https://instantsordinaires.com/en/ Home — Instants Ordinaires Hugo en-US Thu, 27 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 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/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 one answering a need the previous hub couldn’t cover. Here’s the history, what… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/reseau-unifi-ubiquiti/ Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/reseau-unifi-ubiquiti/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. Everything downstream of that is Unifi — I ended up standardising completely. 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/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 eventually formed a hypothesis, and set about testing it. https://instantsordinaires.com/en/diesel-electrique-jugement-de-salomon/ Tue, 28 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/diesel-electrique-jugement-de-salomon/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 the state, were the judge? 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/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 cloud, how I mounted it, and what the web and iPhone apps look like once everything’s wired… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/roon-serveur-musical-domestique/ Tue, 28 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/roon-serveur-musical-domestique/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 built the server, how it works day to day, and how I turned my very first… 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/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 batteries in the future (within 3 years), and the ability to use surplus… 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/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, with no nearby obstacles). I’ve since expanded the setup by adding UV and solar… 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/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 30 days of infection. This is an open-access article published on 12 November… 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… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/home/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/home/Why For the fun of it, and to hold on a little longer to the pleasure of watching the world. Photos taken over the last decade in my home region or while travelling with Elisabeth, who shares my passion for nature and wildlife. Always in search of those ordinary, precious moments that connect us to the beauty of the… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/australie-2/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/australie-2/A months-long “down under” trip in 2015. Photos from 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, wandering the big cities, whiling away time along the Gold Coast,… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/bretagne/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/bretagne/Sometimes chance and observation let us glimpse the beauty on the surface of things. These ordinary moments are fleeting and will never come again — it was a gift, that day, in that instant. It hangs on so little: the light, the clouds, a point of view. We sometimes find it again in our photos. Binic harbour Harbour in… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/ailleurs/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/ailleurs/A few photographs brought back from elsewhere in France, picked up along the way. There aren’t many, but they are here for the same reason as the others: a moment, a light, the urge to stop. Saint Justin [Landes] Saint Justin bastide [Landes] Saint-Vigor Chapel [Saint-Martin-de-Mieux] https://instantsordinaires.com/en/stock-list/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/stock-list/STOCKS: [stock-quotes-list symbols=“AAPL;MSFT;UFI;NOK;PEX:BB;PEX:SAF;OTCMKTS:ANPDF;” stockExchange=“NYSENasdaq” width=“100%” height=“380” motif=“financial” palette=“financial-light”][stock-quotes-list symbols=“PFE;BNTX;SNY;CVAC” stockExchange=“NYSENasdaq” width=“100%” height=“240” motif=“financial”… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/autres-plumes/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/autres-plumes/More than 860 species in Europe alone — birds are found nearly everywhere on this planet, delighting us in every season. A small collection of birds encountered on our travels. Little Egret on the fence [Alcochete, Portugal] Nicobar Pigeon [Koh Miang island - Thailand] Northern Fulmar [Iceland] Stork [Sado Estuary,… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/vie-privee/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/vie-privee/This page says what this site does with your data. It’s short, because it does almost nothing with it. What this site does not do No cookies. No analytics. No advertising, no ad network, no tracking pixel. I don’t know who comes to read, or how many of you there are, and I’m quite happy that way. The newsletter If you… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/les-rapaces/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/les-rapaces/Birds are our joy on this earth, and among them are the raptors. Eagles, harriers and falcons — powerful silhouettes against the sky, commanding respect from anyone who watches them. " Insofar as we accept that man must live in harmony with nature, it is clear that he must accept the existence of predation. His… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/scandinavie/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/scandinavie/A journey north along the Norwegian coast to the North Cape, then a return through the Finnish forests and the Baltic states. Gaularfjellsvegen (Rv 13) Gaularfjellsvegen (Rv 13) Gaularfjellsvegen (Rv 13) Steinsdalsfossen Vikafjell Sunnfjord _Q4A1590 cathedral of the northern lights - [Alta] the cathedral at dusk -… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/moments-de-sein/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/moments-de-sein/This island fascinates me — I come back to it now and then, always with pleasure. Best during the migration season, when the island has found its calm again and the shores welcome busy flocks of birds. Le Guéveur La Vieille ENEZ SUN the great lighthouse evening Quai des Français Libres the harbour Quai des Paimpolais… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/les-passereaux/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/les-passereaux/Birds are our joy on this earth, and among them are the songbirds. Watching them isn’t always so easy. " Watching birds and nature may seem a childish pastime to most busy people. Let us grant that it is more childish to be passionate about these things than about football, cinema or politics, and let us rejoice, like… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/abonnement/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/abonnement/Nothing to pay, nothing to create, no account to open. You leave an address, confirm with one click, and you get an email whenever I publish. One email when I publish. Nothing else. No schedule, no promotion. Unsubscribe in one click. https://instantsordinaires.com/en/abonnement-confirme/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/abonnement-confirme/That’s it. You’ll get an email whenever I publish something new — and nothing else. There’s no schedule: I write when I have something worth showing. That might be twice in a week, or not for a month. Every email carries an unsubscribe link at the bottom that works in one click, with no questions and no form to fill… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/en-voyage/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/en-voyage/This is our third trip to Thailand since Covid. We spent three months here and covered thousands of kilometres from south to north (see the Thailand 2021 travel notes), back when there were still so few tourists. We got to experience the kindness of the locals on that trip — notably in Pattalung, where after torrential… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/travel-series/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/travel-series/Journey after journey, photos to keep dreaming of new roads. Oman Scandinavia Australia Portugal Île de Sein Morocco https://instantsordinaires.com/en/les-limicoles/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/les-limicoles/More than 860 species in Europe alone — birds are found nearly everywhere on this planet, delighting us in every season. Birds are our joy on this earth, and among them are the waders. Watching them on our coasts brightens the day. "— The fluted calls of curlews, the pirouettes of lapwings, a snipe rocketing up out of… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/moments-de-vie-sauvage/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/moments-de-vie-sauvage/On paths a little off the beaten track, wildlife can thrive. https://instantsordinaires.com/en/timelapse/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/timelapse/My YouTube channel — Instants Ordinaires The @InstantsOrdinaires channel extends in video what photography can’t always capture: motion, the wind, the sound of the waves, life passing by. Four worlds meet there. The coastal paths of the Lorient shoreline — Kerroch, Lomener, Larmor, the Kaolins — filmed through the… https://instantsordinaires.com/en/ma-chaine-youtube/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://instantsordinaires.com/en/ma-chaine-youtube/Filming ordinary moments during local and faraway walks. Video series on the region’s coastal paths and on the most recent trip to Thailand. https://youtu.be/fyw0oliasL8 Storm over Lomener A beautiful day from Larmor-Plage to Kernevel https://youtu.be/3zFfGDAHYdk The islands: Sein, one of my favourites.…