a problem, in that we may not get a Schengen without it, we may not be allowed on the plane without it, and we may have problems getting back in without it.
On the other hand the new card may turn up in time ...