Archive for museum
Bourse de Commerce [jatp]
Posted in Kids, pictures, Travel with tags 19th Century architecture, Alexis Mazerolle, Étienne-Prosper Berne-Bellecour, Évariste Luminais, Bourse de Commerce, colonialism, concrete, Désiré Laugée, Fondation Pinault, French colonies, frescoes, Georges Clairin, Les Halles, museum, Paris, Tadao Ando on August 26, 2026 by xi'an
a journal of the Aregenua years
Posted in Books, Kids, Mountains, pictures, Running, Travel, University life, Wines with tags affogato al caffè, archeology, Black Plague, boarding school, book reviews, Caen, Channel, conspiracy theories, Courseulle, COVID-19, Daniel Defoe, Dark Ages, FBI, Gallo-Roman culture, ghost story, gothic novels, half-marathon, Iranian regime, Islamic Republic of Iran, Journal of the Plague Year, museum, Roman Empire, Russian invasion, Stand Up To Trump, thriller, Ukraine, Vieux-la-Romain, Vieux-la-Romaine on May 10, 2026 by xi'an
Read The Moth Diaries, by Rachel Klein, presumably following a recommendation in The Guardian or on Tor’s Reactor blog. This is a 2002 book, labelled as gothic horror by the review I read then. However, there is little horror in the novel and much more of a diffracted snapshot of a perturbed pupil at a US boarding school, traumatised by the suicide of her father. As the story is told through and only through the diary of that pupil, most facts being reported second-hand and not always coherently, it becomes quickly impossible to separate truth from fantasy, especially the veracity of another pupil being a vampire. Or just the new best friend of the narrator’s former best friend. Which makes the book much more interesting, if unsettling. (Especially regarding how a sexual assault by a teacher on the pupil is not reported by her as such.)
During a May 01 trip to Caen, if not for the half-marathon, next month!, I visited the nearby fish market in Courseulle, where I tasted fantastic, local, oysters, possibly at the height of their growth, despite the warning to avoid oysters in months without R’s! I also taught a restaurant waiter how to make affogato! And visited the amazing archaeological site of Aregenua, in the tiny village of Vieux, of which I had never heard. This Gallo-Roman city was the centre of local power in the early centuries, when Caen hardly existed, with 5000 inhabitants, temples, a forum and a theatre. All of which gradually vanished in the Dark Ages… The site is now protected from pilfering, but a large fraction remains un-escavated. (Too bad the museum boutique was not selling garum!)
Watched some episodes of The Night Agent (2), rather efficient copycat of the Bourne movies, but also requiring a huge suspension of belief in its accumulation of coincidences and the ability of the agents to operate in completely new environments. With a completely implausible reception at the Iranian Embassy. (And a DGSE agent with an awful French.) But the tension in the cat & mouse “game” is there, to the point I had to split episodes when it got too intense!
Mémorial Act
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Travel with tags 1848, abolition, Antilles, Caribbean, French West Indies, Guadeloupe, MAct, memorial, Memorial Act, museum, Napoléon Bonaparte, Pointe-à-Pitre, République, Révolution française, Schloecher, slavery, triangular trade on September 2, 2025 by xi'an
shallow big man [jatp?]
Posted in pictures, Travel with tags bronze sculpture, CNRS, Donald Trump, EHESS, GREQAM, jatp, Khaled Dawwa, La Vieille Charité, Marseille, museum, Panier, Syria, Syrian civil war, US elections 2024, Ville de Marseille on November 5, 2024 by xi'an
rewriting history
Posted in Books, Mountains, pictures, Travel with tags Bhutan, Buddhism, Chinese history, Communist Party of China, democratic elections, elections, Gengis Khan, gun violence, Le Louvre, Le Monde, monks, Musée d'histoire de Nantes, Musée du Quai Branly, Musée Guimet, museum, Nantes, Nepal, Oscars (Academy Awards), Paris, People's Republic of China, PRC, propaganda, Telluride Film Festival, The Monk and the Gun, Tibet, Toronto International Film Festival on September 24, 2024 by xi'an
