Photography & Blog
society
In expat groups, visas are the whole conversation. Always the procedure — which form, which office, which amount. Never what the procedure opens onto. I went and looked, and the answer is short.
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travel
Continuing our three-month journey through the Thailand of 2021, barely reopened after Covid. In the previous episode: Banana Beach, Sirinat National Park, the northern temples, deserted Patong, and the Big Buddha of Nakkerd Hill. …
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notes
YouTube offered me a song that moved me. Only afterwards did I learn the singer doesn’t exist. What that mistake says about emotion, authenticity, and what the platforms choose not to disclose.
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society
Route 4 in Hua Hin, a weekday afternoon On 7 August, a fourteen-year-old boy killed eight people at his school in Nonthaburi, on the outskirts of Bangkok. Three weeks earlier, on 22 July, around ten armed men attacked a checkpoint in …
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notes
Reflections on the end-of-life law, passed on 15 July 2026 and upheld by the Constitutional Council on 14 August, in dialogue with Michel Houellebecq’s op-ed.
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technology
Seven mornings and one evening of listening at Baan Sansuk, Hua Hin A reader replied, under one of my photos, that if Merlin was not performing well in Thailand I should try BirdNET Live. Seven days later I had thirty-two listening …
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society
Rice fields west of Phatthalung. A post caught my attention in an Isan Facebook group. Well written, interesting. It describes “a multitude of khok nong na” that you would see flying over the region, and it explains the …
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technology
Ever since I started measuring air quality at home, I kept seeing particulate spikes I couldn’t account for. They didn’t last, they came back with no obvious pattern, and I couldn’t see what might be causing them. I …
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technology
In the utility room rack, four stacked boxes run the entire network of the house: at the bottom the UNVR video recorder, above it the UDM-Pro with its disk and connections, then a 24-port switch, and finally a fibre aggregation switch. …
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technology
Three home automation hubs are running in my house, and not one of them replaced the previous one: the Somfy Tahoma since 2016, the Homey Pro 2023, and Home Assistant 2025 installed on a Raspberry Pi 5. Ten years of gradual additions, each …
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technology
My Roon music server has now been quietly running in a corner for 4 years, with no real issues beyond the occasional update. A good excuse to finally write the article I started 4 years ago and never finished: what Roon actually is, how I …
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technology
My weather station has now been running on my flat roof deck in Kerroch for 3 years. A good excuse to go back to basics: what’s actually inside a Davis Instruments Vantage Pro 2, how the data makes its way up to the Weatherlink …
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notes
The diesel saga and the Chinese electric-vehicle saga are replaying the same impossible arbitration between public health, industrial sovereignty, purchasing power and the state’s own appetite for tax revenue. What if the market, not …
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travel
Continuing our three-month journey through the Thailand of 2021, barely reopened after Covid. In the previous episode: arriving via the Phuket Sandbox, the express quarantine at the Dusit Thani, the deserted beach at Bang Tao, and a day at …
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travel
November 2021. For almost two years the world had been living to the rhythm of lockdowns. In France, anxious messages looped endlessly on television. We had had enough. This account, in several parts, tells the story of the three months we …
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society
Regulated electricity tariff (Base, 6 kVA), 2015-2026. I was wrong — well, half wrong. In April 2024, I bet that tax increases would cancel out the theoretical drop in electricity prices announced by Transitions & Energies. The article …
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society
Liberty Leading the People, Eugène Delacroix, 1830 (detail) — Louvre Museum (public domain) Yesterday we celebrated Bastille Day, and it’s become almost a ritual: we happily watch our parade down the Champs-Élysées, symbol of the …
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notes
I got vaccinated against Covid in May-June 2021, by personal choice, even though I considered the vaccine ’experimental’ at the time. That’s precisely why I object to the obligation imposed on those who refused: science …
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technology
Study started: February 2023. Project completed: 30 November 2023. (updated June 2024). Project goals: I want to maximise self-consumption from the start of the project, but the system needs to be extensible, with the possibility of adding …
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society
A near-deserted Paris street during lockdown, under the eye of a police car. At last, an article from the CNRS that dares to look this period in the face — not from a public-health angle, but from a regulatory and policing one. And the …
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society
To better understand the various tariffs, an article in Transitions & Energies this month. In theory prices should fall in 2024, but since the government is scrambling for money everywhere, my bet is on higher taxes, so no drop at all …
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society
The scapegoat. An excellent piece by Jean-Philippe Delsol on the endless subject of “conspiracy thinking.” His thesis is crystal clear: conspiracy thinking simplifies reality by pointing to a scapegoat; that simplification …
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technology
I’ve become passionate over the past few years about weather observation. I chose the Vantage Pro 2 from Davis Instruments, known for its reliability. I chose to install it on my flat roof deck for convenience (very easy to access, …
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travel
Taking the backroads, the red tracks or the gravel roads, is the start of a journey with the ever-renewed hope of happy moments. A few travel photos collected on the tracks of Australia, Oman, Iceland, Norway, Portugal.. There is so much to …
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health
An interesting study published in Nature shows the benefits of a daily vitamin D supplement for strengthening the immune system and better resisting Covid-19 infection. A 28% reduction in infections and a 33% reduction in mortality within …
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technology
Home photo printing is becoming more affordable with the new ink-tank printers. For photography enthusiasts who want to see the process through to the end and finally hold the finished print in their hands. Over the years, photos pile up …
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travel
During the winter of 2019-2020, just before the great lockdown… Arrival in Tangier by ferry from Algeciras. First discovery of the north-eastern part of Morocco, as far as Tetouan and Chefchaouen. Nights are very cold in this region …
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travel
A beautiful winter escape from December 2018 to January 2019, five weeks in a 4x4, a Mitsubishi Pajero rented on arrival in Muscat. Sites visited: the capital Muscat and its surroundings Yiti and Al Buthan, the Batinah and its forts up to …
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travel
A country we love for its landscapes, the relative mildness of its climate, and the kindness of its people. We’ve made several trips there and always come back with great pleasure. A few photos from our most recent trips to the …
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travel
A months-long “down under” trip in 2015. A grand tour of the continent, from Brisbane to Queensland, to Alice Springs in the Red Centre, from the Kimberleys to the Northern Territory and Cape York. Crossing the bush by 4x4 on …
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