Photography & Blog
travel
Continuing our three-month journey through the Thailand of 2021, barely reopened after Covid. In the previous episode: the Similan Islands, Phang Nga Bay and the stilt village of Koh Panyee. This time we head east — the tiger cave of …
Continue reading →
society
The French state pays roughly 4 billion euros a year to the media. Its own Court of Auditors has been writing for ten years that the system has not proved its effectiveness. The money goes first to titles owned by the richest men in France. …
Continue reading →
society
Thailand wants every tourist to pay 450 baht, part of which would buy them insurance. The stated reason is the treatment of foreigners the state cannot recover. It costs four hundred million baht a year. The levy would raise ten billion.
Continue reading →
travel
Continuing our three-month journey through the Thailand of 2021, barely reopened after Covid. In the previous episode: Wat Chalong, a wedding come upon by chance, and Koh Phi Phi at sunset. This time we head north: Khao Lak, the Similan …
Continue reading →
society
Looking back at Leo XIV’s four days in France in late September 2026, and at what his speeches prompt in an atheist: end of life, abortion, rearmament, Catholic schools, artificial intelligence, young people.
Continue reading →
society
A specialist appointment the same day, a full meal for under three euros, and a local press explaining that the country is entering its second lost decade. It was surprising enough that I tried to dig into it. I am not an economist, just …
Continue reading →
society
Seven approaches in three months to find private health cover at 72. Two refusals on age without anyone opening our files, one refusal with no reason given, two silences, and a waiver written down nowhere.
Continue reading →
notes
The people building artificial intelligence spend part of their time explaining that it might destroy us. Not one of their alarms threatens their own position. That leaves four scenarios, only one of them short, and a tally of what humanity …
Continue reading →
travel
Continuing our three-month journey through the Thailand of 2021, barely reopened after Covid. In the previous episode: the Sino-Portuguese lanes of the old town, the Saeng Tham Shrine, a young monk’s ordination at Wat Mongkhon Nimit, …
Continue reading →
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.
Continue reading →
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. …
Continue reading →
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.
Continue reading →
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 …
Continue reading →
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.
Continue reading →
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 …
Continue reading →
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 …
Continue reading →
technology
Local network built on Ubiquiti’s Unifi range. (sketch annotated in French) 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 …
Continue reading →
technology
The chimney on the roof, the sensor on the railing, and the three metres between them. (sketch annotated in French) Ever since I started measuring air quality at home, I kept seeing particulate spikes I couldn’t account for. They …
Continue reading →
technology
Home automation network built on Somfy products and Home Assistant. (sketch annotated in French) 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 …
Continue reading →
notes
Thirty years of tax policy favouring diesel, ten years of demonisation, and the same machinery starting up again with electric. At every stage the decision is taken in an office by people who will not pay for it, and the bill turns up in a …
Continue reading →
technology
Roon server on a mini-PC, and the multiroom system it feeds. (sketch annotated in French) 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 …
Continue reading →
technology
Update, 25 October 2026: the Kerroch house has been sold. The station stayed where it was, with the buyer, and I disconnected it from every site, public and private. This article therefore describes a setup that ran for three years, from …
Continue reading →
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 …
Continue reading →
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 …
Continue reading →
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 …
Continue reading →
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 …
Continue reading →
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 …
Continue reading →
technology
Update, 25 October 2026: the Kerroch house has been sold. The solar installation and the battery stayed where they were, with the buyer. This article therefore describes a project that produced from April 2023 to the summer of 2026. Here is …
Continue reading →
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 …
Continue reading →
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 …
Continue reading →
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 …
Continue reading →
technology
Update, 25 October 2026: the Kerroch house has been sold. The station stayed where it was, with the buyer, and I disconnected it from every site, public and private. The links to live data no longer respond, and this article has become the …
Continue reading →
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 …
Continue reading →
health
A study published in Scientific Reports, the Nature group’s open-access journal, followed US veterans and counted fewer infections and fewer deaths among those who had been prescribed vitamin D. The detail matters, because the two …
Continue reading →
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 …
Continue reading →
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 …
Continue reading →
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 …
Continue reading →
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 …
Continue reading →
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 …
Continue reading →