https://instantsordinaires.com/en/blog/ From the Blog — Instants Ordinaires Hugo en-US Fri, 30 Oct 2026 09:26:00 +0100 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/thailande-2021-krabi-thale-noi/ Fri, 30 Oct 2026 09:26:00 +0100 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/thailande-2021-krabi-thale-noi/Sixth part of the 2021 journey: the tiger cave of Krabi and its 1,200 steps, the empty ferry terminal at Klong Jilad, then Thale Noi Lake — its stilt houses, its swimming buffaloes and its 150 bird species. https://instantsordinaires.com/en/l-etat-paie-la-presse/ Sat, 24 Oct 2026 21:17:59 +0200 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/l-etat-paie-la-presse/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. And while nothing changes, the Senate proposes adding a body to grade the… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/450-bahts-a-l-entree/ Fri, 23 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0200 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/450-bahts-a-l-entree/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. https://instantsordinaires.com/en/thailande-2021-similan-phang-nga/ Sun, 04 Oct 2026 19:00:00 +0200 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/thailande-2021-similan-phang-nga/Fifth part of the 2021 journey: from Khao Lak to the Similan Islands, then by long tail boat across Phang Nga Bay to the stilt village of Koh Panyee, with the Moken as a backdrop. https://instantsordinaires.com/en/pape-en-france-voyage-qui-fait-du-bien/ Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/pape-en-france-voyage-qui-fait-du-bien/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. https://instantsordinaires.com/en/thailande-ne-rattrape-plus/ Tue, 22 Sep 2026 11:55:00 +0200 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/thailande-ne-rattrape-plus/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 someone trying to understand what is in front of him. https://instantsordinaires.com/en/assurance-72-ans-thailande/ Sat, 19 Sep 2026 10:45:00 +0200 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/assurance-72-ans-thailande/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. https://instantsordinaires.com/en/il-n-y-a-pas-de-plan/ Sun, 13 Sep 2026 13:00:00 +0200 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/il-n-y-a-pas-de-plan/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 already does perfectly well unaided. https://instantsordinaires.com/en/thailande-2021-wat-chalong-grand-large/ Wed, 02 Sep 2026 14:00:00 +0200 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/thailande-2021-wat-chalong-grand-large/Fourth part of the 2021 journey: the temple of Wat Chalong and a wedding come upon by chance, then the crossing to Koh Phi Phi, its empty lanes and its sunset over the Andaman Sea. https://instantsordinaires.com/en/un-visa-ca-ouvre-sur-quoi/ Thu, 27 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/un-visa-ca-ouvre-sur-quoi/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. https://instantsordinaires.com/en/thailande-2021-phuket-vieille-ville-koh-sirey/ Sun, 23 Aug 2026 14:30:00 +0700 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/thailande-2021-phuket-vieille-ville-koh-sirey/Continuing our stay in a Thailand without tourists: Phuket City's Sino-Portuguese old town, the Saeng Tham Shrine, a young monk's ordination at Wat Mongkhon Nimit, and the reclining buddha of Koh Sirey. https://instantsordinaires.com/en/eddie-dalton-emotion-artificielle/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/eddie-dalton-emotion-artificielle/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. https://instantsordinaires.com/en/loi-fin-de-vie-un-debat-qui-nous-concerne-tous/ Sat, 15 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/loi-fin-de-vie-un-debat-qui-nous-concerne-tous/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. https://instantsordinaires.com/en/violence-thailande-france/ Sat, 15 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/violence-thailande-france/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 Narathiwat, in the south of the country. Five soldiers killed, six civilians wounded,… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/birdnet-baan-sansuk/ Thu, 13 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/birdnet-baan-sansuk/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 sessions, more than six hours of recordings, and a picture of the birds that live in my… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/khok-nong-na/ Wed, 12 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/khok-nong-na/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 principle. Khok, the raised mounds planted with trees. Nong, the pond that stores water and gives… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/boxes-domotiques-tahoma-homey-home-assistant/ Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/boxes-domotiques-tahoma-homey-home-assistant/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 2023, and Home Assistant 2025 installed on a Raspberry Pi 5. Ten years of gradual… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/feux-de-bois-et-particules/ Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/feux-de-bois-et-particules/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 didn’t last, they came back with no obvious pattern, and I couldn’t see what might be… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/reseau-unifi-ubiquiti/ Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/reseau-unifi-ubiquiti/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 and connections, then a 24-port switch, and finally a fibre aggregation switch.… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/station-meteo-vantage-pro-2/ Tue, 28 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/station-meteo-vantage-pro-2/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 March 2022 to the summer of 2026, without a single failure. Davis Instruments… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/roon-serveur-musical-domestique/ Tue, 28 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/roon-serveur-musical-domestique/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 write the article I started 4 years ago and never finished: what Roon actually… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/l-apprenti-sorcier/ Tue, 28 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/l-apprenti-sorcier/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 garage. https://instantsordinaires.com/en/thailande-2021-phuket-nord-sud/ Sat, 25 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/thailande-2021-phuket-nord-sud/Continuing our stay in a Thailand without tourists: Banana Beach, Sirinat National Park, the northern temples, deserted Patong, and the Big Buddha of Nakkerd Hill. https://instantsordinaires.com/en/thailande-2021-sandbox-phuket/ Fri, 24 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/thailande-2021-sandbox-phuket/November 2021. France was barely out of Covid, Thailand was cautiously reopening its borders. The story of arriving in a country emptied of its tourists — the famous Phuket Sandbox. https://instantsordinaires.com/en/les-prix-de-lelectricite-deux-ans-apres/ Sun, 19 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/les-prix-de-lelectricite-deux-ans-apres/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 was clear on this point: the supply component of the regulated tariff was… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/le-monde-est-il-plus-libre/ Wed, 15 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/le-monde-est-il-plus-libre/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 national holiday, the pride of being French — but above all the joy of living in freedom.… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/non-vaccines-ostracisme-liberte/ Sun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/non-vaccines-ostracisme-liberte/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 itself, in the pages of The Lancet, eventually showed that the stigma wasn't justified. https://instantsordinaires.com/en/installation-de-pv-avec-systeme-de-stockage/ Mon, 20 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/installation-de-pv-avec-systeme-de-stockage/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 what it delivered, with the Enphase figures to back it up. What it produced… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/cnrs-covid-19-bilan-dune-surveillance-massive/ Fri, 26 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/cnrs-covid-19-bilan-dune-surveillance-massive/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 figures it gives are staggering: 21 million checks in two months for a population of… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/complotisme-populisme-et-despostime/ Mon, 22 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/complotisme-populisme-et-despostime/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 feeds populism, which in turn readily degenerates into despotism. As he writes, “by shrinking the… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/les-prix-de-lelectricite/ Mon, 22 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/les-prix-de-lelectricite/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 (maybe even an increase?).… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/meteo-kerroch/ Wed, 17 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/meteo-kerroch/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 record of what ran for three years. Throughout that whole period, publishing to… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/off-road/ Fri, 01 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/off-road/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 look at. Taking the tracks [Iceland] 2Q4A5094-Panorama 2Q4A5489 the convoy took… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/vitamines-d-et-covid19/ Tue, 22 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/vitamines-d-et-covid19/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 forms do not give the same result: with D3, the common form, 20% fewer infections and 33%… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/ecotank/ Sat, 09 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/ecotank/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 and end up somewhat forgotten at the bottom of a hard drive. After reading several… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/maroc/ Fri, 24 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/maroc/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 in winter, and the guesthouses uncomfortable. Then the road to Fez, Marrakech,… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/oman/ Wed, 22 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/oman/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 Sohar, the Wahiba Sands desert, the village of Misfah, the town of Sour and the… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/portugal/ Tue, 24 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/portugal/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 Alentejo, the Algarve, and the beautiful towns of Viseu, Porto, Coimbra, Aveiro, Lisbon,… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/australie/ Sun, 20 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/australie/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 the red tracks (Tanami, Oodnadatta), wandering the big cities of Sydney and Melbourne, whiling…