Archive for Air France
snapshot from Amiens [#1]
Posted in pictures, Travel with tags Air France, Amiens, church nave, Gothic cathedral, Notre Dame d'Amiens, Picardy, sculpture, Somme, stained glass on March 31, 2016 by xi'an
not for the faint-hearted!
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Travel with tags Air France, Boston, Ithaca, plane trip, The Last Temptation of Christ, The Martian on March 21, 2016 by xi'an
While flying over to Boston yesterday, I had a look at The Martian on my seat screen but this proved too much of a hardship: after watching the early self-surgery scene, which is definitely realistic and somewhat gory, I just fainted. Really and truly fainted, which means I came back to my senses being dragged on the plane floor by two Air France flight attendants!, hearing and seeing them but being unable to react for a dozen seconds. There was a doctor in the plane who checked upon me while I was coming back to my senses and his final advice was to stop watching this “kind of movies”, as if I knew I was going to faint from watching a PG-13 movie… (It actually happened to me once earlier, in that I came close to fainting from watching The Last Temptation of Christ in Ithaca in the 80’s, while protesters were demonstrating outside the cinema.) Quite an embarrassment, frankly! And I did not even watch the rest of the movie…
Norman restaurants [Ivan’s star]
Posted in Kids, pictures, Running, Travel, Wines with tags Air France, Argentan, Caen, cider, France, Gouffern forest, hunting lodge, Ivan Vautier, MIchelin starred restaurant, Neufchâtel, Normandy, Pavillon de Gouffern on January 3, 2016 by xi'an
Visiting relatives for the New Year break, I had two wonderful opportunities to sample chef’s restaurants in Normandy. One was Ivan Vautier’s IV in Caen, who had recently lost one Michelin star out of two, but seems to deserve two from the quality of the food and service we received for lunch. For instance, this poached egg… (Definitely above the X I tested twice in 2015.) Plus a great touch of connecting with the local producers, whose pictures were posted in the entrance to the restaurant.
The second restaurant was Pavillon de Gouffern, located in a forest near Argentan (and almost on the path of my traditional half-marathon). Worth recommending if only for the setting, in a former hunting lodge, superbly quiet with great views. Plus a well-made scampi risotto, ultimately creamy. And a wide collection of local pear-ciders.
philosophy at the 2015 Baccalauréat
Posted in Books, Kids with tags Air France, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Baccalauréat, Bayesian foundations, David Hume, exam, finals, high school, miracles, philosophy, Scotland on June 18, 2015 by xi'an[Here is the pre-Bayesian quote from Hume that students had to analyse this year for the Baccalauréat:]
The maxim, by which we commonly conduct ourselves in our reasonings, is, that the objects, of which we have no experience, resembles those, of which we have; that what we have found to be most usual is always most probable; and that where there is an opposition of arguments, we ought to give the preference to such as are founded on the greatest number of past observations. But though, in proceeding by this rule, we readily reject any fact which is unusual and incredible in an ordinary degree; yet in advancing farther, the mind observes not always the same rule; but when anything is affirmed utterly absurd and miraculous, it rather the more readily admits of such a fact, upon account of that very circumstance, which ought to destroy all its authority. The passion of surprise and wonder, arising from miracles, being an agreeable emotion, gives a sensible tendency towards the belief of those events, from which it is derived.” David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding,
run in the parc [#1]
Posted in pictures, Running, Travel with tags Air France, English train, France, morning light, morning run, Parc de Sceaux, Paris suburbs, RER B on April 13, 2015 by xi'an
